Daily Sports Column (Japanese) here / トレバーの虎場（デイリースポーツ）から I can still remember July 1998 like it was yesterday. I wouldn’t call myself traumatized by what happened. Just shell-shocked. I had just come to Okinawa, Japan, and the town Board of Education threw me a welcome party. There I was, sitting at a table with a bunch…
Unlike most teams, Hanshin manager Akihiro Yano did not divulge the team’s direction as to which player they would enter the sweepstakes for in Round 1 of the draft, which took place on Monday, October 26 in Tokyo (but mainly via online meetings). The team has not yet finished cutting unneeded players, but typically by…
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Sources: Daily / Sponichi / Sponichi With the 2020 Amateur Draft coming in less than a week, the Hanshin Tigers have started to declare their intentions concerning players’ contracts for 2021. Among the players not being offered new deals in 2021 are veterans and fan-favourites Kosuke Fukudome (OF, 43) and Atsushi Nohmi (LHP, 41). Fukudome…
Tora (虎) = Tiger Kichi (キチ) = short for kichigai (気違い) = lunatic We are… Episode 008: Gaijin (Un-)Employment Center Hard to believe the season is coming to an end here real quick… and yet, given that it’s already past the midway point of October, it’s a wonder (and a joy) to be able to…
Source: Sports Hochi Reports that came out on the 2nd indicate that the Tigers are strongly considering moving their farm facilities from Naruohama (bottom red dot, Nishinomiya) to Odaminami Park (far right dot, Amagasaki). Koshien Stadium is the dot on the far left of this map. Preliminary planning has already begun as last week, the…
From T-Ray’s Daily Sports Column (Japanese) / トレバーの虎場（デイリースポーツ）から I can’t remember the exact day it dawned on me that I would never be a professional athlete, but I clearly recall my ambitions changing very quickly from athletic to journalistic. Like, if I could not be in that locker room celebrating a Stanley Cup with my…
Sources: Tigers Homepage / Sponichi / Nikkan Sports The Hanshin Tigers roster (and mental health) took a huge blow on September 25th as the team announced that five of its players and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19. At first, just one player, right-handed pitcher Masumi Hamachi, complained of headaches, slight fever, and lethargy….
Tora (虎) = Tiger Kichi (キチ) = short for kichigai (気違い) = lunatic We are… Episode 007: You’re Cut Too, Shushy! Back in our last episode, we evaluated the team, player by player. We still had hope that his team could miraculously come back and win the pennant. With the team 11.5 games back of…
Host T-Ray is joined by co-host Sanjay to discuss the news, the past 15 games of action, and why this team is still worth watching the rest of the way despite being all but eliminated from the postseason. Let us know which player(s) you will pay attention to the rest of the way! After you…