In each of the last years, players from the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants were required to walk across Japanese pro baseball’s busy postseason thoroughfare and for two straight years they were run over by a bus.
OK, it wasn’t a bus that hit them but the Pacific League’s Softbank Hawk. In two videos that @HinosatoYakyu uploaded to Twitter, ace pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano and the team’s captain, shortstop Hayato Sakamoto were asked what the difference was with SoftBank.
I guess when you get swept by the same team two years in a row after dominating your own league, it’s natural to ask what makes that other team so good, and find a simple solution. Giants manager Tatsunori Hara suggested that using the designated hitter would give the CL teams a fighting chance.
Here are my three most recent posts related to the gap between the leagues:
But hearing the Giants players speak almost makes it sound as if some people think the Hawks are the reason the Giants can’t win the Japan Series and not the general imbalance between the two leagues.
If you think that, then as Ray Charles sings in the Roy Alfred song, I’ve got news for you.
The Hawks, as the most dominant team in either league, are a reason the PL is stronger, but they aren’t the ONLY reason. How do we know? Because if we stripped the Hawks’ 214-126-14 interleague record, the other five PL teams would STILL be better in quality than the CL.
CL records vs the 5 weakest PL teams
| Years | Wins | Losses | Ties | Win Pct. | Pyth. |
| ’05-’07 | 236 | 233 | 11 | .503 | .515 |
| ’08-’10 | 176 | 175 | 9 | .501 | .445 |
| ’11-’13 | 158 | 184 | 19 | .462 | .440 |
| ’14-’16 | 143 | 153 | 4 | .483 | .457 |
| ’17-’19 | 129 | 137 | 4 | .485 | .471 |
It’s not the bus that ran over the Giants that is the problem, but that the traffic in that road just moves too fast for CL teams to keep up, and if it wasn’t the Hawks, it would have been somebody else.
League, Interleague win. percentages since 2005
| Team | League | Interleague | IL + |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawks | .572 | .629 | +.057 |
| Giants | .547 | .525 | -.022 |
| Lions | .524 | .510 | -.014 |
| Fighters | .523 | .542 | +.019 |
| Tigers | .519 | .484 | -.035 |
| Dragons | .509 | .497 | -.012 |
| Carp | .493 | .436 | -.057 |
| Marines | .490 | .541 | +.051 |
| Swallows | .468 | .465 | -.003 |
| Buffaloes | .460 | .497 | +.037 |
| Eagles | .460 | .469 | +.009 |
| BayStars | .433 | .402 | -.031 |
