Tag Archives: Rakuten Eagles

Tanaka shirts a hot item

The Rakuten Eagles may not have wrapped up their first pennant since 2013 with the signing of their former ace Masahiro Tanaka, but they are reaping a windfall just two weeks into camp Kyodo News (Japanese) reported Monday.

Since Tanaka returned last month for the first time since he closed out Game 7 of the 2013 Japan Series with a save, the Pacific League team has sold 5,000 No. 18 Tanaka replica shirts in 10 days, for a total retail value of 70 million yen, or roughly 6.3 percent of the right-hander’s contract reported at 900 million yen ($8.7 million

Rakuten’s director of goods and merchandising, Takashi Watanabe, said, “It exceeds our expectations. There’s no sign it’s stopping yet. It’s the same kind of momentum from when we won the championship in 2013.”

Tanaka, by the way, has been scheduled to take the mound for the first time in a practice game on Feb. 20.

Okinawa gets its 1st women’s team

Although Japan’s baseball-playing population is dwindling, women are flocking to the game. Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts spring training camps for most of NPB’s 12 teams, is getting into the act, writes Nikkan Sports columnist Hirokazu Terao.

Kumiko Nakayama, a vice chairman of the prefectural high school baseball federation, will officially start the team in April. Nakayama is the principal of Nambu Shogyo (Commercial) High School, and for 10 years served as the director of baseball for both Chubu Shogyo and Urasoe Shogyo high schools.

The manager of those schools at the time said he invited her since high school baseball was education and he wanted her to assist in developing the youngsters. It’s typical in high school games to see the school’s baseball director sitting on the bench near the manager, but Nakayama rarely did so, but the manager recalled her saying, “People would say, ‘What’s a woman doing there?’ I don’t want to be seen as just a decoration.”

Nakayama made use of her education specialty to set up an analytics team that racked pitch location and the flight of batted balls, and a support team so students other than players could contribute.

According to Terao, the national women’s high school hardball federation reported 36 member schools in 2020, up from seven in 2010, while Japan’s national women’s team has won six straight world championships. Two of NPB’s 12 teams, the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions and the Central League’s Hanshin Tigers, have established women’s club teams.

“So many women want to play, but as they progress from junior high to high school and graduate or leave the prefecture, it becomes economically unfeasible to keep at it,” Nakayama said. “I love baseball and felt I had to do something about it.”

Nakayama has held two events to show what the team is about ande expects the team, based on the main island’s southern Shimajiri District, to start with 12 to 13 members. To make it easier for women from other islands or from the main island’s northern districts to participate she’s rented space in a nearby home.

In a month when Japan’s deep-rooted misogyny was highlighted by the sexist remarks of a former prime minister, Nakayama’s words as an educator give Japan something positive to look forward to.

“We can’t foresee the future,” she said. “But women, too, can play an active role nationwide. School club activities are part of education, and if you challenge yourself through baseball and become a leader, it will improve your school. Building roots in the community is important, too. If this contributes to students finding jobs or getting into universities, I want to support that.”

Tanaka marks anniversary of Nomura’s death

Rakuten Eagles right-hander Masahiro Tanaka observed the first anniversary of Hall of Fame catcher and manager Katsuya Nomura’s death on Thursday, Sponichi Annex reported. Nomura was Tanaka’s first manager when he turned pro out of high school.

“I didn’t have a real sense of what was going on,” said Tanaka, who revealed he’d have wanted a healthy Nomura to see him back in a Rakuten uniform. “He taught me everything about life in the pros. I wonder what he would say about the timing of my return (to Japan).”

“If only he could see me doing this uniform proud and fighting for the team to the very end.”

Lotte lifts Sasaki’s breaking ball bullpen ban

Roki Sasaki threw his fourth bullpen of the spring on Thursday, throwing 30 pitches—including his slider and for the first time, the team having lifted its prohibition on him throwing anything but fastballs, Sponichi Annex reported.

“My forkball was really good,” he said. “Since turning pro I’ve had to really labor on my forkball, but I think I may now seeing the results of that effort.”

Sasaki, who was clocked at over 100 mph at the start of his senior year in high school in 2019, has yet to pitch in an official game since turning pro a year ago. He is slated to work out with the minor league team after the first team moves on from Okinawa’s Ishigakijima and throw live BP before rejoining the first team for the remainder of camp.

Kitabeppu: Marathon man Kuri’s got it

Manabu Kitabeppu a Hall of Fame former ace of the Hiroshima Carp, had a My Fair Lady kind of response to 29-year-old Allen Kuri’s 347-pitch bullpen last week, he wrote in a piece for Daily Sports on Thursday.

 “I thought it was a bit much, but from what I saw on the video, his form was very loose and he only looked like he was really exerting himself at the finish. Usually, if you go all out, your pitches will be lacking by the time you get to 250. That’s what I saw from Kuri in the past.”

“But he used his lower body really well, so well that it looked like his arm was just swinging downward, smoothly and easily. I think he’s learned a lot over the past year. His form and his balance are better, and I think he’s getting the hang of this.”

OK. He didn’t say, “Bye George, I think he’s got it.” But he came close.

Buffaloes’ Higgins tests positive

The Orix Bufaloes announced Thursday that right-hander Tyler Higgins has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Nikkan Sports. Higgins, who debuted in Japan last season, tested negative before leaving the States on Jan. 13 and again when he arrived in Japan on Jan. 17.

Tigers Women hold first workout

The Hanshin Tigers Women held their first practice on Thursday, a national holiday in Japan, at the Tigers’ minor league facility in Naruohama, Hyogo Prefecture, the Daily Sports reported. All 17 players turned out and practiced and did weight training for three hours while observing coronavirus protocols.

Going forward, the team will have weekend practices at Naruohama and in the indoor facility at the Tigers’ main park, Koshien Stadium. The team is planning to enter the Kansai women’s hardball federation’s tourney.

Swallows teen gets boost from Furuta

Hall of Fame catcher Atsuya Furuta, the pillar of five Yakult Swallows championship teams between 1992 and 2001, has been working with his old club as a spring training instructor, and on Thursday caught rookie Yasunobu Okugawa, the team’s first pick in the 2019 draft.

Prior to the bullpen session, Furuta said he felt Okugawa had the tools to be a pitcher of the same caliber as Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano. Okugawa said he was really nervous throwing to Furuta, who said afterward, “I thought he could become like Sugano, but since he himself is aiming toward being like Masahiro Tanaka, that’s the kind of pitcher I hope he develops into.”