Yomiuri Giants
Encyclopedia : Y : YO : YOM : Yomiuri Giants
The are a popular Central League baseball team based at the Tokyo Dome in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team's owner is the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network.
The Giants are the oldest professional team in Japan. They won nine Japanese Baseball League titles before the establishment of the two league system in 1950. Starting in 1965, the Giants won nine consecutive Central League pennants and Japan Series titles, in large part because of the hitting of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh. The last Giants pennant was in 2002. The Yomiuri Giants have won more pennants and Japan Series titles than any other team.
The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines simply as Kyojin (巨人), Japanese for "Giants", instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.
Outline
- Founded: 1934
- Formerly known as: Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部 1934-1935), Tōkyō Kyojingun (東京巨人軍 1936-1946), Tōkyō Yomiuri Kyojingun (Yomiuri Giants 1947-2002), Yomiuri Kyojingun (Yomiuri Giants 2002-)
- Home ballpark: Tokyo Dome
- Uniform colors: Orange, White, and Black
- Logo design: Intertwined "Y" and "G" in orange on a black field
- Nickname: Kyojin (巨人), Giants (ジャイアンツ), G
- League championships (30): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002
- Japan Series championships (20): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2002
- Mascot: Giabbit (ジャビット)
- Contact information: Yomiuri Giants, Takebashi 3-3 Building, 3-3 Kanda Nishiki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8462
Players of note
Current players
- 2 Makoto Kosaka (小坂誠) - SS
- 5 Joe Dillon - 1B
- 6 Hiroki Kokubo (小久保裕紀) - 3B
- 7 Tomohiro Nioka (二岡智宏) - SS
- 8 Toshihisa Nishi (仁志敏久) - 2B
- 9 Takayuki Shimizu (清水隆行) - OF
- 10 Shinnosuke Abe (阿部慎之助) - C
- 11 Yuya Kubo (久保裕也) - P
- 17 Hisanori Takahashi (高橋尚成) - P
- 18 Masumi Kuwata (桑田真澄) - P
- 19 Koji Uehara (上原浩治) - P
- 21 Hiroshi Kisanuki (木佐貫洋) - P
- 24 Yoshinobu Takahashi (高橋由伸) - OF
- 29 Yukinaga Maeda (前田幸長) - P
- 30 Masanori Hayashi (林昌範) - P
- 33 Lee Seung-Yeop (李承燁)
- 46 Gary Glover - P
- 47 Kimiyasu Kudo (工藤公康) - P
- 58 Takuya Kimura (木村拓也) - OF
Former players
- Jesse Barfield
- Phil Bradley
- Warren Cromartie
- Mariano Duncan
- Suguru Egawa (江川卓)
- Dan Gladden
- Tatsunori Hara (原辰徳)
- Isao Harimoto (張本勲)
- Tatsuro Hirooka (広岡達郎)
- Tsuneo Horiuchi (堀内恒夫)
- Gabe Kapler
- Tetsuharu Kawakami (川上哲治)
- Norihiro Komada (駒田徳広)
- Davey Johnson
- Chris Latham
- Shane Mack
- Hiromi Makihara (槙原寛己)
- Hideki Matsui (松井秀喜)
- Shigeo Nagashima (長嶋茂雄)
- Kiyoshi Nakahata (中畑清)
- Hiromitsu Ochiai (落合博満)
- Sadaharu Oh (王貞治)
- Roberto Petagine
- Tuffy Rhodes
- Masaki Saito (斎藤雅樹)
- Eiji Sawamura (沢村栄治) [link], [link]
- Kazunori Shinozuka (篠塚和典)
- Reggie Smith
- Victor Starffin [link]
- John Wasdin
- Roy White
- Wally Kaname Yonamine
Retired numbers
- 1 Sadaharu Oh (王貞治)
- 3 Shigeo Nagashima (長嶋茂雄)
- 4 Toshio Kurosawa (黒沢俊夫)
- 14 Eiji Sawamura (沢村栄治)
- 16 Tetsuharu Kawakami (川上哲治)
- 34 Masaichi Kaneda (金田正一)
The Giants as \"Japan's team\"
Due to the Yomiuri company's vast influence in Japan as a major media conglomerate, the Giants are successfully marketed to the Japanese people as "Japan's Team." Often, when asked who their favorite team is, a Japanese person will reportedly reply, "I'm Japanese, therefore I like the Giants." In fact, the Giants' uniforms say "Tokyo" on the jersey instead of "Yomiuri" or "Giants," seeming to imply that the Giants represent the vast metropolis and geopolitical center of Japan, even though the Yakult Swallows are also based in Tokyo and three other teams play in the Greater Tokyo Area. This bandwagon appeal has been compared with the marketing of the New York Yankees or Manchester United to their fan bases. However, fans of other professional baseball teams in Japan are often openly derisive and contemptuous of the Giants' bandwagon marketing tactics.
It has also long been alleged that the Giants rely on underhanded tactics to recruit the best players, involving bribes to players and amateur coaches, or using their influence on the governing council of Japanese professional baseball to pass rules that favors their recruiting efforts. This may be one explanation for the Giants' abundance of success in league play.
Trivia
- Yomiuri Giants uniforms are very similar to those of the American San Francisco Giants.
- The Giants' main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region.
- It has been said because of the lengthy MLBPA strike in the United States, and because of Japanese lore of the meaning of 60th anniversaries, the 1994 60th Anniversary Yomiuri Giants were the luckiest team in professional baseball. Many journalists called the 1994 team the World Champions of Professional Baseball.
External links
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