Yomiuri Giants
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Yomiuri Giants
The Yomiuri Giants (in Japanese: 読売ジャイアンツ; Yomiuri-Jaiantsu) is one of the most popular baseball team based in Japan. It is based at Tokyo Dome, in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, and is in the Central League. The team is owned by the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network.
- Founded: 1934
- Formerly known as: Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部 1934-1935), Tokyo Kyojingun (東京巨人軍 1936-1946), Tokyo 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
- League championships won (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 won (20): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2002
The Yomiuri Giants are the oldest professional team in Japan, which was founded in 1936 and joined the new Japanese Baseball League. The Giants won nine 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 Giants have won the 2002 pennant. The Yomiuri Giants have won more pennants and Japan Series titles than any other team.
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 Yomuiri Giants were the luckiest team in professional baseball, and was actually called by many journalists as the World Champions of Professional Baseball.
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Players of note
Current stars
- Shinnosuke Abe (C)
- Akira Eto (3B)
- Masanori Hayashi (P)
- Gabe Kapler (IF)
- Hiroshi Kisanuki (P)
- Kazuhiro Kiyohara (1B)
- Hiroki Kokubo (3B)
- Yuya Kubo (P)
- Kimiyasu Kudo (P)
- Masumi Kuwata (P)
- Yukinaga Maeda (P)
- Daisuke Motoki (SS)
- Tomohiro Nioka (SS)
- Toshihisa Nishi (2B)
- Hideki Okajima (P)
- Robert Petagine (1B)
- Tuffy Rhodes (OF)
- Takayuki Shimizu (OF)
- Brian Sikorski (P)
- Hisanori Takahashi (P)
- Yoshinobu Takahashi (OF)
- Kouji Uehara (P)
Former players
- Warren Cromartie
- Suguru Egawa
- Tatsunori Hara
- Isao Harimoto
- Tatsuro Hirooka
- Tsuneo Horiuchi
- Tetsuharu Kawakami
- Norihiro Komada
- Hiromi Makihara
- Hideki Matsui
- Shigeo Nagashima
- Kiyoshi Nakahata
- Hiromitsu Ochiai
- Sadaharu Oh
- Masaki Saito
- Eiji Sawamura [1] (http://www.baseball-museum.or.jp/museum_e/guide/dendo/profile/008_sawamura_eiji_e.html), [2] (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20021106&content_id=171904&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp)
- Kazunori Shinozuka
- Victor Starffin [3] (http://www.starffin.com/)
- Wally Kaname Yonamine
Retired numbers
- 1 Sadaharu Oh
- 3 Shigeo Nagashima
- 4 Toshio Kurosawa
- 14 Eiji Sawamura
- 16 Tetsuharu Kawakami
- 34 Masaichi Kaneda
Mascot
- Giabbit (ジャビット)
External Links
- Yomiuri Giants official web site (http://www.giants.jp/)
Template:Japanese Professional Baseball
Trivia
Yomiuri Giants' uniform are very similiar than the American baseball team the San Francisco Giants.