npb - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Japanese Playoff Baseball Game Turns Into A Mud BowlIn the first round of the Nippon Professional Baseball playoffs in Japan, the Hanshin Tigers and Yokohama DeNA Baystars battled through absolutely absurd conditions to play an entire baseball game in the mud. The result was unlike any baseball game I’ve ever seen. To watch the highlights with the fu...

Shohei Otani Is Reportedly Coming To MLB, Despite Its Best Efforts To Keep Him AwayJapanese baseball star Shohei Otani, who is in the midst of a Ruthian season for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters—the two-way stud had a 1.86 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 140 innings, to go along with 27 homers and a .322/.416/.588 triple slash in 2016—is reportedly ready to play ball in America. He’ll...

Shohei Otani Is Pitching Again, And MLB Is Getting Ready For HimAfter a thigh injury kept him from pitching for most of July and August, Japanese two-way playing phenom Shohei Otani made his first start in seven weeks today. Half of MLB’s front offices sent someone to Japan to watch him:...

Old Baseball Man Throws A Fastball, Is Very Cool

This great old guy is Choji Murata. He is 66 years old now, and was a pitcher in the Japanese professional league from 1968-1990. He was asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a recent game, and the old fella brought the heat:...

Fourth Yomiuri Giants Pitcher Admits To Betting On Baseball

Japan’s professional baseball league was hit by a betting scandal this past fall, when a Nippon Professional Baseball investigation revealed that three pitchers on the Yomiuri Giants had bet on games. Now a fourth pitcher, reliever Kyosuke Takagi, has admitted to betting on games, as well as lying t...

Unspinning The Mythical Gyroball, The Demon Miracle Pitch That Wasn't

Once feared, now largely forgotten, the gyroball retains a stubborn hold on the baseball imagination. Perhaps Red Sox closer Koji Uehara can put the pitch to rest:...

A Japanese Team Was Interested In Alex Rodriguez

There's nothing the Yankees can do about the five years and $114 million remaining on Alex Rodriguez's contract unless he retires, or unless they can find a Japanese GM who hasn't been paying attention to MLB for the last three seasons....

The Art Of The Japanese Bat Flip

This video was put together by some unknown Japanese hero a year ago, but it's making the rounds today (I think it popped up first on Fangraphs last week). And that's 100 percent of the background on the video you're going to get....