Yomiuri Giants facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yomiuri Giants
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Nippon Professional Baseball Central League (1950–present) Japanese Baseball League (1936–1949) Independent (1934–1935)
Location	Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan
Ballpark	Tokyo Dome
Year founded	December 26, 1934; 89 years ago (1934-12-26)
Nickname(s)	Kyojin (巨人, giant)
CL pennants	38 (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, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020)
Japan Series championships	22 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2012)
JBL championships	9 (1936 Fall, 1937 Spring, 1938 Fall, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1949)
Former name(s)	Tokyo Giants (1935–1946) Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (1934)
Former ballparks	Korakuen Stadium (1937–1987)
Colors	Orange, Black, White
Mascot	Giabbit
Playoff berths	13 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021)
Retired numbers	1 3 4 14 16 34
Ownership	Legally as KK Yomiuri Kyojingun (株式会社読売巨人軍) 100% owned by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings
Management	Toshikazu Yamaguchi
Manager	Shinnosuke Abe
Uniforms

The Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ, Yomiuri Jaiantsu, formally Yomiuri Kyojingun (読売巨人軍)) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They have played their home games in the Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV).

The Giants are the oldest professional sports team in Japan. They are also by far the most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League. Their main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans. (Baseball fans who are indifferent about teams other than their local team often have an intense dislike for the Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in cities that have a team of their own.)

The English-language press occasionally calls the team the "Tokyo Giants", but that name has not been in use in Japan for decades. (Lefty O'Doul, a former Major League Baseball player, named the team "Tokyo Giants" in the mid-1930s.) Instead, the team is officially known by the name of its corporate owner, just like the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes. The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines and tables simply as Kyojin (巨人, the Japanese word for "giant(s)"), instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.

The Yomiuri Giants name and uniforms were based on the New York (now San Francisco) Giants. The team's colors (orange and black) are the same colors worn by the National League's Giants (both then as now in both New York and San Francisco). The stylized lettering on the team's jerseys and caps is similar to the fancy lettering used by the Giants when they played in New York in the 1930s, although during the 1970s the Yomiuri Giants modernized their lettering to follow the style worn by the San Francisco Giants.

Franchise history

Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club

The team began in 1934 as The Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部, Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu), a team of all-stars organized by media mogul Matsutarō Shōriki that toured the United States and matched up against an American all-star team that included Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Charlie Gehringer. While prior Japanese all-star contingents had disbanded, Shōriki went pro with this group, playing in an independent league.

In 1935, the team traveled to the United States and faced off against college and minor league teams, ultimately playing 109 games in 128 days (including 34 games on 17 days as doubleheaders) across the country. The tour ended with a record of 75 wins, 33 losses, and 1 draw.

When they faced off against the San Francisco Seals, the manager of the Seals, Lefty O'Doul, stated the team needed a promotional name . He suggested that since Tokyo was the New York of Japan, they should emulate one of the two named MLB teams in New York; either the Yankees or the Giants (New York's third team, which would eventually be called the Dodgers, lacked an official nickname at the time). As "Yankees" was immediately out of the question, O'Doul suggested the name "Giants", and the team adopted the Tokyo Giants moniker mid-tour.

Tokyo Kyojin

In 1936, with the formation of the Japanese Baseball League, the team changed its name to the Tokyo Kyojin, often called the Tokyo Giants in non-Japanese sources. It won eight league championships under that name from 1936 to 1943, including six championships in a row from 1938 to 1943.

Russian-born pitcher Victor Starffin, nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese", starred for the team until 1944. One of the league's premier pitchers, he won two MVP awards and a Best Nine award, and won at least 26 games in six different years, winning a league-record 42 games in 1939. He followed his record-setting performance with another 38 wins in 1940. Pitcher Eiji Sawamura co-starred with Starffin on the Kyojin. He pitched the first no-hitter in Japanese pro baseball, on September 25, 1936, as well as two others. In 1937, he went 33–10 with a 1.38 earned run average. From 1937 to 1943 Sawamura had a record of 63–22, 554 strikeouts, and a 1.74 ERA. Sawamura was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1938, 1941, and 1943; he returned to play for the Giants between deployments, though injuries and time away hindered his form and velocity. He was released by the team in 1943, then killed in battle when his ship was torpedoed near the end of the Second World War.

Outfielder Haruyasu Nakajima was a featured hitter during the franchise's first decade-and-a-half, and as player-manager led the Kyojin to a championship in 1941. Tetsuharu Kawakami was a team fixture from 1938 to 1958, winning the batting title five times, two home run crowns, three RBI titles, and had six titles for the most hits in a season. He was the first player in Japanese pro baseball to achieve 2,000 hits and was named the league's MVP three times. Leadoff man Shosei Go starred for the team from 1937 to 1943, winning league MVP in 1943. Only 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and 140 lb (64 kg), he was nicknamed "The Human Locomotive" due to his speed.

Pitcher Hideo Fujimoto (also known as Hideo Nakagami) pitched for the team for 12 seasons from 1942 to 1955. He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA (1.90) and seasonal ERA (0.73 in 1943), as well as best all-time winning percentage (.697). He threw two career no-hitters, including the first perfect game in Japanese professional baseball. In addition, he served as the Giants' player-manager in 1944 (there was no 1945 season) and part of 1946.

Yomiuri Giants

In 1947 the team became the Yomiuri Giants, winning the final JBL championship in 1949 (again under player-manager Haruyasu Nakajima). From 1938 to 1987 the Giants played at Korakuen Stadium, moving to their current home the Tokyo Dome in 1988.

In 1950, the Giants were one of the founding members of Nippon Professional Baseball, joining the Central League.

Slugger Noboru Aota starred for the Giants from 1948 to 1952, winning the home run championship twice, and hitting a home run in the 1951 Japan Series, when the Giants defeated the Nankai Hawks 4 games to 2 for their first NPB championship. Hawaiian Wally Yonamine was the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II when he joined the Giants in 1951. A multi-skilled outfielder, as a Giant Yonamine was a member of four Japan Series Championship teams, the Central League Most Valuable Player in 1957, a consecutive seven-time Best Nine Award winner (1952–58), an eleven-time All-Star, and a three-time batting champion.

The team was the Central League champion every year from 1955 to 1959, winning the Japan Series championship in 1955, but they lost four consecutive Japan Series thereafter.

World career home run record holder Sadaharu Oh starred for the Giants from 1959 to 1980, and fellow Hall of Famer Shigeo Nagashima played for the team from 1958 to 1974. The Giants lineup, consisting of Oh batting third and Nagashima batting fourth, was nicknamed the ON Hou, ("Oh-Nagashima Cannon") as the two players emerged as the best hitters in the league. Now the team's manager, Tetsuharu Kawakami led the Giants to nine consecutive Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973, and Oh and Nagashima dominated the batting titles during this period. During his career, Oh was a five-time batting champion and fifteen-time home-run champion, and won the Central League most valuable player award nine times. Nagashima won the season MVP award five times, and the Best Nine Award every single year of his career (a total 17 times). Future Hall of Famer Tsuneo Horiuchi pitched for the team during its heyday, from 1966 to 1983. The renowned left-hander Masaichi Kaneda pitched for the team from 1965 to 1969, later having his number retired by the Giants.

Shigeo Nagashima was appointed manager of the Giants almost immediately after his retirement in 1974, staying in that position until 1980. After a couple of down years the Giants re-assumed their dominant position in the Central League, winning league championships in 1976 and 1977. Sadaharu Oh rejoined the team as manager from 1984 to 1988. Nagashima returned as Giants manager from 1993 to 2001, winning Japan Series championships in 1994, 1996, and 2000.

Outfielder Hideki Matsui starred for the Giants for ten seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s before migrating to Major League Baseball. He was a three-time NPB MVP, leading his team to four Japan Series, winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002), and earning the popular nickname "Godzilla". He also made nine consecutive All-Star Games and led the league in home runs and RBIs three times.

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  Tetsuharu Kawakami in 1946

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  Three Giants stars of the 1950s, Tetsuharu Kawakami, Shigeru Chiba, and Noboru Aota (left to right)

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  Suguru Egawa, after 1981

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  Tatsunori Hara in 2012

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  A celebrate with Giants supporters for NPB championship parade in November 2009

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  A celebration for awarding the National Honor Award served to Shigeo Nagashima, former stars and manager for long period, in Tokyo Dome, May 2013.

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  A main Giants pitcher, Tomoyuki Sugano

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  Main Giants player, Kazuma Okamoto

Managerial history and lifetime records

Name	Nationality	From	To	G	W	D	T	Wp
Sadayoshi Fujimoto	Japan	1936	1942	604	422	168	14	.715
Haruyasu Nakajima	Japan	1943	1943	84	54	27	3	.667
Hideo Fujimoto	Japan	1944	1944	35	19	14	2	.576
Hideo Fujimoto (2)	Japan	1946	1946	25	15	9	1	.625
Haruyasu Nakajima (2)	Japan	1946	1947	171	96	74	1	.564
Osamu Mihara	Japan	1947	1949	302	177	118	7	.600
Shigeru Mizuhara	Japan	1950	1960	1407	881	497	29	.639
Tetsuharu Kawakami	Japan	1961	1974	1868	1066	741	61	.590
Shigeo Nagashima	Japan	1975	1980	780	387	386	55	.533
Motoshi Fujita	Japan	1981	1983	390	211	148	31	.588
Sadaharu Oh	Taiwan	1984	1988	650	347	264	39	.568
Motoshi Fujita (2)	Japan	1989	1992	520	305	213	2	.587
Shigeo Nagashima (2)	Japan	1993	2001	1202	647	551	4	.538
Tatsunori Hara	Japan	2002	2003	280	147	138	5	.535
Tsuneo Horiuchi	Japan	2004	2005	284	133	144	7	.480
Tatsunori Hara (2)	Japan	2006	2015	1441	795	595	51	.572
Yoshinobu Takahashi	Japan	2016	2018	429	210	208	11	.502
Tatsunori Hara (3)	Japan	2019	2023	657	344	313	35	.524
Shinnosuke Abe	Japan	2024	ongoing

Roster

Players of note

Former players

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)

Top starting pitchers

Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)

Top leading hit players

Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)

Top leading homerun players

Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, % = Win Percentage

"Japan's team" and allegations of corruption

Tokyo Dome is the Giants' home field since 1988

Due to the Yomiuri company's vast influence in Japan as a major media conglomerate, the Giants have long been branded as "Japan's Team". In fact, for some years the Giants' uniforms had "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 marketability of the New York Yankees, Real Madrid, and Manchester United, except that support for the Giants nearly exceeds 50% of those polled, while in the United States and England, support is judged to be between 30% and 40% for the Yankees and Manchester United, respectively. Correspondingly, fans of other professional baseball teams in Japan are often openly derisive and contemptuous of the Giants' bandwagon marketing tactics, and an "anti-Giants" movement exists in protest of the Giants' near-hegenomy.

In addition, despite the Giants having employed many foreign players over the years, many Japanese point proudly to the "pure-blooded period" of 1958–1974 when the team enjoyed continued success — 13 pennants — despite having no foreign players.

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. In August 2004, Yomiuri president Tsuneo Watanabe resigned after it was revealed that the club had violated scouting rules by paying ¥2 million to pitching prospect Yasuhiro Ichiba. Ten months later, Watanabe was hired as chairman of the Yomiuri corporation. In 2012, Asahi Shimbun discovered that the Giants had violated NPB rules by secretly paying pitcher Takahiko Nomaguchi while he was still an amateur playing in Japan's corporate league.

In 2009, the Giants played the Japan national baseball team in an unofficial goodwill game before the World Baseball Classic.

MLB players

Hideki Matsui

Active

• Miles Mikolas (2015–2017)
• Matt Andriese (2022)
• Rougned Odor (2024–present)

Retired

• Takashi Kashiwada (1998)
• Takahito Nomura (2002)
• Joe Dillon (2007)
• Masumi Kuwata (2007)
• Ken Kadokura (2009)
• Hideki Matsui (2003–2012)
• Hideki Okajima (2007–2011, 2013)
• Hisanori Takahashi (2010–2013)
• Koji Uehara (2009–2017)
• Taylor Jungmann (2015–2017)
• Gerardo Parra (2020)
• Eric Thames (2021)
• Justin Smoak (2021)

Mascots

The Giants have 6 mascots, known as the Giabbits. They are based on one of the older logos of the Giants. They have 2 adult male mascots named Giabyi and Giabba (their jersey numbers are 333 and 555 respectively), an adult female mascot named Vicky, and 2 children mascots (a boy and a girl respectively), Tsuppy and Chappy (the former wears shorts and the latter wears a skirt and a headband on their left ear). The most recent one, Grandpa Giabbit, was introduced in 2014, the team's 80th anniversary. His jersey number is 1934, the year the team was founded.

Minor League team

The Giants farm team plays in the Eastern League. It was founded in 1949.

See also

In Spanish: Yomiuri Giants para niños