Yomiuri Giants
The Yomiuri Giants and still known by the nickname Kyojin 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 at Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers and the Nippon Television Network.
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. Most Japanese 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. 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, instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.
The Yomiuri Giants name and uniforms were based on the New York Giants. The team's colors are the same colors worn by the National League's Giants. 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, 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 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, as just the team being named "Tokyo Dai Nippon Baseball Club" wouldn't mean anything of note to Americans, and because the tour was heavily funded with ticket sales. 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. As "Yankees" was immediately out of the question, due to it being a uniquely American name, O'Doul suggested the name "Giants", also thanks to the fact that coincidentally, O'Doul was formerly of the Giants himself, and the team adopted the Tokyo Giants moniker mid-tour.
However, the Giants name would face minor challenging from Shōriki himself after the tour, as he wanted to name the team the Tokyo Golden Kites, after the Order of the Golden Kite, a military order of the Empire of Japan. The players, however, would hold firm, and Shōriki would retain the Giants name.
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 and, he was nicknamed "The Human Locomotive" due to his speed.
Pitcher Hideo Fujimoto pitched for the team for 12 seasons from 1942 to 1955. He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA and seasonal ERA, as well as best all-time winning percentage. 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 and part of 1946.
Yomiuri Giants
In 1947 the team became the Yomiuri Giants, winning the final JBL championship in 1949. 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. The Giants would also win Japan Series championships in 1952, 1953, and 1955, all over the Nankai Hawks. 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, with the first three losses coming against the Nishitetsu Lions, and then the Hawks finally got their revenge to close out the decade.
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, 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. 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, 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.
Managerial history and lifetime records
Rivalries
The Giants have several rivalries with clubs in the Central League, most notably rivalries with the Nishinomiya-based Hanshin Tigers, the Nagoya-based Chunichi Dragons and their cross-town rivals, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.Hanshin Tigers
The Giants-Tigers rivalry is considered the most intense professional rivalry in the history of Japanese team sports.The Giants-Tigers feud began on July 15, 1936 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, at a time when Japanese clubs besides the Tigers did not have set home ballparks, and would bounce around wherever they could play. This game would set the tone for the history-setting rivalry, as the first home run in Giants professional club history would come on that day at the hands of Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame member Haruyasu Nakajima off Tigers' ace Tadashi Wakabayashi, but the Tigers would win the game 8-7. On September 25, 1936, young Giants ace Eiji Sawamura threw the first no-hitter in Japanese professional baseball history against the Tigers at Hanshin Koshien Stadium. He would be the only Giants pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Koshien until Shosei Togo did it on May 24, 2024.
The Giants-Tigers rivalry has seen mostly the Giants enjoy long standing periods of success at the expense of the Tigers. From to, the Giants won the Central League pennant over the Tigers in each of the four seasons; however, the Giants would lose all 4 of their Japan Series appearances during that time, three times to the Nishitetsu Lions from 1956 to, and once to the Nankai Hawks in 1959. Most notably during this time, the only ever baseball Tenran-jiai, or "Match viewed by the Emperor" happened on June 25th, 1959, where Emperor Hirohito decided to watch the game between the Tigers and Giants; Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima would walk off future Tigers legend Minoru Murayama in the bottom of the 9th as the Giants won 5-4. During the Giants' V9 dynasty, where the Giants would win a record setting 9 consecutive Japan Series championships from to, the Tigers would finish 2nd in the Central League 5 of the 9 seasons, including 3 consecutive second place finishes from to.
As of the end of the season, the Giants have the edge in Japan Series championships, 22–2, Central League pennants, 39–6, overall championships, 31–6, and the Giants lead the Tigers head to head, 1127–888–77. The Giants and Tigers have met in the Climax Series 5 times, in which the Giants lead the overall head-to-head matchup 11-6-0, winning the series 4 times to the Tigers' 1.