Jason Coskrey

4 days ago | japantimes.co.jp | Jason Coskrey

This week’s slate of NPB games marks the start of the 20th edition of interleague play in Japan. Japanese baseball introduced interleague competition in 2005, giving fans a chance to see Central and Pacific League teams compete outside of the annual Japan Series matchup. It happens during a set period each year — June 3 to 22 this season — and the team with the best record is crowned champion at the end.

4 days ago | japantimes.co.jp | Jason Coskrey

Shigeo Nagashima, a Yomiuri Giants legend who was so revered that he was known to many as “Mr. Pro Baseball” died on Wednesday due to pneumonia at the age of 89, according to an announcement by the Yomiuri Shimbun. Long before the rise of Shohei Ohtani and Ichiro Suzuki, Nagashima was arguably the most famous player in Japanese baseball history.

1 week ago | japantimes.co.jp | Jason Coskrey

The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have morphed from mere sporting events into cultural phenomena in the United States. Each year from March until early April, talk of brackets, cinderellas, Sweet 16s and Final Fours fill the air as “March Madness” rumbles to life on Selection Sunday and dominates the sports landscape until the champions cut down the nets. Thanks to the tournaments, college basketball becomes the most popular sport in the U.S. for about three weeks each year.

1 week ago | japantimes.co.jp | Jason Coskrey

Tsuyoshi Shinjo showed up for his first news conference as Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters manager in November 2021 wearing sunglasses, a gaudy red suit and a white shirt with an impossibly large popped collar. He said he wanted to be called “Big Boss” instead of “manager,” a stance he later doubled down on by changing his registered name in NPB to “BIGBOSS,” which he wore on his uniform. That was the beginning of a yearlong spectacle.

2 weeks ago | businessandamerica.com | Jason Coskrey

Hiroshima Carp pitcher Daichi Osera did something against the Yomiuri Giants last week that you do not see very often in baseball games these days. He got a hit. While no one would confuse Osera for Shohei Ohtani, seeing a pitcher get a hit — or even step in the batter’s box — is an increasingly rare sight in pro baseball. It’s one you can only see daily in NPB, where the Central League continues to stand alone as a place without the designated hitter and where pitchers still hit for themselves.