Shota Takeda
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Professional career On October 27, 2011, Takeda was drafted by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks with the first overall pick in the 2011 Nippon Professional Baseball draft. 2012–2015 On July 7, 2012, Takeda pitched his debut game against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters as a starting pitcher, and won the game for the first time in the Pacific League. He finished the 2012 season appearing in 11 games and posting a 8–1 record, 1.07 ERA, and 67 strikeouts across 67 innings. On November 20, he was honored with the 2012 Pacific League Excellent rookie award. In 2013, Takeda finished the regular season with 17 appearances, a 4–4 record, 3.48 ERA, and 56 strikeouts across 93 innings. In 2014, Takeda developed pain in his right shoulder during spring camp and spent half of the year in rehabilitation. On August 6, he made his return from injury and pitched against the Sai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a base on balls, walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, left-handed specialist, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closing pitcher, closer. Traditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League and spreading to further leagues throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2017 World Baseball Classic
The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts were Seoul, Tokyo, Miami, and Zapopan. The second-round hosts were Tokyo and San Diego, and the championship round was played in Los Angeles. Twelve of the sixteen competing nations qualified based on their performance during the first round of the 2013 tournament; the remaining four nations were the winners of four qualification tournaments that took place in February, March, and September 2016. Two of the four qualifiers, Colombia and Israel, made their first appearance in the WBC, and both have secured their positions for the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The Netherlands, Japan, Puerto Rico, and the United States advanced to the championship round. Defending champion Dominican Republic was eliminated in the second round. The United Sta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hanshin Tigers
The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to their main stadium, Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The Tigers are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc. The Hanshin Tigers are one of the oldest professional clubs in Japan. They played their first season in 1936 as the Osaka Tigers and assumed their current team name in 1961. History The Hanshin Tigers, the second-oldest professional club in Japan, were founded on December 10, 1935, with the team being formed in 1936. The team was first called Ōsaka Tigers. In 1940, amid anti-foreign sentiment and the Tojo government's ban on English nicknames, the Tigers changed the name to simply Hanshin. In 1947, the team reverted to Ōsaka Tigers after the JPBL mandated English nicknames. The current team name was assumed in 1961 due to the team playing in the suburb of Nishinomiya, which is not ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nikkan Sports
is the first-launched Japanese daily sports newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ... founded in 1946. It has a circulation of 1,661,000, and is an affiliate newspaper of the '' Asahi Shimbun''. Companies and regions ;Nikkan Sports News (Tokyo) :Tokyo HQ: 5-10, Tsukiji Sanchome, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan ;Hokkaido Nikkan Sports News (Hokkaido) :Hokkaido HQ: KN Building, 1-30, Kita-Sanjo-Higashi Sanchome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Japan ;Nikkan Sports News West Japan (Osaka, Nagoya, Kyushu) :Osaka HQ: Hanshin Diamond Building, 14-24, Fukushima Sanchome, Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Japan :Nagoya HQ: Asahi Kaikan, 3-3, Sakae Itchome, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Japan :Seibu HQ: Fukuoka Asahi Building, 1-1, Hakata Ekimae Nichome, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan See also * Nikkan Sports Film Award ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saitama Seibu Lions
The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, which in turn is owned by the Seibu Holdings. The team experienced a recent period of financial difficulty, but the situation brightened when the team received a record ¥6 billion (about $51.11 million) posting fee from the Boston Red Sox for the right to negotiate a contract with Daisuke Matsuzaka. Between 1978 and 2008, the team logo and mascot were based on the adult version of Kimba the White Lion, a classic Japanese anime and manga series by Osamu Tezuka. In 2004, former Seibu Lions player Kazuo Matsui became the first Japanese infielder to play in Major League Baseball. Franchise history Nishitetsu Clippers (1950) In 1950, the team became a founding member of the Pacific League. It was then owned by a private railroad compan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sports Nippon
, also known as , is the first Japanese daily sports newspaper, having been founded in 1948. In a 1997 report it was called one of the "Big Three" sports papers in Japan, out of a field of 17 sports dailies. It is an affiliate newspaper of the ''Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...''. See also * Masters GC Ladies * Miss Nippon * Toto Japan Classic References External links * Daily newspapers published in Japan Sports newspapers published in Japan Newspapers established in 1948 1948 establishments in Japan {{Japan-sport-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pacific League
The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around Japan. History The circuit was founded as the Taiheiyo Baseball Union (太平洋野球連盟, ''Taiheiyo Yakyu Renmei'') in 1949 (the name changing to its current form in 1980). Daiei Stars owner Masaichi Nagata was the first president of the Pacific League. The league began with seven teams: four holdovers from the previous iteration, the Japanese Baseball League—the Hankyu Braves, the Nankai Hawks, the Daiei Stars, and the Tokyu Flyers—and three new teams—the Kintetsu Pearls, the Mainichi Orions, and the Nishitetsu Clippers. In 1954, an eighth Pacific League team was founded, the Takahashi Unions, to increase the number of teams to eight. Although the t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Starting Pitcher
In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pitchers are expected to pitch for a significant portion of the game, although their ability to do this depends on many factors, including effectiveness, stamina, health, and strategy. A starting pitcher in professional baseball usually rests three, four, or five days after pitching a game before pitching in another. Therefore, most professional baseball teams have four, five or six starting pitchers on their rosters. These pitchers, and the sequence in which they pitch, is known as the ''rotation''. A team's best starter is known as the ace, and is almost always the first man to pitch in the rotation. In modern baseball, a five-man rotation is most common. In contrast, a pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
The are a Japanese professional Baseball in Japan, baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō, in the Sapporo metropolitan area. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Fighters also host a select number of regional home games in cities across Hokkaidō, including Hakodate, Asahikawa, Kushiro, and Obihiro. The team's name comes from its parent organization, Nippon Ham, a major Japanese food-processing company. Founded in 1946, the Fighters called Tokyo home for 58 years, as co-tenants of the Tokyo Dome and Korakuen Stadium with the Central League's Yomiuri Giants near the end of their tenure in the capital city. The franchise has won three Japan Series titles, in 1962, 2006, and, most recently, 2016. Team history Senators and Tokyo eras In 1946, Saburo Yokozawa, manager of the Tokyo Senators in 1936–1937 (and later a prominent umpire), looked to re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shota Takeda On November 21, 2015
Shota may refer to: * Shota (dance), a traditional dance from Kosovo * Shota (vehicle), Albanian mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle * Shota (Georgian given name), a Georgian given name * Shōta, a Japanese given name * Shota (wrestler), Japanese professional wrestler * Shota, a childlike male character in Japanese shotacon , abbreviated from , is, in Japanese contexts, the attraction to young (or young-looking) boy characters, or media centered around this attraction. The term refers to a genre of manga and anime wherein prepubescent or pubescent male character ... anime and manga * Shota the Witch Woman, a character from Terry Goodkind's fantasy series ''The Sword of Truth'' {{disambig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2011 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft
The 2011 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 27, , for the 47th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Toshiba with official naming rights. The draft was officially called "The Professional Baseball Draft Meeting supported by TOSHIBA." It has been sponsored by Toshiba for the 3rd consecutive year since 2009. Summary Only the first round picks will be done by bid lottery. After the second round, waver selections were made in order from the lowest-ranked team of the 2011 season in both the Central League and Pacific League, the third round was reversed and selections were made from the top team, and the fourth round was reversed again, alternating with selections from the lowest-ranked team until all teams had finished selecting players. Since the season, the winner of the NPB All-Star Game has determined whether the Central League or the Pacific League get ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nippon Professional Baseball
is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the in 1934. The first professional circuit for the sport in Japan, the Japanese Baseball League (JBL), was founded two years later and continued to play even through the final years of World War II. The organization that is today's NPB was formed when the JBL reorganized in 1950, dividing its 15 teams into two leagues, which would meet in the annual season-ending Japan Series championship play-off series of games starting that year. NPB comprises twelve teams divided equally in two leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League, a format which it has largely kept since . It has seen several waves of Expansion team, expansion and contraction, sometimes at the same time, to keep it at those number ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |