The 1997 Japan Series was the

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 ...

(NPB) championship series for the 1997 season. It was the 48th

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...

and featured the

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 a ...

champions, the

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, ...

, against the

Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...

champions, the

Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams in Tokyo, the other being the Yomiuri G ...

. The series is the third time the two teams played each other for the championship, the last two contests being in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. Played at

Seibu Dome (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan. It is home to the Saitama Seibu Lions, a professional baseball team. The stadium has a roof over the field and the stands, like other indoor ballparks. However, it la ...

and

Meiji Jingu Stadium The is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, incl ...

, the Swallows defeated the Lions four games to one in the best-of-seven series to win the franchise's 4th Japan Series title. The Swallows' star catcher

Atsuya Furuta Atsuya Furuta (古田敦也, b. August 6, 1965) is a Japanese former baseball player and player-manager for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball club in the Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Drafted in the 2nd round in ...

was named

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

of the series. The series was played between October 18 and October 23, 1997, with

home field advantage In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home (sports), home team ...

going to the Pacific League.

Summary

Matchups

Game 1

Game 1 of the series featured a pitching match-up of two strong aces. Seibu's Fumiya Nishiguchi had a career year in 1997 (only his second full season), finishing first in the Pacific League in wins, strikeouts and winning percentage. His sparkling season earned him the Best Nine Award, the Golden Glove, the Sawamura Award and league MVP. Facing him in Game 1 from the visitor's side was Kazuhisa Ishii, a former number-one draft pick and established southpaw who had pitched a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...

earlier in the season. The game lived up to its billing as a pitcher's duel, with each starter not allowing any runs after seven innings. However, Yakult finally managed to get to Nishiguchi when journeyman Jim Tatum deposited a slider into the right-center field seats. Ishii protected this lead, and finished the game with no runs allowed and 12 strikeouts.

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

References

External links

Nippon Professional Baseball
��Official website (in English) {{Seibu Lions Japan Series 1997 Nippon Professional Baseball season Tokyo Yakult Swallows Seibu Lions