Going from worst to first — last place to a pennant — is difficult for any professional baseball team. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows managed to do it this past season in the Central League, and the two clubs that finished at the bottom of the league standings in 2015 are hoping to rise to the top during the coming year.
Whether or not they can do it remains to be seen, but the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and Tohoku Rakuten Eagles have their sights set on moving up in the Central and Pacific League standings, respectively. They are starting with big improvements to their ballparks over the winter, including the replacement of an artificial turf playing surface with real grass and ideas to convince hometown fans in Yokohama and Sendai the stadium environment will be more fun than ever.
It was 1978 when the then-Taiyo Whales abandoned the aging bandbox Kawasaki Stadium and moved a few kilometers south to Yokohama with its brand new, central city-located ballpark. The Whales became the BayStars in 1993, and the Taiyo Fisheries Co. eventually sold the club to Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in 2001.