Jason Coskrey - The Japan Times

August 22, 2025

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Jason Coskrey

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Jason Coskrey

Jason Coskrey is a sports writer for The Japan Times. His primary focus is Japanese baseball, but he has also covered soccer, American football, boxing and basketball. He previously worked for the Marietta Daily Journal in Marietta, Ga. A native of Detroit, he is a graduate of the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK

Sep 4, 2016

Laird closing in on 40-homer year

Brandon Laird has become a favorite among Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters fans for his home run celebration, not to mention the homers themselves, which sees him mimic a chef making sushi.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Sep 1, 2016

Nakata fuels Fighters with two-homer performance

Sho Nakata's home run streak ended against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Wednesday. So the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters slugger went out and laid the foundation for a new one on Thursday.

MORE SPORTS

Aug 29, 2016

Silver-winning 4x100 relay team looks to future with confidence

Wearing the official Japanese Olympic team uniform, a pinstriped sports coat and gray pants, and with silver medals hanging from their necks, the Japanese 4x100-meter relay team gave an impromptu demonstration of their baton-passing skills for a curious crowd of onlookers. They swung their arms as if...

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Aug 29, 2016

Finally, Carp looking like real deal

The Hiroshima Carp, it seems, have arrived. After a long stretch of bad years and recent seasons of being a few pieces short of a whole, the Carp are finally in the thick of a pennant race again.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Aug 25, 2016

Kikuchi, Maru ignite pennant-chasing Carp in comeback victory over Giants

If there was any thought the Hiroshima Carp might take their foot off the gas a little after gaining a magic number, the Central League leaders squashed it the first chance they got.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Aug 24, 2016

Agent: Messenger hoping to return to Tigers in 2017

Pitcher Randy Messenger is interested in working out a deal to remain with the Hanshin Tigers in 2017, his agent Matt Sosnick told The Japan Times on Wednesday.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Aug 9, 2016

Giants' Cruz makes instant impact in return from ankle injury

It didn't take Luis Cruz very long to show Yomiuri Giants fans what they'd been missing for the past two months.

Japan Times

BASEBALL / MLB

Aug 8, 2016

True meaning of Ichiro even greater than 3,000-hit milestone

There were a lot of people in Japan who awoke early April 3, 2001 (the night of April 2 in the U.S.), with a mix of anticipation and wonder as they watched new Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki's first game in the major leagues. Ichiro was hitless after three at-bats. Then, in the seventh, he...

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Aug 4, 2016

Swallows' Sato cools off potent Carp offense

Yoshinori Sato held back NPB's top offense for as long as he could. It turned out to be just long enough for one of Japan's top offensive players to put the game away.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Aug 4, 2016

Swallows slugger Balentien maintains desire to play in 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Wladimir Balentien suited up for the Netherlands at the Olympics in Athens in 2004, a point in his career before he'd made his MLB debut or even given the first thought to playing in Japan. Balentien might be in the process of winding things down four years from now, but the Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger...

Japan Times

BASEBALL / MLB

Aug 2, 2016

Cromartie brings bid for Montreal MLB team to Japan

Warren Cromartie said being back in Japan made him feel like he was home. He said there were fans who recognized him while he was out and about in Tokyo and that he'd already made plans to have dinner with a few of his former Yomiuri Giants teammates later in the week. If there's time, he said, he'd...

Japan Times

BASEBALL

Aug 2, 2016

Tokyo will host two rounds of 2017 WBC

Samurai Japan's quest to reclaim the World Baseball Classic title will begin in the nation's capital.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Jul 29, 2016

Veteran mainstays guide Giants past Swallows

For one night, it almost felt like old times for the Yomiuri Giants. Shinnosuke Abe and Hayato Sakamoto were hitting home runs and Tetsuya Utsumi was making sure the other team didn't.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Jul 25, 2016

BayStars' Zagurski relishing each moment of baseball journey

Mike Zagurski was rehabbing an injury several years ago, while with the Philadelphia Phillies' organization, when he decided he wanted a dog. He soon told his girlfriend (now wife) of his intention and also informed housemates Scott Mathieson and Kyle Drabek.

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Jul 23, 2016

BitSummit reveals the reach of indie games

BitSummit, the independent game festival annually held in Kyoto, has grown rapidly in the four years since it went from being an idea in founder James Mielke's head to a respected event that developers and fans from around the globe look forward to each summer.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Jul 22, 2016

BayStars' Tsutsugo delivers game-ending homer in 12th to conquer Giants

Yoshitomo Tsutsugo might not have gotten a chance to win the game in the 10th, but he wasn't going to be denied in the 12th.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Jul 17, 2016

Carp, Hawks aim for continued success in second half

As can be expected, the top two teams of the first half, the Central League's Hiroshima Carp and Pacific League's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, were well represented during this year's NPB All-Star Series.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Jul 16, 2016

Action-packed All-Star Series finale ends in 5-5 tie

There were home runs, some great plays, a few not-so-great plays and a host of other things in between.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Jul 16, 2016

Fellow All-Stars rave about Otani's special talents

A blister kept Shohei Otani from pitching in the NPB All-Star Series. So the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' two-way star took part in the festivities as a hitter instead.

BASEBALL

Jul 15, 2016

Samurai Japan collegiate squad falls to U.S.

Kohei Miyadai has helped pull off some improbable wins for the University of Tokyo on the mound at Jingu Stadium this year. He traded in his Todai colors for the Hinomaru on Friday, but fell just short of being part of another magic moment.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.

The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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