Ichiro Suzuki would become one of the most important players of the Heisei Era, which is slated to end at the end of this month, in Japan as well as in the United States.

David Huff, a left-handed reliever for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is the pro athlete in the Huff household. But his wife Lisa, he says, is the real MVP. "Not only dealing with me, with the ups and downs of a season, but dealing with kids (two ...

There were four players, all pitchers, on the hero interview podium for the Chiba Lotte Marines on Saturday afternoon. One for each win of their current run. Mike Bolsinger threw six innings, the Lotte batters came up with just enough timely hitting and the suddenly streaking ...

Anyone who watched the Tokyo Yakult Swallows play this past week probably still has the Tokyo Ondo stuck in their head. When they close their eyes, they might still see a sea of small, mostly green umbrellas bobbing up and down in rhythm to ...

The Yomiuri Giants provided the fireworks in the opener and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows lit up the scoreboard in second game. In the finale of the year's first three-game set between the crosstown rivals, they traded blows until only one was left standing. That turned out ...

Tomoyuki Sugano said his pitching was just "so-so." The Tokyo Yakult Swallows and their red-hot lineup might beg to differ. The Yomiuri Giants ace held the Swallows in check for the better part of seven innings, his teammates reminded everyone they're pretty good at the plate, ...

The ironic thing about the Seibu Lions blowing up the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' "opener" strategy — in such a magnificent explosion of hits and runs on Saturday it might close the book on the opener — is that Fighters starter Takayuki Kato, the ...

Zach Neal might have had an image of how his first start in Japan might go, but it's unlikely there were Chiba Lotte Marines standing on every base with one out in the second inning in his version. But a grounder to second and a ...

Opener, closer, middleman, it's all the same to the Seibu Lions' lineup. When the Lions' bats are roaring, it doesn't matter who is on the mound or when they get there, they're going to get hit. Hard. Shogo Akiyama and Tomoya Mori keyed the five-run third ...

Before coming down the ramp for her fight, Mei Yamaguchi, in a nod to her surroundings at Ryogoku Kokugikan, did a brief shiko (where a sumo wrestler lifts his leg high and straight before stamping it down on the ground). Then, she made her way ...