Hanshin. Hanshin. Hanshin. That's all we've been hearing during most of the 2003 Japan pro baseball season.

The Tigers will likely be going to the Japan Series come October but, while that team limps its way through its "Shi no rodo" ("Road trip of death," when Hanshin plays away from home for more than two weeks while the country's annual national high school tournament takes place at Koshien Stadium), let's take a look at another club also headed for postseason play; one that will give the potential Central League champions a run for their money beginning Oct. 18.

It's the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, the front-runner in the Pacific League who have built up a five-game lead and posted a magic number of 30 for clinching their third pennant in five years.