Sawamura Award selection committee needs to adjust with the times
Ever heard the one about the guy who had to walk 5 km, uphill, through a hailstorm just to get to school every day? That's essentially the tale the Sawamura Award selection committee told everyone Monday by deciding not to give out the award for ...
No Sawamura winner named for 2019 season
The Sawamura Award is an honor given to the top pitcher in Japanese baseball each season. Well, except when it isn't. For the first time since 2000, and the fifth time since the award was established in 1947, no pitcher was deemed worthy of the honor ...
Former Hanshin Tigers great, Sawamura Award winner Gene Bacque dies at 82
Former Hanshin Tigers ace Gene Bacque, the first foreign recipient of the Sawamura Award, passed away on Saturday night at the age of 82, multiple outlets in his home state of Louisiana have reported. Bacque died after complications from a surgical procedure. A native of ...
Race for Sawamura Award going down to wire
With the NPB season nearly over — no team has more than 16 games left — it's almost time for the group of retired pitchers who vote on the Sawamura Award to sit down and have a chat. When they finish lamenting that none of ...
Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano was named winner of the prestigious Eiji Sawamura Award on Monday for the second straight year. The 29-year-old is the first pitcher to win the award in consecutive seasons since former Giants ace and Hall of Fame inductee Masaki Saito ...
Carp pitcher Daichi Osera in good position in race for Sawamura Award
The Central League-leading Hiroshima Carp only have one more game remaining against the last-place Chunichi Dragons, inexplicably the only CL team with a winning record against Hiroshima, this season. Which means the two-time defending champions can get back to the task of finishing off their ...
Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano named Sawamura Award winner
Tomoyuki Sugano was the No. 1 pitcher in Japan in 2017. Now he's got the hardware to prove it. The Yomiuri Giants ace was named the 2017 Sawamura Award winner on Monday afternoon, earning the award for the first time after narrowly beating out Seibu Lions ...
Finally, Lions' Yusei Kikuchi living up to potential this season
Yusei Kikuchi had waited for this for far too long to not savor every last second. For seven years, the Seibu Lions left-hander had chased the shadow of his younger self, the high school phenom poised to skip right over NPB and head to ...
Kikuchi, Sugano locked in duel for Sawamura Award
Despite the amount of ink spilled trying to determine whether Seibu Lions pitcher Yusei Kikuchi was actually guilty of the illegal two-stage pitching motion he was cited for on Thursday night, it's more important to note the way he handled the Tohoku Rakuten Golden ...
Hiroshima Carp workhorse Kris Johnson, winner of last year's Sawamura Award, remains unable to practice due to illness, the team's chief trainer said Wednesday. Johnson, who is in his third Nippon Professional Baseball season, won last year's Sawamura Award as NPB's most impressive starting pitcher. ...
Sawamura Award selection panel dismisses Otani's candidacy
In a year when no pitching candidates leaped off the stat sheet to seize the Sawamura Award by force, perhaps the selectors would opt for a long-shot candidate such as Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters ace Shohei Otani. Like Sawamura, Otani is the fastest pitcher of ...
Carp's Johnson becomes second foreign-born Sawamura Award winner
There was no Japan Series game played Monday, but it was still an eventful afternoon for Hiroshima Carp pitcher Kris Johnson. Johnson was named the 2016 Sawamura Award winner, becoming the first foreign player to earn the honor, given to each year's top starting pitcher, ...
