Sawamura Award

Baseball / Japanese Baseball Nov 23, 2020

Dragons ace Yudai Ono wins Sawamura Award

by Kaz Nagatsuka

Ono is the ninth Dragons pitcher to win the award and first since Kenshin Kawakami in 2004.

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | Sac Bunts Oct 15, 2020

Yudai Ono should be on track for Sawamura Award if committee keeps its word

by Jason Coskrey

The prize ostensibly honors the pitcher who most embodies the legacy of Eiji Sawamura in a given year. It's hard to argue Ono doesn't fit that bill.

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | Sac Bunts Oct 22, 2019

Sawamura Award selection committee needs to adjust with the times

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball Oct 21, 2019

No Sawamura winner named for 2019 season

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball Sep 15, 2019

Former Hanshin Tigers great, Sawamura Award winner Gene Bacque dies at 82

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | Sac Bunts Sep 9, 2019

Race for Sawamura Award going down to wire

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball Oct 29, 2018

Giants' Tomoyuki Sugano wins second straight Sawamura Award

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | Sac Bunts Sep 10, 2018

Carp pitcher Daichi Osera in good position in race for Sawamura Award

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball Oct 30, 2017

Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano named Sawamura Award winner

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | HIT AND RUN Oct 14, 2017

Finally, Lions' Yusei Kikuchi living up to potential this season

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...

Baseball / Japanese Baseball | HIT AND RUN Aug 21, 2017

Kikuchi, Sugano locked in duel for Sawamura Award

by Jason Coskrey

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 ...