apba1995

APBA JAPANESE BASEBALL

1998 Japanese Season
(and Major League Tour)

The top story of 1998 was the Yokohama BayStars winning their first pennant and Japan Series since 1960. Led by Central League MVP and now Seattle Mariner, Kazuhiro Sasaki, the BayStars won the Central League by four games over the Dragons. Sasaki, the closer, racked up 45 saves, an ERA of 0.64, and struckout 78 in 56 innings. Yokohama's famed "Machine Gun Offensive" included batting champion Takanori Suzuki, Bobby Rose, and Takuro Ishii. Hideki Matsui of the Giants captured both the Central League HR and RBI titles.

In the Pacific League, the Seibu Lions won a close race by 3.5 games. Four other teams finished within 5 games of the Lions. The Lions were once again led by speedster Kazuo Matsui (often called Little Matsui). Ichiro won his fifth consecutive batting title and Nigel Wilson of the Fighters led the league in both homeruns and RBI.

The BayStars won the Japan Series four games to two. Sasaki wasn't much of a factor, saving only one game. Instead, hitting dominated the series which was highlighted by the BayStars 17 to 5 win in game 5.

The 1998 Japanese season for APBA was created by Bill Stevens and is available for downloading below. Bill has also added the data disk for the 1998 Major League Tour of Japan.

DOWNLOAD the 1998 SEASON HERE

Back to Main Page

RobsJapaneseCards.com

The home for English-speaking collectors of Japanese baseball cards