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All-Time Great Japanese Teams: Volume I
 
 

For this data disk, I have created twelve of the top older Japanese teams.  Most of the teams date to the 1950s and 1960s, but I have thrown in a few later teams for fun.  The teams were chosen based on their overall performance, inclusion of star players, and availability of stats.  A future disk will emphasize teams from the 1970s and 1980s.  This data disk also provides the league champions from 1950, 1951, and 1964, so those interested can replay the Japan Series from those years.  Each team on this disk was created with the league's statistics from the appropriate year.  For example, the 1951 Giants' ratings are created for the 1951 Central League season.  I have purposely not "wizardized" the ratings against the other teams on this disk.  One final note, the 1937 Giants team is a composite of both the 1937 Spring and Fall seasons.  Combining the two half seasons was necessary to give players enough games to complete with the other teams in a AIM league.

Have Fun!
Rob
 
 

The All-Time Great Teams
(Links will take you to a biography of the underlined player)

1937 Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojin
Organized in 1934, the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, or Kyojin, were the first professional team in Japan.  In the Spring of 1937, the Kyojin won the first regular season of Japanese Professional Baseball (in 1936, the first year of the Japanese Professional  Baseball League, the teams played a series of tournaments).  The 1937 Kyojin was dominated by the pitching greats Eiji Sawamura and Victor Starffin.  The team posted a minuscule 1.53 ERA.  The team's offensive only hit .242 in this "dead ball" season, but was loaded with future HOFers.  Besides Sawamura and Starffin, the team's stars included: Haruyasu Nakajima, Shigeru Mizuhara, Osamu Mihara, Toshio Shiraishi, and Osamu Tsutsui.

1950 Shochiku Robins
The Robins won the Central League by 9 games with a powerful offensive that hit .287 and pounded out 179 homers.  The offensive was led by HOFer Makato Kozuru, whose .355 Ave, 51 HR, 161 RBI, 143 R, and 28 SB probably constitute the best season in the history of Japanese baseball.  Other stars included HOFer Yoshiyuki Iwamoto and second baseman Jiro Kanayama.  They were backed by ace pitchers Nobuo Oshima (20-4, 2.03 ERA), Koichi Eda (23-8, 2.83 ERA) and HOFer Shigeo Sanada (39-12, 3.05 ERA).

1950 Mainichi Orions
The winners of the first Japan Series, the Orions boasted a powerful offensive with a .286 team average and 124 Homers.  The 1950 Orions included Kaoru Betto (.335, 43 HR, 34 SB), one of the best Japanese players of all-time, all-star catcher Takeshi Doigaki (.322, 15 HR, 16 SB), and HOFers Shosei Go (.324, 29 SB), Atsushi Aramaki (26-8, 2.06 ERA), and Tadashi Wakabayashi.

1951 Tokyo Yomiuri Giants
The 1951 Giants was one of the most dominating teams in the history of Japanese ball.  They won .73 percent of their games and finished 18 games in front of the second-place Dragons.   The Giants' offensive batted .291, nearly 20 points higher than the next best team, while their pitchers held the opposition to only 2.62 runs per game- over a half run better than the league's next best staff.  Star players included Hawaian-born rookie and future HOFer Wally Yonamine; HOFer Tetsuharu Kawakami, known as the "God of Batting;" HOF second baseman Shigeru Chiba, HOF pitchers Takehiro Bessho, Hideo Fujimoto, and Hiroshi Nakao.

1951 Nankai Hawks
The 1951 Hawks' .750 winning percentage is the highest in the history of Japanese baseball.  This strong team had a .276 team batting average and a 2.40 team ERA.  The Hawks were built around speed and contact hitting.  Standouts included: Kazuo Kageyama (.315 42 SB); HOFer Kazuto Yamamoto (.311 19 SB);  Chusuke Kizuka (.309, 55 SB); and HOFer Tokuji Iida (.296, 19SB).

1957 Nishitetsu Lions
The 1957 Lions were probably the best of a string of great Nishitetsu teams that dominated the mid to late 1950s.  The 57 club was led by the pitching of Kazuhisa Inao (35-6, 1.37 ERA, 288 K) and Hisafumi Kawamura (17-8, 2.24 ERA).  Inao, one of the all-time great Japanese pitchers, won nine Japan Series games during a three year stretch (1956-1958).  The 1957 Lions boasted a 2.15 team ERA.  The Lions' offense featured HOF slugger Futoshi Nakanishi (.317, 24 HR, 100 RBI), superstar Hiroshi Oshita (.306), and hard-hitting shortstop Yasumitsu Toyoda (.287, 18 HR).

1964 Hanshin Tigers
Led by the strong pitching of Gene Bacque (29-9, 1.89 ERA) Minoru Murayama (22-18, 3.32 ERA), and Midori Ishikawa (10-3, 2.90 ERA), the Tigers captured the Central League crown for the second time in three years.  The staff's overall ERA was 2.75, but the team only hit .240.  Offensive standouts included HOF shortstop Yoshio Yoshida (.318, 23 SB), and Meikyukai member Kazuhiro Yamauchi (.257 31 HR).

1964 Nankai Hawks
From 1964 to 1966, the Nankai Hawks won three straight Pacific League championships.  The 1964 team was, perhaps, the best.  The offense was led by batting champ and HOFer Yoshinori Hirose (.366, 12 HR, 72 SB), HOF catcher Katsuya Nomura (.261, 41 HR), and former Yankee Kent Hadley (.263 29 HR).  Joe Stanka, the Hawks top pitcher, won the league's MVP award with a 26-7 record and a 2.15 ERA.  Meikyukai member Mutsuo Minagawa (7-5, 2.91 ERA) and HOFer Tadashi Sugiura (20-15, 3.02 ERA) rounded out an outstanding pitching staff.

1967 Tokyo Yomiuri Giants
Perhaps, the best of the famous V-9 Giants (winners of the Japan Series nine consecutive times), the 1967 Giants cruised to the Central League title.  They led the league in team batting average, homeruns, ERA, and fielding.   Standout included Sadaharu Oh (.326, 47 HR); Shigeo Nagashima (.283, 19 HR), Isao Shibata (.287, 70 SB), Tsuneo Horiuchi (12-2, 2.17 ERA), Masaichi Kaneda (16-5, 2.28 ERA), and Kunio Jonouchi (17-8, 2.57 ERA).

1977 Tokyo Yomiuri Giants
After finishing last in 1975 for the first time in their history, the Giants signed superstar Isao Harimoto in 1976 and responded by winning the pennant.  The 1977 Giants were even stronger.  Harimoto hit .348 with 24 homers, Sadaharu Oh batted .324 with 50 homeruns, and Masahiro Yanagida hit .340 with 21 homers.  As a team, the 77 Giants hit .280 with 181 homeruns.  They also led the league with a 3.48 team ERA - a half run better than the next best pitching staff.  Hisao Niura led the league with a 2.32 ERA, while Shigeru Kobayashi won the Sawamura Award with a 18-8 record and a 2.92 ERA.

1978 Hankyu Braves
From 1967 until 1978, the Hankyu Braves dominated the Pacific League.  This dynasty's best season came in 1978 when they won the league championship by winning .678 percent of their games.  The 78 Braves had both a strong offensive (.283 team batting average and 176 homers) and great pitching (a 3.13 ERA in a hitters' year).  The team's stars included MVP pitcher Hisashi Yamada (18-4, 2.66 ERA); Japan's all-time stolen base leader, Yutaka Fukumoto (.325, 70 SB); Bobby Marcano (.317, 27 HR); Koji Minoda (.307, 61 SB); Kinji Shimatani (.298, 22 HR); and former San Francisco Giant, Bernie Williams (.295, 18 HR).

1985 Hanshin Tigers
1985 was the year Tigers fans had waited for.  The Tigers ended a twenty-one year drought by winning the Central League pennant and their first ever Japan Series.  The 85 Tigers had a powerful offense that overwhelmed opponents.  Led by triple crown winner Randy Bass (.350, 54 HR, 134 RBI), the Tigers had a .285 team batting average and 219 HR (59 more than the second best team).  Four starters hit over .300 with 30 homeruns or more (Bass; Akinobu Okada [.342, 35 HR]; Akinobu Mayumi [.322, 34 HR]; and Masayuki Kakefu [.300, 40 HR]).  The Tigers' pitching was only average.  Relief pitcher Kiyooki Nakanishi was the most effective with 11 wins, a 2.67 ERA, and 19 saves.
 
 
 
 
 

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