AP and the

Let's quote from the article for a minute:

Hillman last week led the Nippon Ham Fighters to the Japan Series championship, their first title since 1962.

The AP mentioned first that the name was indeed the Nippon Ham Fighters, it was most likely just a way for the AP to avoid being repetitive and to save space. They did mention the full name of the Fighters before referring to them.

Well, I see the problem, ESPN basically made the same mistake as I did when I first started following NPB. For some bizarre reason I initially thought the team was named the NIPPON / HAM FIGHTERS instead of the NIPPON HAM / FIGHTERS. The mistake was not breaking it up in the right spot. It's like an article about the Saint Louis Cardinals which later referred to the team as the "Louis Cardinals."

I suppose I could get away with it initially, as I'm just some fan. The idea is that ESPN, being a media source, would have fact-checked that mistake away before the article saw print. I'm just happy to see I wasn't the only one to make that mistake. *grin*

- Stevie

Nippon Ham is the company. To avoid being repetitive, they should have just called them the Fighters. By the way, I'm a York Yankees fan.

Yeah, I don't really think it was a goof as much as it is a shortening of the name. It is a little weird though, but you've got to remember that even when it's shortened, it's going to sound odd to someone who doesn't follow Japanese baseball.

I remember John Miller, during the WBC broadcasts, when referencing a player from the Fighters, clarified that Nippon Ham was the company name, and Fighters the team name. He made sure to let the audience know that the team mascot was not a warrior charging into battle with cuts of ham as weaponry. I like that guy, he does his homework.

If they wanted to avoid being repetitive and save space, they could have perhaps used the proper name of just "Fighters," I think.

Yeah, I agree the AP could of used the name "Fighters" instead to also avoid being repetitive, but to be fair it wasn't the AP's goal to be misleading.

Also about ESPN changing the wording of the article, notice how AP stories on the MLB website say:

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Those AP articles that appear on MLB.com aren't changed by MLB. It's the same here, the original context of the article isn't changed on ESPN.com either.

Futhermore, in this case, you can tell the full name of the Fighters is the Nippon Ham Fighters or the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (your choice). They mentioned this before shortening it to just "Ham Fighters." Though as already mentioned, I think the AP should of just used the proper name "Fighters" to prevent confusion.

Reminds me of the time when I was wondering why my friends though "Blue Three" was so cool. It turned out to be "Bruce Lee" (ブルースリー), haha.

The early mascot for the Nippon Ham fighters was actually a can of ham. In one episode after a very long losing streak some fans rushed on the field and fought with the ham. Hence the name was born.

OK, I made this up. But I do admit being a fan of the Hamsters briefly back in the mid-90s based mostly on the goofy name for the team.

My suggestions for improvements:

• Nippon Ham ColdCuts
• Nippon Ham and Cheesers
• Nippon Ham it up (Shinjo specific)
• Nippon Ham and Eggers
• Nippon Ham-lets (too literary)
• Nippon Ham-mers (nice logo)
• Nippon Ham-iltons the III (sounds yuppy)