Yomiuri Giants On US TV!

You can thank the new Yomiuri Giants - New York Yankees relationship. Of course Giant fans will also get to see the Yankees on TV next year. They might even recognize a former Yomiuri player playing outfield for the Yankees.

As a big time Yankee fan here in New York, I am happy that we get to see a Japanese baseball game. I am very into the history of the game. I love the game, everything about it, from origins to records, to stats, I love it all.

Anyways, I don't know that much about Japanese baseball, I'm only 13 years of age. Does anybody know where I can learn about it? Like, for example, I have heard of the Tokyo Giants, but never the Yomiuri Giants. What, did they switch their name or something?

Well, back to the Giants on YES. It has been reported that the Yankees will send some $$$ to the Giants along with broadcasting a few Giants games, and in return they will receive Matsui (bare with me with the spelling).

When the Giants first started, they were known as The Greater Tokyo Baseball Club and embarked on a tour of the U.S. in 1934. However, as that name wasn't very memorable, former National League batting champ and San Francisco Seals manager Frank O'Doul convinced them to change it to Tokyo Giants. O'Doul was active in promoting the relationship between MLB and Japanese baseball and he was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame last year for his efforts.

The Giants are owned by the Yomiuri media concern, so they are also known as the Yomiuri Giants.

Btw, you can follow Japanese baseball on a daily basis
by reading the material I write at: http://www.BaseballGuru.com

For what it's worth, their official Japanese name is Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojin-gun ("The Tokyo Yomiuri Army of Giants").

Dude,

Forget the Giants band wagon. Go with the greatest fans in the world, HANSHIN TIGER FANS!

> According to my TiVO schedule, the YES Network will
> be televising a Giants/Baystars game from 8 to 10 AM
> EDT on Saturday, October 26.

- Thank you for letting us know! I'm watching it now. It almost seems like an afterthought after the Series news, but I'm very happy to see Pro Yakyu games being broadcast on TV. (We get very little Pro Yakyu news coverage here in New York.)

- Man, Hideki Matsui is scary! What a great season he had. Lookin' forward to seeing more games on TV.

- Simon

Does anyone know when another game comes on YES?

What about the MLB/NPB All Star Series? Any word if it will be broadcasted stateside?

Wouldn't the YES Network's contacts page (link at bottom) be a more appropriate place to ask these questions? It just seems to me that giving them positive feedback about broadcasting Japanese games and letting YES (ESPN, FOX, etc.) know you want more will help them plan future programming with Pro Yakyu fans in mind better than asking/writing here.

This is a great place to spread the word that Pro Yakyu is available in various regions. But I'm afraid that there isn't much we can do here to get more programming from mainstream media conglomerates. As customers of their services, your voices are what they'll listen to. And for the most part, they tend to weigh phone, fax, and snail-mail opinion greater than e-mail campaigns.

You have the power to change the world one channel at a time. Contact them.

I love how Giants officials say this has nothing to do with Matsui and the working agreement. I am sure Yankee and YES owner George Steinbrenner just woke up one day and decided his Yankee network needed Pro Yakyu games that just so happen to feature the Giants and Godzilla hitting home runs. Yeah right! Baka!

I understand that the Yomiuri Media Group owns the major Japanese newspaper, but do they own or control any TV stations or broadcasting rights? Could the deal with the Yankees YES network lead to a future deal where Yomiuri gets the rights to special Yankees coverage in Japan?

- I understand that the Yomiuri Media Group owns the major Japanese newspaper, but do they own or control any TV stations or broadcasting rights?

Yep. Yomiuri TV, which, considering its relationship with the Giants, provides absolutely shocking baseball coverage.

I won't bore you with too many complaints, but not only do they start their coverage an hour after the games start, their strict rules mean that they always end their broadcasts at about 9:20 in the evening - usually during the 9th inning!