Great Moments in Nippon Professional Baseball History

There are many to mention, but as far as the Japan Series, last year's was actually the best in many years. The Lions came back from 3-2 down to beat the heavily-favored Giants in their home Tokyo Dome. Home-field advantage doesn't mean as much in Japan as MLB, but it was still an exciting comeback. I'm not saying it was the best Series of all time, but there have been several lackluster ones in recent years, so it's the best I've see in my time in Japan.

The first two episodes that come to mind are Enatsu's 21 Pitches [Japanese Wikipedia] and the Emporer's Game [Japanese Wikipedia].

October 19, 1988 [Japanese Wikipedia] is also etched into the memory of NPB fans as Kintetsu needed to win both games of the doubleheader against Lotte that day to take the pennant away from Seibu, but fell just short by tying the second game 4-4 (first game ended 5-4 with the winning run being scored on the top of 9th).

It's not a "moment" but people often also refer to the Giants winning 9 Japan Series in a row from 1965 to 1973 as the "V9 Era."

Then there's of course Sadaharu Oh surpassing Hank Aaron's world home run record by hitting #756 on September 3, 1977.

This isn't strictly NPB, but there's Eiji Sawamura (name of Japan's Cy Young Award), who:

On November 20, 1934, the 17-year-old Sawamura faced a team of visiting all-star players from Major League Baseball, including Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Charlie Gehringer. Entering the game in the fourth inning, the high school pitcher struck out nine batters and held the Americans to a single run over five innings pitched; a home run by Gehrig in the seventh that would saddle Sawamura with the loss. However, he did manage to strike out Gehringer, Ruth, Gehrig, and Foxx in succession. Connie Mack, who was managing the American team, was so impressed by Sawamura's performance that he tried to sign him to a Major League contract; Sawamura refused to go, citing a reluctance to leave home. [Wikipedia (English)]

Though, how seriously the major leaguers took this Japanese tour is questionable, this is often talked about proudly by NPB fans.

Among many others, of course.

Kazuhisa Inao's performance in the 1958 Nippon Series - after the Lions were down 3 games to none, Inao won each of the remaining four games to lead the Lions to the championship. His home run in Game 5 was the game winner. He actually appeared in and got the decision in six of the seven games of the Series.

Great question by the way. I look forward to everyone's responses.

One near-greatest moment would have to be the final game of the 2007 Japan Series. The starter for the Dragons had a perfect game through 8, but then was taken out. The team still got a perfect game and their first title in over 50 years, but I think most of us wanted to see him pitch the 9th. A no-hitter or perfect game hasn't been pitched in the World Series in decades in MLB. Has it been done in Japan?

If we are talking Nippon Series, I being a BayStars fan would vote the 6th game of the 1998 Nippon Series. There is no label or name for it, but the controversial tag between first and second that was called safe comes to mind (IMO, yes, Haru did dodge the tag). Then Komada's clutch hit and that fearful 9th ... whew!

But one game really comes to mind and I am fuzzy on the details so maybe somebody can help me out. It was the Kintetsu Buffaloes' clincher in 2001 (or was it 2000?): Kitagawa's gyakuten sayonara manrui home run in the ninth (wasn't it with 2 outs?) that put Kintetsu in the NS. Absolutely awesome and probably totally forgotten. They ended up winning by one run. Also wasn't it the second to the last game of the season? It is too bad they could not recreate that magic in the NS though. They got wiped by Yakult in 5.

Shigeo Nagashima's [Wikipedia] game-winning home run in the only game attended by the emperor is forever etched in the memory of old generation NPB fans, even though Sadaharu Oh was the far superior player. Nagashima was Jeter back in his day, I suppose.

I see more similarities with Yogi Berra.

Also, college baseball was way more popular back then and Nagashima was already a star in college. In contrast to MLB, Japanese fans have always had the advantage of being able to follow players when they were amateurs.

- As a Kintetsu Buffaloes fan for too many years to count, that ninth inning is burned into my mind pretty good.

Kitagawa's home run came with nobody out, actually.

With Masanobu Ohkubo pitching for Orix, there was a leadoff single to left by Yuji Yoshioka, then a double to right by Kenshi Kawaguchi to put runners at second and third, then a walk to Daisuke Masuda to load the bases.

Hirotoshi Kitagawa's grand slammer came on a 1 ball, 2 strike count.

It was a bit surprising to me that Ohkubu stayed in to pitch throughout the entire rally and eventual grand slam, but he was the prime closer (such as it was) for Orix that season, and Ohgi's bullpen was tired going in to that game.