Shigeo Nagashima wasn’t just one of the best players in Japanese baseball history. He’s also the one people associate from baseball’s Golden Age, with Japan’s post-war rise and the Showa Era. I wrote about the night he hit a home run in front of the Emperor, and everything that came after.

The Chunichi Dragons are playing like it’s 1980, which is not great. And in Tokyo, Yakult’s new manager hasn’t bunted twice all season and his closer just handed a record-setting ball to a rookie because “he is special, so.” Week 4 in NPB is in the books.

Everybody knows of Godzilla and the World Series MVP with the Yankees. It all started when he was intentionally walked 5 times in a row in high school and how he decided to become the hitter opposing teams had no choice but to fear.

The Nippon-Ham Fighters are breaking records, a strikeout record was tied in the Central League, and the Chiba Lotte Marines fall below .500 for the first time since the franchise began play in 1950. Catch up on last week in the Japanese baseball.

He overwhelmed Japanese baseball with his form, crossed the Pacific when almost nobody thought a Japanese star should, and changed the sport forever. Before Ohtani, before Ichiro, there was Hideo Nomo.

It’s a beautiful and warm sunny day here in Tokyo, Kana and I have a yakiniku date this evening, the Marines came from behind to win last night, and I’m working on my next essay: about the great pioneer, Hideo Nomo. Happy Saturday.

The first full week of baseball in Japan is in the books! My weekly recap on the happenings in NPB is below. Last week brought a no-hitter, lots of home runs, and one of the worst endings to a game I've witnessed live.

Another beautiful day for baseball.

Hiromitsu Ochiai said spirit and effort were words he absolutely could not stand. He said he played baseball only for the money. He said ten swings was all he needed before a game. He also won the Triple Crown three times. No one else in Japanese baseball history has done it more than twice.

Opening Weekend in Japan is over and we already saw a near-perfect game, two rookies making history, and a lot of home runs.

My annual NPB Opening Day post using an idea from @nightowlcardz.bsky.social japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/03/play...

He wasn't the best player of his generation but Tsuyoshi Shinjo understood something simple: baseball is for the fans. That mentality helped make him one of the most popular and unforgettable players Japanese baseball has ever produced.

A perfect day for baseball.

Rookie Kaito Mouri pitched 5 scoreless innings,　Kou Matsukawa (who caught Roki Sasaki’s perfect game) drive in two runs, Gregory Polanco hit a solo home run for insurance, and the Chiba Lotte Marines won on Opening Day for the second year in a row as Saburo picks up his first win as a manager.

My 2026 NPB Predictions Central League: 1. Hanshin 2. DeNA 3. Yomiuri 4. Chunichi 5. Hiroshima 6. Yakult Pacific League: 1. SoftBank 2. Nippon-Ham 3. Orix 4. Lotte 5. Seibu 6. Rakuten

Here's a little primer about each of the teams in Nippon Professional Baseball that I did with Trevor Raichura. If you've had a hard time following a team to root for, this is for you.

Final spring training standings for NPB. The Giants and the Fighters finish with the highest winning percentages. My poor Marines finish at the bottom. Hopefully not a sign of things to come...

And they did it. NPB announced changes to its postseason format yesterday. If the first-place team wins the pennant by 10 or more games, they get two automatics wins in the second round of the playoffs instead of one. And if a sub-.500 team qualifies, the pennant winner also gets two ghost wins.

Card Of The Week - the other two offensive stars (besides Ohtani) in Samurai Japan's loss last night japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/03/card...

Before he was Dice-K, he was a teenage Koshien monster, and the summer of 1998 remains one of those stretches where baseball starts to feel a bit supernatural. He threw 250 pitches in one game and somehow that was only the beginning. My latest is on Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Monster of the Heisei Era.

Card Of The Week - Alfredo Despaigne is playing in his fifth WBC and Masataka Yoshida homered in front of the Emperor, causing @gabelerman.bsky.social to ask if he was the first Japanese player to do it since Nagashima in 1959 japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/03/card...

Time for some baseball.

Randy Bass in Japan: .389 for a whole season 202 home runs Two Triple Crowns One championship And a chant from Hanshin fans that went: God. Buddha. Bass.

Guess I'm going to the WBC after all, thanks to one generous reader.

Your mention of the Swallows doing training camp in Yuma makes me want to share this card

Atsuya Furuta believed catching wasn't about toughness. It was about understanding people. He won batting titles. He guided a dynasty. He led a strike to preserve Japanese baseball. And he did it all wearing glasses.

This is the longest piece I’ve written for this newsletter and maybe the strangest story in Japanese baseball history. October 19, 1988: a pennant race decided by the clock. Yes, a clock.

Saturday means sushi. Yeah, that's salmon with pesto and mozzarella. It was delicious.

Draft controversy. Suspension. Injury. Reinvention. An MLB debut at 39. When his body changed, he adapted. Few careers in Japanese baseball were stranger or more thoughtful than Masumi Kuwata’s.

It's time to ruin your sleep schedule again: the #PacificLeague Midnight Matinee is back for a 5th season. Sunday April 5 Marines vs Hawks Sunday April 26 Eagles vs Lions Sunday May 24 Lions vs Buffaloes All 12am EDT starts; tune in at youtube.com/@pacificleag... (all games subject to change)

Masayuki Kakefu wasn’t a phenom or a top prospect. He was a tryout player drafted in the sixth-round who became the face of the Hanshin Tigers and one of the most beloved players in Japanese baseball history.

Card Of The Week - there are four members of the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame who played in NPB japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/02/card...

Kazuhiro Kiyohara hit over 500 home runs, was one of the greatest sluggers in Japanese baseball history, and one of the hardest to understand. This is the story of the Uncrowned King.

We rang in the New Year with ice cream, fell asleep early, and drove through a snowstorm to go shopping. My latest is a photo post from our trip to snow country in northern Japan.

Card Of The Week - Takashi Ogino is headed for the Czech Republic japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/01/card...

I turned 38 this week and celebrated by writing about strange things that happened in Japanese baseball. Phantom home runs. No-hitters with runs allowed. A game-ending fake fall. 13 weird moments from the 2025 NPB season:

There’s a difference between being a star and being a successor. Tatsunori Hara was asked to be the latter from the moment he arrived. I wrote about what that did to him. #NPB #baseball

With the news that Takashi Ogino is signing with Draci Brno—the powerhouse of Czech baseball—this feels like a good time to revisit the day I met him at his potato farm.

I wrote a long piece about Katsuya Nomura—the catcher with more home runs, games, and hits than anyone who ever played the position. He didn’t think of himself as talented. He thought of himself as observant. Japan's Favorite Players, No. 15.

Starting today, you can also find some of my pieces on the SABR Asian Baseball Research blog. Incredibly honored to be part of it.

My first paid-subscribers-only essay is live. It’s about the Blank Day—when Japanese baseball bent its rules to the breaking point over one pitcher.

I’ve been working on a long essay about the Blank Day, the most chaotic day in Japanese baseball history. It's a companion piece to my Suguru Egawa profile. It goes live tomorrow as my first paid-subscriber-only post. thomasloveseagull.substack.com/p/the-blank-...

Suguru Egawa was Japan’s most dominant pitcher—and its most polarizing. Branded a villain for managing his body, ignoring unwritten rules, and refusing to perform suffering on demand, he may have been the first modern athlete in NPB history. Japan’s Favorite Players, No. 16.

I wrote a long season recap of NPB in 2025. Hanshin was real. SoftBank was inevitable. Awards, MLB departures (Murakami, Imai, Okamoto), and a personal goodbye to Takashi Ogino at the end. ⚾🇯🇵 thomasloveseagull.substack.com/p/nothing-fe...

My first post of the new year is about the most underrated skill in baseball: showing up. Takashi Toritani built a historic career by being there, every day, for a very long time.

Nothing like snow in Tokyo.

Happy New Year from Japan!

2025 was quite the year. I started a new job, celebrated one year of marriage, and began writing about baseball and life in Japan. Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to 2026! thomasloveseagull.substack.com/p/looking-ba...

I moved to Japan exactly 5 years ago 🎉 ちょうど5年前に日本に引っ越してきた🥳

Merry Christmas! Here's my latest about Japan's favorite retired ballplayers. Next up, former Expos star Warren Cromartie. He came close to hitting .400 but refused to sit out. thomasloveseagull.substack.com/p/japans-fav...