Just in (about several days ago), the Central League pennant winners, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, in a vigorous and most sportsman-like manner, cast the Pacific League Chunichi Dragons into most ignoble defeat in the Japan Series. After losing to the Dragons in Game 1, Nippon-Ham rallied back to win the next four games to capture the championship.
See the article here.
In many ways, the Nippon-Ham Fighters have been the New York Mets of Japanese baseball. Upon their founding in 1962, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, sharing the same stadium as the vaunted Yomiuri Giants, have had a strong tradition of ineptitude and horrid play, occasionally peaking into mediocrity on the off chance.
Having found their potentially lucrative market (Tokyo) to be more curse than blessing, since the Yomiuri Giants and Tokyo Yakult Swallows had far larger fan bases, Nippon-Ham, rather than settle for the dregs, moved the team to its current location in Sapporo, Hokkaido. This would be like the New York Mets finally deciding to move to Alaska in order to escape Yankee dominance. Anyway, in Hokkaido, Nippon-Ham, under the leadership of American Trey Hillman, has devastated the Central League with its swift-footed center-fielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo (a former backup player for the New York Mets), and power hitting right-fielder Atsunori Inaba, who hit .357 during the Japan Series and had a staggering 1 home run to win the Japan Series MVP award.
Congratulations Nippon-Ham!!! May you remain ever victorious for a thousand years!
N.B. Nippon-Ham is the corporation that owns the team called the Fighters. Unfortunately, English speakers have often called the team the Ham Fighters, invoking images of gelatinous gloops of meat wielding sword and shield, engaging in most deadly combat with each other. This, however, is not the case.
For more information, click here.
For background on Nippon-Ham's successful re-branding effort, click here.
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