Baseball

NEW YORK – Major League Baseball is considering expanding the playoffs to nearly half the 30 teams and allowing higher-seeded wild-card teams to choose opponents. The playoffs would grow from 10 clubs to 14 under the plan, first reported Monday by the New York Post. There would be four wild […]

TAMPA, FLORIDA – Masahiro Tanaka feels cheated by the Houston Astros. Tanaka’s Yankees lost to the Astros in a seven-game American League Championship Series in 2017. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred found the Astros broke rules against electronic sign stealing in 2017, including during the postseason. “Yeah, I do feel that […]

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and former Nankai Hawks manager Katsuya Nomura has died, a source close to the matter said Tuesday. He was 84. Nomura was one of NPB’s greatest slugging catchers, amassing 657 home runs, 1,988 RBIs and 2,901 hits in 3,017 games over 26 seasons spent […]

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and former Nankai Hawks manager Katsuya Nomura has died, a source close to the matter said Tuesday. He was 84. Nomura was one of NPB’s greatest slugging catchers, amassing 657 home runs, 1,988 RBIs and 2,901 hits in 3,017 games over 26 seasons spent […]

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers are still planning to send Kenta Maeda to the Minnesota Twins, MLB.com said Sunday, after a reported three-team trade involving the Boston Red Sox fell apart. The three-team blockbuster deal reported last week has been replaced by a pair of two-team trades, according […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Hunter Pence could hardly hide his enthusiasm about returning to San Francisco. “I have GIANT news… I’m back!” he posted on Twitter along with a photo of him walking across the street to the ballpark. A fan favorite while playing parts of seven seasons for the Giants, […]

We should all have people in our lives as loyal to us as some fans and media around the Hanshin Tigers are to the memory of Randy Bass. Much like NBA legend Michael Jordan never missing a game-winning shot, Bass never hit a ball that failed to circumnavigate the globe […]

The Yokohama BayStars on Saturday became the second NPB team to halt mass balloon launches at their games during spring training due to concerns about the current coronavirus outbreak. The BayStars banned the mass balloon launches, a custom fans of many of NPB’s 12 clubs participate in during the seventh […]

Former major league star Ichiro Suzuki moved a step closer to achieving his goal of bridging the gap between Japan’s professional and amateur baseball worlds on Friday. He was among 94 former professional baseball players and coaches who became qualified to train amateur ballplayers, according to the Japan Student Baseball […]

GINOZA, OKINAWA PREF. – The traditional jet balloon launches by fans of the Hanshin Tigers may fall victim to the current coronavirus outbreak after the team asked fans on Friday to refrain from the practice. For decades, fans of the popular NPB club have inflated the long cylindrical balloons prior […]