Japanese Baseball League
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Further information: Nippon Professional Baseball
The Japanese Baseball League (日本野球連盟, Nihon Yakyū Renmei) was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball.
Quick Facts Formerly, Sport ...
Formerly | Japan Occupational Baseball League |
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Sport | Baseball |
Founded | February 5, 1936 (1936-02-05) |
First season | September 1936 (1936-09) |
Ceased | November 26, 1949 (1949-11-26) (reorganized as Nippon Professional Baseball) |
President | Jiro Morioka |
No. of teams | 11 (overall); 8 at time of reorganization as NPB |
Country | Japan |
Last champion(s) | Tokyo Kyojin / Yomiuri Giants |
Most titles | Tokyo Kyojin / Yomiuri Giants (9 titles) |
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The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league championships, including six in a row from 1938 to 1943, when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army.[1]
Standout players from the Japanese Baseball League era included Haruyasu Nakajima, Tetsuharu Kawakami, and Kazuto Tsuruoka; pitchers Hideo Fujimoto, Eiji Sawamura, Victor Starffin, and Tadashi Wakabayashi; and two-way players Fumio Fujimura, Shosei Go, Masaru Kageura, and Jiro Noguchi.