Jump to content

Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game is an annual baseball series of All-Star Games (in most years, two games are played, but three such games can and have been played as well) between players from the Central League and the Pacific League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, that takes place one week earlier).

History

[edit]

The first NPB All-Star game was played in 1951.

For many years, mimicking the gaijin waku rule of the NPB,[1] each All-Star team was limited to two foreign players.[2]

Game results

[edit]
Date Winning League Score Overall Record Venue Host Team Attendance MVP Winning Pitcher Losing Pitcher
2004 (Game 1) Pacific 3–1 Pacific 1-0 Nagoya Dome Chunichi Dragons Daisuke Matsuzaka
2004 (Game 2) Pacific 2–1 Pacific 2-0 Nagano Olympic Stadium none Tsuyoshi Shinjo
2005 (Game 1) Central 6–5 Pacific 2-1 Seibu Dome Seibu Lions Tatsuhiko Kinjo
2005 (Game 2) Central 5–3 Tie 2-2 Koshien Stadium Hanshin Tigers Tomonori Maeda
2006 (Game 1) Central 3–1 Central 3-2 Meiji Jingu Stadium Yakult Swallows Norichika Aoki
2006 (Game 2) Central 7–4 Central 4-2 Sun Marine Stadium none Atsushi Fujimoto
2007 (Game 1) Central 4–0 Central 5-2 Tokyo Dome Yomiuri Giants Alex Ramírez
2007 (Game 2) Central 11–5 Central 6-2 Fullcast Stadium Rakuten Eagles Shinnosuke Abe
2008 (Game 1) Pacific 5–4 Central 6-3 Kyocera Dome Osaka Orix Buffaloes Takeshi Yamasaki
2008 (Game 2) Central 11–6 Central 7-3 Yokohama Stadium Yokohama BayStars Masahiro Araki
2009 (Game 1) Central 10–8 Central 8-3 Sapporo Dome Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 38,370 Norichika Aoki
2009 (Game 2) Pacific 7–4 Central 8-4 Mazda Stadium Hiroshima Toyo Carp Nobuhiko Matsunaka
2010 (Game 1) Central 4–1 Central 8-5 Yahoo Dome Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Shinnosuke Abe
2010 (Game 2) Tie 5–5 Central 8-5-1 Hard Off Eco Stadium none Yasuyuki Kataoka
2011 (Game 1) Central 9–4 Central 9-5-1 Nagoya Dome Chunichi Dragons Kazuhiro Hatakeyama
2011 (Game 2) Pacific 4–3 Central 9-6-1 QVC Marine Field Chiba Lotte Marines Takeya Nakamura
2011 (Game 3) Pacific 5–0 Central 9-7-1 Kleenex Stadium Rakuten Eagles Atsunori Inaba
2012 (Game 1) Central 4–1 Central 10-7-1 Kyocera Dome Osaka Orix Buffaloes Norihiro Nakamura
2012 (Game 2) Central 4–0 Central 11-7-1 Botchan Stadium none Kenta Maeda
2012 (Game 3) Pacific 6–2 Central 11-8-1 Iwate Prefectural Baseball Stadium none DaiKan Yoh
2013 (Game 1) Tie 1–1 Central 11-8-2 Sapporo Dome Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Hirokazu Sawamura
2013 (Game 2) Central 3–1 Central 12-8-2 Meiji Jingu Stadium Tokyo Yakult Swallows Takahiro Arai
2013 (Game 3) Pacific 3–1 Central 12-9-2 Iwaki Green Stadium none Seiichi Uchikawa
2014 (Game 1) Central 7–0 Central 13-9-2 Seibu Dome Saitama Seibu Lions Brad Eldred
2014 (Game 2) Pacific 12–6 Central 13-10-2 Koshien Stadium Hanshin Tigers Yuki Yanagita
2015 (Game 1) Central 8–6 Central 14-10-2 Tokyo Dome Yomiuri Giants Shintaro Fujinami
2015 (Game 2) Central 8–3 Central 15-10-2 Mazda Stadium Hiroshima Toyo Carp Tsubasa Aizawa
2016 (Game 1) Central 5–4 Central 16-10-2 Yahoo Dome Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh
2016 (Game 2) Tie 5–5 Central 16-10-3 Yokohama Stadium Yokohama DeNA BayStars Shohei Ohtani
2017 (Game 1) Pacific 6–2 Central 16-11-3 Nagoya Dome Chunichi Dragons Seiichi Uchikawa
2017 (Game 2) Pacific 3–1 Central 16-12-3 Zozo Marine Stadium Chiba Lotte Marines Alfredo Despaigne
2018 (Game 1) Pacific 7–6 Central 16-13-3 Kyocera Dome Osaka Orix Buffaloes Tomoya Mori
2018 (Game 2) Pacific 5–1 Central 16-14-3 Fujisakidai Prefectural Baseball Stadium none Sōsuke Genda
2019 (Game 1) Pacific 6–3 Central 16-15-3 Tokyo Dome Yomiuri Giants Tomoya Mori
2019 (Game 2) Central 11–3 Central 17-15-3 Koshien Stadium Hanshin Tigers Kōji Chikamoto
2020 Series canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 (Game 1) Central 5-4 Central 18-15-3 MetLife Dome Saitama Seibu Lions Ryosuke Kikuchi
2021 (Game 2) Pacific 4-3 Central 18-16-3 Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Hiroaki Shimauchi
2022 (Game 1)[3] Pacific 3-2 Central 18-17-3 Fukuoka PayPay Dome Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 35,534 people Kotaro Kiyomiya
2022 (Game 2)[4] Pacific 2-1 Tie 18-18-3 Matsuyama Central Park Baseball Stadium None 25,530 people Yuki Yanagita
2023 (Game 1) Pacific 8-1 Pacific 19-18-3 Nagoya Dome Chunichi Dragons Yuki Yanagita
2023 (Game 2) Pacific 6-1 Pacific 20-18-3 Mazda Stadium Hiroshima Toyo Carp Chusei Mannami

Hanshin Tigers player voting controversy

[edit]

The fan votes of the starters of the 2023 All Star Series revealed 9 of the 10 highest voted starters were Hanshin Tigers players. It was the third time in NPB players from the same team led the voting in all positions. [5] The controversy was garnered as some of the positions, such as catcher, which in question was Ryutaro Umeno, were voted in for the sole purpose of being voted in by fans, as he did not produce numbers good enough to be considered an All Star Game appearance, compared to that of a player like Takumi Ohshiro. Others, like Teruaki Sato at 3rd base, were good, but there had been players who were much more deserving to start, like Toshiro Miyazaki and Kazuma Okamoto.[6]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Foreign Player Restrictions?". Japanese Baseball.
  2. ^ Whiting, Robert. You Gotta Have Wa (Vintage Departures, 1989), p. 275.
  3. ^ "Kotaro Kiyomiya walk-off homer lifts PL in NPB All-Star Game 1". 27 July 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-07-27.
  4. ^ Author, No (28 July 2022). "Yuki Yanagita lifts Pacific League with home run in All-Star series finale". The Japan Times. {{cite news}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ TVBS. "日職/阪神虎人氣太狂 明星賽9位置全「霸榜」拿下最高票│TVBS新聞網". TVBS (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2023-10-30.
  6. ^ 自由時報電子報 (2023-06-20). "日職》明星賽一隊霸榜讓日媒直呼異常 挨批:粉絲程度就這樣了 - 自由體育". sports.ltn.com.tw. Retrieved 2023-10-30.