2009 in Japanese Baseball

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(Redirected from 2009 Pacific League)

2009 in baseball
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2009 in Japanese baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball[edit]

The 2009 Japanese baseball season saw the Yomiuri Giants win their record 21st Japan Series title. The league saw illness play a large role as swine flu swept several teams in August, affecting the standings.

Alex Ramirez became the first player to have 150+ hits for eight straight seasons. Among those to retire was all-time doubles leader Kazuyoshi Tatsunami.

Standings[edit]

Bold indicates league champion; Italics indicate Nippon Series winner; * indicates playoff team

Central League[edit]

Team G W L T WPCT GB RS RA AVG OBP SLG ERA Manager(s)
Yomiuri Giants* 144 89 46 9 .659 -- 650 493 .275 .329 .437 2.94 Tatsunori Hara
Chunichi Dragons* 144 81 62 1 .566 12.0 605 508 .258 .324 .395 3.17 Hiromitsu Ochiai
Tokyo Yakult Swallows* 144 71 72 1 .497 22.0 548 606 .259 .320 .382 3.97 Shigeru Takada
Hanshin Tigers 144 67 73 4 .479 24.5 548 534 .255 .317 .376 3.28 Akinobu Mayumi
Hiroshima Toyo Carp 144 65 75 4 .464 26.5 528 575 .245 .307 .364 3.59 Marty Brown
Yokohama BayStars 144 51 93 0 .354 42.5 497 685 .239 .296 .370 4.36 Akihiko Oya/Tomio Tashiro

Pacific League[edit]

Team G W L T WPCT GB RS RA AVG OBP SLG ERA Manager(s)
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters* 144 82 60 2 .577 -- 689 550 .278 .343 .417 3.65 Masataka Nashida
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles* 144 77 66 1 .538 5.5 598 609 .267 .336 .391 4.01 Katsuya Nomura
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks* 144 74 65 5 .532 6.5 600 591 .263 .329 .405 3.69 Koji Akiyama
Saitama Seibu Lions 144 70 70 4 .500 11.0 664 627 .261 .328 .422 4.01 Hisanobu Watanabe
Chiba Lotte Marines 144 62 77 5 .446 18.5 620 639 .256 .333 .399 4.23 Bobby Valentine
Orix Buffaloes 144 56 86 2 .394 26.0 585 715 .274 .335 .403 4.58 Daijiro Oishi

Leaders[edit]

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting[edit]

Statistic Central League Pacific League
Leader Team Number Leader Team Number
Batting Average Alex Ramirez Yomiuri Giants .322 Teppei Tsuchiya Rakuten Golden Eagles .327
Runs Hayato Sakamoto
Norichika Aoki
Tony Blanco
Yomiuri Giants
Yakult Swallows
Chunichi Dragons
87 Hiroyuki Nakajima Seibu Lions 100
Hits Alex Ramirez Yomiuri Giants 186 Hiroyuki Nakajima Seibu Lions 100
Doubles Masahiko Morino Chunichi Dragons 42 Yoshio Itoi Nippon Ham Fighters 40
Triples Akihiro Higashide Hiroshima Carp 8 Teppei Tsuchiya Rakuten Golden Eagles 13
Home Runs Tony Blanco Chunichi Dragons 39 Takeya Nakamura Seibu Lions 48
Runs Batted In Tony Blanco Chunichi Dragons 110 Takeya Nakamura Seibu Lions 122
Stolen Bases Kazuki Fukuchi Yakult Swallows 42 Yasuyuki Kataoka Seibu Lions 51
Walks Tomoaki Kanemoto Hanshin Tigers 88 Kensuke Tanaka Nippon Ham Fighters 79

Pitching[edit]

Statistic Central League Pacific League
Leader Team Number Leader Team Number
ERA Wei-Yin Chen Chunichi Dragons 1.54 Yu Darvish Nippon Ham Fighters 1.73
Wins Kazuki Yoshimi
Shohei Tateyama
Chunichi Dragons
Yakult Swallows
16 Hideaki Wakui Seibu Lions 16
Winning Percentage Dicky González Yomiuri Giants .882 Yu Darvish
Toshiya Sugiuchi
Nippon Ham Fighters
Softbank Hawks
.750
Losses Ryan Glynn Yokohama BayStars 15 Shunsuke Watanabe
Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Chiba Lotte Marines
Chiba Lotte Marines
13
Saves Hitoki Iwase Chunichi Dragons 41 Hisashi Takeda Nippon Ham Fighters 34
Innings Pitched Masanori Ishikawa Yakult Swallows 198 1/3 Hideaki Wakui Seibu Lions 211 2/3
Appearances Scott Atchison Hanshin Tigers 75 Tadashi Settsu Softbank Hawks 70
Hits Allowed Masanori Ishikawa Yakult Swallows 203 Hisashi Iwakuma Rakuten Golden Eagles 179
Home Runs Allowed Daisuke Miura Yokohama BayStars 28 Takayuki Kishi Seibu Lions 25
Strikeouts Colby Lewis Hiroshima Carp 186 Toshiya Sugiuchi Softbank Hawks 204
Base-on-Balls Kan Otake Hiroshima Carp 68 Kazuki Kondo Orix Buffaloes 80

All-Star Game[edit]

(Needs information)

Postseason[edit]

(Needs information)

Award Winners[edit]

The winner of the 2009 Sawamura Award was Hideaki Wakui of the Seibu Lions. He had a 16-6 win-loss record, 199 strikeouts, and a 2.30 ERA in 211.7 innings, leading the Pacific League in wins and finishing second in ERA and strikeouts.

Award League Player Team Position AB R H HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG W - L SV IP HA HRA BB SO ERA
Most Valuable Player CL Alex Ramirez Yomiuri Giants OF 577 66 186 31 103 4 .322 .347 .544 Did not pitch
PL Yu Darvish Nippon Ham Fighters P 5 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 15 - 5 0 182 118 9 45 167 1.73
Rookie of the Year CL Tetsuya Matsumoto Yomiuri Giants OF 372 55 109 0 15 16 .293 .338 .328 Did not pitch
PL Tadashi Settsu Softbank Hawks P 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 5 - 2 0 79.7 51 3 35 102 1.47

Best Nine[edit]

The following players were part of the 2009 Best Nine teams.

Central League Position Pacific League
Player Team Player Team
Dicky Gonzalez Yomiuri Giants P Yu Darvish Nippon Ham Fighters
Shinnosuke Abe Yomiuri Giants C Hidenori Tanoue Softbank Hawks
Tony Blanco Chunichi Dragons 1B Shinji Takahashi Nippon Ham Fighters
Akihiro Higashide Hiroshima Carp 2B Kensuke Tanaka Nippon Ham Fighters
Michihiro Ogasawara Yomiuri Giants 3B Takeya Nakamura Seibu Lions
Hayato Sakamoto Yomiuri Giants SS Hiroyuki Nakajima Seibu Lions
Alex Ramirez Yomiuri Giants OF Atsunori Inaba Nippon Ham Fighters
Norichika Aoki Yakult Swallows Yoshio Itoi Nippon Ham Fighters
Seiichi Uchikawa Yokohama BayStars Teppei Tsuchiya Rakuten Golden Eagles
DH Takeshi Yamasaki Rakuten Golden Eagles

Gold Gloves[edit]

The following players were the recipients of the Gold Glove Award in 2009.

Central League Position Pacific League
Player Team Player Team
Dicky Gonzalez Yomiuri Giants P Hideaki Wakui Seibu Lions
Motonobu Tanishige Chunichi Dragons C Shinya Tsuruoka Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Kenta Kurihara Hiroshima Carp 1B Shinji Takahashi Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Masahiro Araki Chunichi Dragons 2B Kensuke Tanaka Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Shinya Miyamoto Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3B Eiichi Koyano Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Hirokazu Ibata Chunichi Dragons SS Makoto Kaneko Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Yoshiyuki Kamei Yomiuri Giants OF Atsunori Inaba Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Norichika Aoki Yakult Swallows Yoshio Itoi Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Tetsuya Matsumoto Yomiuri Giants Tomotaka Sakaguchi Orix Buffaloes

High School Baseball[edit]

The 91th National High School Baseball Championship featured a total of 4,041 schools competing for 49 spots in the finals at Koshien. In the championship game, Chukyo University Senior High School (Aichi) defeated Nihon Bunri High School (Niigata) by a score of 10 - 9.

The 81th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament featured 32 schools competing in the tournament at Koshien. In the championship game, Seiho High School (Nagasaki) defeated Hanamaki Higashi High School (Iwate) by a score of 1 - 0.


University Baseball[edit]

All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series[edit]

The 2009 All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series featured 27 schools competing in the tournament at Meiji-Jingu Stadium. In the championship game Hosei University defeated Fuji University by a score of 5 - 1.

Meiji Jingu Baseball Convention[edit]

In the Meiji Jingu Baseball Convention Rissho University defeated Jobu University by a score of 2 - 0.

Tokyo Big6 Baseball League[edit]

Season First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
Spring Hosei Waseda Meiji Keio Rikkio Tokyo
Fall Meiji Keio Hosei Waseda Rikkio Tokyo

Kansai 6 University Baseball League[edit]

Season First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
Spring Kindai Doshisha Ritsumeikan Kwansei Gakuin Kansai Kyoto
Fall Ritsumeikan Doshisha Kindai Kwansei Gakuin Kyoto Kansai

International Baseball[edit]

Japan finished 1st at the 2009 World Baseball Classic and 2009 Asian Championship. They were 10th at the 2009 Baseball World Cup.

Japanese Players in Other Countries[edit]

Italics indicate a Major League appearance

Hall of Fame[edit]

The following people were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame:

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