Yomiuri Giants

Japan Series Titles: 22 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2012)

Titles in One-League Era 8 (1937 Spring, 1938 Fall, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1949)

Central League Pennants: 36 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2020)

Franchise Players Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima, Hideki Matsui, Masumi Kuwata, Victor Starffin, Eiji Sawamura, Wally Yonamine, Tetsuharu Kawakami, Takehiko Bessho, Hideo Fujimoto, Suguru Egawa, Warren Cromartie, Koji Uehara, Masaki Saito, Tsuneo Horiuchi, Shinnosuke Abe, Tomoyuki Sugano, Hayato Sakamoto

Current Manager: Tatsunori Hara

Stadium: Tokyo Dome

The Yomiuri Giants are Japan's answer to the New York Yankees, a dominant team throughout history which has ignited more passions (negative and positive) than any other club.

Formed originally in 1934 by Matsutaro Shoriki to promote his newspaper, the Giants have long benefited from being owned by a media company that televises its games and gives it extra coverage in the papers. The team (then known as The Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club, Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu) toured the US in 1935, beating minor-league and semipro teams in 93 of 102 games. In 1936 when Japan had its first professional baseball league form, the Tokyo Giants emerged as a force. They won the first pennant and 7 of the first 9. When Japan went to a 2-league format in 1950 they joined the Central League. They became even more dominant later, winning nine consecutive Japan Series from 1965 to 1973 behind the offensive prowess of Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima. During that period, the team refused to play foreigners, not changing their policy till Nagashima retired and they signed Davey Johnson to replace him. This was a far shift from past team behavior, as they had brought the first foreigners in after World War II, led by Wally Yonamine. Overall, they have won 30 of the first 56 Central League titles, despite failing to win one in the past 3 years.

Nippon Pro Baseball tried to cut the Giants' power by instituting an amateur draft in the '60s and other teams caught up - but free agency's establishment in 1993 (thanks to pressure from Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe) allowed the team to again rise to dominance. In the short period since, they have gobbled up the top stars of other teams - Hiromitsu Ochiai, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Akira Eto, Roberto Petagine, Eric Hillman, Domingo Martinez and Hiroki Kokubo are among the players picked up by Yomiuri in this period.

Managers

• 1934-1935: Daisuke Miyake
• 1935-1942: Sadayoshi Fujimoto
• 1943: Haruyasu Nakajima
• 1944-1946: Hideo Fujimoto
• 1946-1947: Haruyasu Nakajima
• 1947-1949: Osamu Mihara
• 1950-1960: Shigeru Mizuhara
• 1961-1974: Tetsuharu Kawakami
• 1975-1980: Shigeo Nagashima
• 1981-1983: Motoshi Fujita
• 1984-1988: Sadaharu Oh
• 1989-1992: Motoshi Fujita
• 1993-2001: Shigeo Nagashima
• 2002-2003: Tatsunori Hara
• 2004-2005: Tsuneo Horiuchi
• 2006-2015: Tatsunori Hara
• 2016-2018 : Yoshinobu Takahashi
• 2019- : Tatsunori Hara

New Team

Yomiuri Giants 2002 (midseason) - present Tokyo Yomiuri Giants 1947 - 2002 (midseason) Tokyo Giants 1935 - 1946 Dai Nippon Tokyo Baseball Club Tokyo Giants 1934

Current team name