MLB Japan All-Star Series

The MLB Japan All-Star Series is a set of games played since 1986 between All-Star teams from North America's Major League Baseball (MLB) and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), except 2014, where the Japanese national team competed against the MLB All-Stars. The series takes place every even-numbered year in NPB home stadiums. There have been many great players to step on the field in the series including Nori Aoki, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki, Shinnosuke Abe, David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Jose Altuve, Robinson Cano and Manny Ramírez. The American, Canadian and Japanese national anthems are all played before all games.

MLB v NPB (1986-2012)

Year Series MLB All-Stars Won NPB All-Stars Won (1986-98 as All-Japan) Tied Most Valuable Player
1986 Best-of-7 6 Games 1 Game 0 Games Tony Peña (MLB)
1988 Best-of-7 3 Games 2 Games 2 Games Barry Larkin (MLB)
1990 Best-of-8 3 Games 4 Games 1 Game Ken Griffey, Jr. (MLB)
1992 Best-of-8 6 Games 1 Game 1 Game Mark Grace (MLB)
1994 Cancelled (due to the MLB players strike)
1996 Best-of-8 4 Games 2 Games 2 Games Steve Finley (MLB)
1998 Best-of-8 6 Games 2 Games 0 Games Sammy Sosa (MLB)
2000 Best-of-8 5 Games 2 Games 1 Game Barry Bonds (MLB)
2002 Best-of-8 5 Games 3 Games 0 Games Torii Hunter (MLB)
2004 Best-of-8 5 Games 3 Games 0 Games Vernon Wells (MLB)
2006 Best-of-5 5 Games 0 Games 0 Games Ryan Howard (MLB)
2008 Cancelled (in favour of World Baseball Classic)
2010
2012
Total MLB 9–1 NPB 48 Games 20 Games 7 Games MLB 10–0 NPB

MLB v JPN (2014)

The Japan All-Star Series continued again after an eight-year break.[1] Katsuhiko Kumazaki, the new NPB Commissioner, announced the national team (dubbed as Samurai Japan) would compete, instead of a NPB All-Star line-up, for the 2014 series. The MLB All-Star team is equal to a World Cup All-Star team, and Kumazaki saw in this championship a big opportunity for the Japanese team to gain hugely useful experience for the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Japan were clearly the underdog, but unexpectedly won the series by 3-2 games. A combined no-hitter shut out the MLB All-Stars 4-0 in Game 3.[2]

Year Series MLB All-Stars Won Japan Won Tied Most Valuable Player
2014 Best-of-5 2 Games 3 Games 0 Games Yuki Yanagita (JPN)
Total MLB 0–1 JPN 2 Games 3 Games 0 Games MLB 0–1 JPN

References

  1. ↑ "US-Japan Baseball 2014 Schedule (in japanese)". Sponichi.co.jp. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ Joey Nowak (15 November 2014). "Perfect Norimoto leads combined no-no vs. MLB". MLB.com. Retrieved 20 November 2014.

External links

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