By Bill Turianski on 24 April 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-Nippon Professional Baseball (en.wikipedia.org).
-reddit.com/r/NPB.
-Official website…npb.jp/eng/teams.
公式サイト…npb.jp.
…
- 2018 NPB: Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks win 2nd-straight title
(And the Hawks have won 5 of the last 8 Japan Series titles).
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have won the Japan Series title in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. The Hawks are from Fukuoka, the 4th-largest city in Japan {5.5 million metro-pop.}. Fukuoka is the largest city on the island of Kyushu, which is the southern-most of the 4 major islands that make up Japan. In 2018, the Hawks celebrated their 80th anniversary as an NPB franchise. The franchise had began in Japan’s second-city, Osaka, in 1938. From 1947 to 1988, they were the green-clad Nankai Hawks. In 1989, the franchise moved from Osaka, to Kyushu Island, becoming the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. In 2005, with a change in corporate ownership, the team changed its name to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. In 2019, the franchise celebrates its 30th season on Kyushu Island (see map at the foot of the illustration below).
Photo and Image credits above -
Yuki Yanagita (OF), Yanagita hits Sayonara Home Run (10th inning of game 5), photo by KYODO via japantimes.co.jp/baseball. Hawks Sh! logo, from news.goo.ne.jp. Yuito Mori (Relief Pitcher), photo from sankei.com. Rick Van den Hurk, photo by Kyodo via japantimes.co.jp/sports. Kai throwing out a runner in Game 1, photo by KYODO via japantimes.co.jp/baseball. Takuya Kai aacknowledges applause after his 5th caught-stealing putout, screenshot from an NPB video via mlb.com/cut4/japanese-catcher-throws-out-six-straight-runners. Celebration at mound after last out (Mori and Kai), photo from daily.co.jp/baseball. Ceremonial tossing of manager (Kimiyasu Kodo), photo unattributed at english.kyodonews.net. Blank map of Japan from allisabronte.us [dead link]. Fukuoka skyline with Japan Rail line in foreground, photo by Getty Images via japantimes.co.jp.
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Blank map of Japan, by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) at File:Japan location map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Globe-map of Japan, by Connormah at File:Japan (orthographic projection).svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Map of Japan’s regions, by Ken Nashi at start-point.net/maps.
-Map of Tokyo (Kantō MMA) metro-area, by Kzaral at File:Tokyo-Kanto definitions, Kanto MMA.png.
-worldatlas.com/articles/10-biggest-cities-in-japan.
-Baystars B-star 2019 cap logo from photo at ec.baystars.co.jp/items.
-Seibu Lions mascot/photo from store.seibulions.jp.
-Chiba Lotte Marines new mascot (Mystery Fish), from shop.marines.co.jp.
-Saitama Seibu Lions mascot, image from store.seibulions.jp.
-Thanks to this site for attendance figures, 2018 Season Attendance Figures of NPB (Japan Professional Baseball) (nbakki.hatenablog.com).
-Thanks to Type Speed, for requesting this map (via twitter), and for helping me find alternate logos and mascot illustrations. (twitter.com/[@0TypeSpeed0].)
-Thanks to the guy who runs the twitter feed for the Reddit/NPB page, for finding mistakes, on my map, here (twitter.com/NPB_Reddit).
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