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Tokyo Yakult Swallows
東京ヤクルトスワローズ
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Nippon Professional Baseball Central League (1950–present)
Location	Shinjuku,Tokyo,Japan
Ballpark	Meiji Jingu Stadium
Founded	January 12, 1950; 75 years ago (1950-01-12)[1]
Nickname(s)	Tsubame (つばめ, swallow)
Japan Series championships	6 (1978,1993,1995,1997,2001,2021)
CL pennants	9 (1978,1992,1993,1995,1997,2001,2015,2021,2022)
Playoff berths	7 (2009,2011,2012,2015,2018,2021,2022)
Former name(s)	Yakult Swallows (1974–2005) Yakult Atoms (1970–1973) Atoms (1969) Sankei Atoms (1966–1968) Sankei Swallows (1965) Kokutetsu Swallows (1950–1965)
Former ballparks	Korakuen Stadium (1950–1963)
Colors	Navy, Red, Green
Mascot	Tsubakuro, Tsubami, and Torkuya
Ownership	Takashige Negishi
Management	Yakult Honsha
Manager	Shingo Takatsu
Current uniforms

TheTokyo Yakult Swallows (Japanese:東京ヤクルトスワローズ) are a Japanese professionalbaseball team competing inNippon Professional Baseball'sCentral League. Based inShinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams in Tokyo, the other being theYomiuri Giants. They have won nine Central League championships and six Japan Series championships. Since 1964, they have played their home games atMeiji Jingu Stadium.

The Swallows are named after their corporate owners,Yakult Honsha. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the formerJapanese National Railways (known asKokutetsu (国鉄) in Japanese) and called theKokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaperSankei Shimbun from 1965 to 1968 and called theSankei Atoms. Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and renamed it theYakult Atoms, before renaming it again as theYakult Swallows in 1974, and then theTokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006.

The franchise was established for the first time in 1950 when the team was created by the owners of what was thenJapanese National Railways (now the privatizedJapan Railways Group). The team name was made theKokutetsu Swallows. The team never finished with a winning record in their entire first decade of the 1950s. In 1961, the team ended up being third in the league for first time in their team history. Konkutetsu chose "Swallows" as JNR had an express railway, which at the time, was the fastest in Japan, which was named Tsubame (orswallow in English). Other name ideas were railway themed, such as "Service" or "Whistles".^[2] Express was also considered, but was put out, due to fears within JNR of the team's name in headlines like "Express crashing" when the team was in a slump, or "Express explodes" when the team began winning a lot. (This similar issue would be the reason whyRandy Bass would have his name lengthened in Japanese asBāsu (バース, pronounced[baːsɯ]), due to Hanshin owning a bus line at the time, and bus in Japanese is known asbasu (バス), which would similarly have a negative impact on Hanshin's bus line.)

PitcherMasaichi Kaneda, nicknamed "The Emperor", starred for the team during this era and was the league's most dominant pitcher. Kaneda holds numerous career records in the Japanese leagues. For the Swallows, he went 14 straight seasons with at least 20 wins, led the league in strikeouts 10 times, wins three times, ERA three times, and won theEiji Sawamura Award three times. Kaneda pitched for the Swallows from 1950 to 1964.

In 1965, the team was bought bySankei Shimbun and Sankei retained the Swallows name for 1 year before switching their name to the Atoms, as they were one of the leading advocates of nuclear energy and because ofAstro Boy, which is known as Mighty Atom in Japan, hence the name of the team. Astro Boy would then be part of the team's logo.^[2] Sankei, however, underestimated how costly running a baseball team was, and their ownership would only last 3 seasons.

In 1970, Sankei Shimbun offloaded the team toYakult Honsha, and Yakult kept the Atoms name for 3 seasons before changing the name, as by 1973,Mushi Production, the creators of Astro Boy, went bankrupt. Originally, Yakult ran a poll to determine the new name, and announced the winning name, Jaguars, at the 1973 All Star break, and the name was supposed to take effect starting the 1974 season. However, amidst fan pressure, Yakult dropped the idea, and reverted to the Swallows name.^[2] Sankei kept a minority stake in the team, negotiating a deal that broadcasts all Swallows home games onFuji TV ONE.

The team won its firstJapan Series championship in1978.

In 1990,Katsuya Nomura became the new manager of Swallows, making drastic changes in the team. Although his first year with the Swallows resulted in them finishing in fifth place, the Swallows improved to third in the league the next year for the first time since 1980. From 1992 to 2001, the team won five Central League championships, prevailing in the Japan Series in 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2001. (Nomura managed the team to the first three of those championships.)

In 2006, Tokyo was added to the team name, resulting in the team name of Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and the logo ofTokyo was added to the uniform for the first time since the Kokutetsu era. The team maintained awinning percentage of .500, and ended up in third place in the league.

2011 was an impressive year for the Swallows. In April, the Swallows topped theCentral League and kept 1st place until September when theChunichi Dragons climbed to win in the pennant race, ultimately leaving the Swallows in 2nd place in theCentral League.

The Swallows entered theClimax Series in 2009, and faced theYomiuri Giants for the stage 1, which ultimately resulted in a 2–1 victory. Swallows advanced for their first time into stage 2 and faced the defendingCentral League champions, theChunichi Dragons. The Swallows eventually lost against the Dragons by 2–4, ending their postseason. At the end of season,Hirotoshi Ishii retired from the team.

In 2012,Norichika Aoki was posted to theMilwaukee Brewers. On 19 March 2012, the main office was moved to Kita-Aoyama which is located close to theMeiji Jingu Stadium from Higashi-Shinbashi.

In 2013, Swallows outfielderWladimir Balentien broke the NPB single-season home run record, finishing the season with 60 home runs.^[3] This was majorly due to the league secretly introducing a more juiced ball that allowed more home runs to be scored, which caused three-term NPB commissionerRyozo Kato to resign when the juiced ball was found about.^[4]

The Swallows finished the 2015 regular season with the Central League's best record and defeated the Yomiuri Giants in the Climax Series to advance to theJapan Series, where they lost to theFukuoka SoftBank Hawks in five games.

The Swallows clinched the 2021 Central League pennant on 26 October 2021 with a 5–1 victory over Yokohama DeNA BayStars, coupled with Hanshin Tigers losing 4-0 to Chunichi Dragons on the same night. The victory clinched the pennant with two games to spare in the regular season. This allowed them to advance to the final stage of the Climax Series, sweeping the Yomiuri Giants, 3-0, to advance to the Japan Series. They eventually won the series against theOrix Buffaloes in six games to win the Japan Series, their first since 2001. They backed it up in 2022 with an 80-59-4 record, winning the 2022 Central League pennant and returning to theJapan Series by sweeping the Hanshin Tigers in the2022 Central League Climax Series, once again facing the Orix Buffaloes. This time however, the Buffaloes would exact revenge on the Swallows, beating them in the Japan Series in seven games, 4–2–1. Third basemanMunetaka Murakami broke the Japanese-born single seasonhome run record in 2022 with 56 home runs, surpassingSadaharu Oh's record of 55 set in 1964.

• 
  View of Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium, a franchise of Tokyo Yakult Swallows
• 
  Swallows fans supporting hold an umbrella in 2006
• 
  Tetsuto Yamada (2011–present) in 2018
• 
  Munetaka Murakami in 2018

• 1:Tsutomu Wakamatsu (若松 勉)
• 6:Shinya Miyamoto (宮本 慎也)
• 8:Katsuo Osugi (大杉 勝男)
• 27:Atsuya Furuta (古田 敦也) – Player manager in 2006–2007

• Masaichi Kaneda (1950–1964)
• Yukihiko Machida (1952–1964)
• Yasumitsu Toyoda (1963–1969)
• Hiromu Matsuoka (1968–1985)
• Akihiko Ohya (1970–1985)
• Yukio Yaegashi (1970–1993)
• Takeshi Yasuda (1971–1981)
• Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1972–1989)
• Joe Pepitone (1973)
• Roger Repoz (1974–1977)
• Charlie Manuel (1976–1978, 1981)
• Dave Hilton (1978–1979)
• Daisuke Araki (1983–1995)
• Hideki Kuriyama (1984–1990)
• Takahiro Ikeyama (1984–2002)
• Katsumi Hirosawa (1985–1994)
• Bob Horner (1987)
• Tetsuya Iida (1987–2004)
• Katsuyuki Dobashi (1987–2006)
• Kenji Tomashino (1989–1997)
• Larry Parrish (1989)
• Floyd Bannister (1990)
• Atsuya Furuta (1990–2007)
• Tatsuji Nishimura (1990–1994)
• Johnny Ray (1991–1992)
• Yōichi Okabayashi (1991–2000)
• Jack Howell (1992–1994)
• Rex Hudler (1993)
• Mitsuru Manaka (1993–2008)
• Futoshi Yamabe (1994–2006)
• Hensley Meulens (1995–1996)
• Tom O'Malley (1995–1996)
• Terry Bross (1995–1997)
• Susumu Aoyagi (1995–2002)
• Atsunori Inaba (1995–2004)
• Shinya Miyamoto (1995–2013)
• Hatsuhiko Tsuji (1996–1999)
• Shinichi Sato (1996–2005)
• Dwayne Hosey (1997–1998)
• Ryota Igarashi (1998–2009, 2019–2020)
• Jason Jacome (1999–2000)
• Roberto Petagine (1999–2002)
• Alex Ramírez (2001–2007)
• Ken Suzuki (2003–2007)
• Yuhei Takai (2003–2021)
• Aaron Guiel (2007–2011)
• Lim Chang-yong (2008–2012)
• Kazuki Fukuchi (2008–2012)
• Yoshinori (2008–2018)
• Tony Barnette (2010-2015)
• Wladimir Balentien (2011–2019)
• Naomichi Nishiura (2014–2023)
• Ha Jae-hoon (2016)
• Tomotaka Sakaguchi (2016–2022)
• Scott McGough (2019–2022)
• Seiichi Uchikawa (2021–2022)
• Takahiro Araki (2010–2023)
• Norichika Aoki (2004–2011, 2018–2024)
• Cy Sneed (2021–2024)

• Masato Yoshii (1998–2002)
• Kazuhisa Ishii (2002–2005)
• Shingo Takatsu (2004–2005)
• Akinori Iwamura (2007–2010)
• Ryota Igarashi (2010–2012)
• Norichika Aoki (2012–2017)
• Tony Barnette (2016–2019)
• Domingo Santana (2014-2020)
• Jose Osuna (2017-2020)

• Tokuo Nishigaki (1950–1953)
• Soichi Fujita (1954–1955)
• Mitsuo Uno (1956–1960)
• Kuninobu Sunaoshi (1961–1962)
• Shinji Hamazaki (1963)
• Giichi Hayashi (1964–1965)
• Tokuji Iida (1966–1967)
• Takehiko Bessho (1968–1970)
• Osamu Mihara (1971–1973)
• Hiroshi Arakawa (1974–1976)
• Tatsuro Hirooka (1976–1979)
• Shiro Takegami (1980–1984)
• Masayuki Dobashi (1984–1986)
• Junzo Sekine (1987–1989)
• Katsuya Nomura (1990–1998)
• Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1999–2005)
• Atsuya Furuta (2006–2007) - Player Manager
• Shigeru Takada (2008–2010)
• Junji Ogawa (2011–2014, 2018–2019)
• Mitsuru Manaka (2015–2017)
• Shingo Takatsu (2020–present)

Source:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)^{[citation needed]}

The team's mascot is a black swallow with a red face named Tsubakuro (つば九郎). He is known for his feuds with theOrix Buffaloes mascots. He always wears a batting helmet. Whenever the Swallows wear special home unis, Tsubakuro also wears the same.

The number on the back of his uniform is "2896" as opposed to 111/222 used byBuffalo Bull andBuffalo Bell, the Buffaloes' mascots.

There is also a female swallow mascot named Tsubami. She wears a skirt and may be intended as Tsubakuro's little sister, just as Bell is Bull's little sister. Unlike her brother, she wears a sports visor.

Before Tsubakuro was created, the teams mascots were Yabo and Sue-Chan (ヤー坊 & スーちゃん), who were the team mascots from 1979 to 1994.

The team also had a third mascot named Torcuya(トルクーヤ), a swallow who resembles a luchador. He always carries around a parasol and a bottle of Yakult that he carries on his back. He were the team mascot from 2014 to present.

The team also had a former mascot named Entaro (燕太郎), a swallow who wore a jersey and his jersey number is 8960. He was replaced by Torcuya in 2014.

The Swallows farm team plays in theEastern League. The team was founded in 1950.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTokyo Yakult Swallows.

• Official website(in Japanese)
• Tokyo Yakult Swallows official English website

• Tokyo Yakult Swallows
• Nippon Professional Baseball teams
• Baseball teams established in 1950
• Baseball teams in Tokyo
• 1950 establishments in Japan

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