Japanese Baseball

The Professional Baseball League in Japan is called "Puro Yakyu".

It consists of two leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League. The teams in the Central League are the Yomiuri Giants, the Chunichi Dragons, the Yakult Swallows, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, the Hanshin Tigers, and the Yokohama Bay Stars. The teams in the Pacific League are the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, the Seibu Lions, the Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters, the Chiba Lotte Marines, the Orix Blue Wave, and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.

The season starts in April and ends in October with three all star games in July. The two leagues play through a regular season that consists of 140 games. The best teams from each league play in the "Nihon Series."

In the 2002 season, Yomiuri Giants, which consists of Hideki Matsui, Kazuhiro Kiyohara , and Koji Uehara, won the Central League regular season. The Seibu Lions, which consists of Kazuo Matsui, Alex Cabrera, and Daisuke Matsuzaka, won the Pacific League regular season. And the Yomiuri Giants won the 2002 Nihon Series. Tomohiro Nioka won the Nihon Series MVP.