The Yomiuri Giants (in Kanji: 読売巨人; Yomiuri-kyojin) is the most popular baseball team based in Japan. It is based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, and is in the Central League. The team is owned by the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network.
Formerly known as: Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部 1934-1935), Tokyo Kyojingun (1936-1946), Tokyo Yomiuri Kyojingun (Yomiuri Giants 1947-2002), Yomiuri Kyojingun (Yomiuri Giants 2002-)
The Yomiuri Giants are the oldest professional team in Japan, which was founded in 1936 and joined the new Japanese Professional League. The Giants won nine titles before the establishment of the two league system in 1950. Starting in 1965, the Giants won nine consecutive Central League pennants and Japan Series titles, in large part because of the hitting of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh. The Giants have won the 2002 pennant. The Yomiuri Giants have won more pennants and Japan Series titles than any other team.
It has been said because of the lengthy MLBPA strike in the United States, and because of Japanese lore of the meaning of 60th anniversaries, the 1994 60th Anniversary Yomuiri Giants were the luckiest team in professional baseball, and was actually called by many journalists as the World Champions of Professional Baseball.
TOKYO (AP) -- Sammy Sosa hit the monster home run that everyone hoped he would.
The atmosphere inside the Tokyo Dome was festive for the exhibition game, with young women in fluorescent yellow jackets weaving their way through the stands to fill up fans' beer mugs.
Sosa was gracious in conceding defeat to the Giants.
The Giants also receive far more press coverage than other teams, particularly in the Yomiuri Shimbun, Daily Yomiuri and Sports Hochi, three newspapers that are run by the same company that owns the Giants.
But the appeal of the Giants goes beyond the fact that they are always in the public eye.
The Giants have played in Japan's capital city since 1936, and moved into the Tokyo Dome in 1988.
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