  Despite winning four pennants
since 1992, the Yakult Swallows have remained one of the
Central League's weakest teams for the last five decades.
Compiling a franchise 2764-3274 with 232 ties, the
Swallows' .458 winning percentage ranks fifth in the CL
and eleventh in Japan. Only the Yokohama BayStars (.449)
have won fewer games. Established in 1950 by the
predecessor of today's Japan Railways (JR), the Kokutetsu
Swallows joined the newly founded Central League in the
same year. Typical of an expansion franchise, the lowly
ball club finished their first season with a discouraging
seventh place 42-92 record (.309), 57.5 games behind the
first place Shochiku Robins. With a team .244 batting
average and 4.67 ERA, neither their hitters or pitching
staff could compete with other teams in the league.
But
the Swallows got some help with their pitching the
following season when 17-year old southpaw Masaichi
Kaneda developed into one of the league's leading
hurlers. Leading the CL with 233 strikeouts, the teenage
star amassed a 22-21 record. As the team's ERA fell to
3.96, Kokutetsu compiled a more respectable 46-59 record
their sophomore year.
But
Kaneda's outstanding pitching (23-13, 229 whiffs), wasn't
enough to keep the team from sliding to last place in
1953. While the mound staff showed improvement, Kokutetsu
batting provided few sparks. In a pattern that would
remain consistent for most of two decades, the Swallows'
anemic offense left the team sputtering near the bottom
of the standings.
Though
usually batting in the .230s and .220s through the 1950s,
Swallows hitters compiled a .218 average in 1956. But
Kaneda's three-straight Sawamura Award performances (in
which he twice led the league in wins, ERA and
strikeouts) prevented Kokutetsu from dropping onto the
league's bottom drawer.
Sandwiched
between two last-place finishes, the Swallows finally
emerged a contender in 1961. Going 20-16 with 262
strikeouts, Kaneda helped Kokutetsu compile a team 2.29
ERA while leading the ball club to a third-place 67-60
record, five-and-a-half games out of first place. But
when Swallows batters recorded a team .201 batting
average (the lowest in Central League history) the
following year, Kokutetsu fell back into the league
cellar.
Entering
the most tumultuous period in team history, Kaneda balked
at pitching 45 to 65 games a season and declared himself
a free agent after the 1964 season. Defecting to the
Yomiuri Giants, Kaneda's departure further weakened an
already struggling team. Complicating matters, Kokutetsu
sold the Swallows to the Sankei newspaper chain in the
middle of the 1965 season. In an effort to change the
their image the following year, Sankei changed the team's
name to the "Atoms," an apparent attempt to
cash-in on the popular Atom Boy TV show.
Unable
to produce a winning record, Sankei dumped the Atoms
after less than five years, selling the team to the
Yakult health beverage company in December 1968. The
tumultuous changes wrought by the sales and a lack of top
level players left the team in disarray.
By
1970 the Atoms rolled to their worst finish in franchise
history, a 33-92 record (.264 winning percentage), 45.5
games out of first. While third baseman Shiro Takegami
led the team with a .265 average, Yakult batters hit a
paltry .215 with 69 home runs (down from 139 the year
before). Only two Atoms pitchers were able to notch as
much as six wins.
Around
the time the Atoms changed their name back to the
Swallows in 1973, Yakult began rebuilding. After Kaneda
left to join the Giants in 1965, the team lacked a strong
hurler who could consistently lead the Yakult mound
staff. Though he joined the team in 1968, Hiromi Matsuoka
developed into Yakult's top hurler in 1971, leading the
team in wins for the first of seven times.
When
outfielder Tsutomu Wakamatsu joined Yakult in 1971, the
Atoms got what they had been missing for years, a player
who could hit for average and lead the Yakult offense.
With the acquisition of sluggers Katsuo Osugi in 1975 and
Charlie Manuel a year later, the Swallows got a powerful
right and left-handed home run punch.
Joining
the Swallows in the middle of 1976 season, manager
Tatsuro Hirooka lent direction to the team and enabled
the Swallows reach their first second-place finish in
franchise history and only their second winning season
(62-58). Though the team's pitching suffered somewhat,
Yakult made the leap forward largely because of their
red-hot hitting. Earning the CL batting crown by hitting
.358, Wakamatsu helped the Swallows compile a .267 team
average, their highest mark to that point. Led by Manuel,
who stroked 42 roundtrippers, the Swallows slugged 170
home runs.
Building
on their success the following year, the Swallows went
68-46 with 16 ties to earn their first Central League
pennant. Oddly, their victory came as the Swallows
pitching staff posted a 4.38 ERA (up from 4.01 the
preceding year) and Yakult's home run production fell to
157. But while MVP Wakamatsu's average fell to .341, the
entire team hit .279.
Meeting
the Hankyu Braves in the 1978 Japan Series, the match
proved to an endurance test. Going to seven games, the
Swallows won the series in the by taking the deciding
seventh game 4-0. Because of his clutch hitting, Osugi
earned the series MVP.
What
happened the following season remains a bit murky.
Falling to last place with a disappointing 48-69 record,
Yakult's team average fell off dramatically (to .252)
while their mound crew expanded their ERA to 4.60. A
strict disciplinarian who twenty years later gained
infamy as the Lotte general manager who fired successful
American skipper Bobby Valentine, Hirooka clashed with
easygoing import Charlie Manuel. Despite losing the
American slugger, the Swallows again compiled 157 home
runs.
Robert
Whiting, author of the book You Gotta Have Wa,
offers a different explanation. Sales of Yakult's milk
and yogurt health drinks, he claims, often fall when the
Swallows defeat other teams. When, for example, the
Swallows defeat the Carp in Hiroshima, sales of the
company's health drinks temporarily drop off in that
city. Oddly, a victorious team would hurt Yakult's main
enterprise, selling drinks.
One
Swallows player claimed Yakult's owner implied that,
after winning the Japan Series, the team didn't have to
try so hard the following year. Complicating the matter,
the owner at that time was also an ardent Yomiuri Giants
fan who once announced how ideal it would be for the
Giants to always place first with the Swallows second.
Though
the Swallows rebounded in 1980 to a second-place finish
(68-52), the team soon embarked on a decade-long funk.
Starting in 1982, the Swallows fed off the bottom of the
Central League standings four out of five years. Though
the arrival of foreign all-star slugger Bob Horner in
1987 helped boost attendance, the Swallows still stalled
at fourth place. With pitching ace Matsuoka retired,
Wakamatsu on his way out, and the ball club unable to
afford any big-name free agents, Yakult turned to a new
manager for help.
Field
general Katsuya Nomura had cut his teeth as a
player-manager for the Nankai Hawks in the 1970s. A gruff
free-speaking character, Nomura seldom makes decisions
without consulting statistics on his players and
opponents. One of his slogans, ID Yakyu (instant
data baseball), refers to his penchant for numbers.
Taking
the Yakult helm in 1990, the former-catcher took rookie
backstop Atsuya Furuta under his wing. The two
practitioners of ID Yakyu quickly turned the Swallows
around, building a contender within two years. Finishing
third in 1990 with only their fifth winning season
(67-63) in franchise history, Yakult completed the
transition a year later by going 69-61 to earn the team's
second pennant in four decades.
Though
they lost the Japan Series to the Seibu Lions that year,
they came back even stronger in 1993, earning their third
pennant with an 80-50 record, a sparkling team 3.20 ERA
and a ho-hum .263 batting average. This time, however,
they defeated the Lions in seven games to take the Japan
Series championship.
Dropping
to fourth place in 1994 when Furuta and a large portion
of the Swallows pitching staff fell to injuries, Yakult
didn't appear to have much of a chance of grabbing
another pennant. Lacking consistent pitching as they
entered the 1995 season, the team again appeared headed
for the league's cellar.
With
a reputation for "recycling" players, Nomura
has resurrected several players whose careers appeared
over. One of them, Masato Yoshii (now intent on playing
in the Major League's) was cast off by the Kintetsu
Buffaloes after a mediocre 1994 outing. But under
Nomura's tutelage, the pitcher climbed out of the garbage
can and chalked a 10-7 record with a 3.12 ERA. Another
dumped player, Tom O'Malley joined Yakult and earned the
1995 MVP with his hot bat and keen eye. Surprising
critics, the Swallows trounced their Central League
opponents (82-48) and took the 1995 Japan Series from the
Orix BlueWave in five games.
But
injuries again took their toll in 1996, as Furuta and
much of the pitching staff limped through another season.
Though within striking distance of the league's top spot,
the Swallows faltered in August, prompting Nomura to
sarcastically remark that maybe it was the Giants' turn
to win the pennant. In a rare protest, the usually loyal
Yakult oendan (cheering section), feeling it was too
early to throw in the towel, boycotted a few games after
Nomura's comment. After dropping to fourth place with a
61-69 record, the Swallows dismissed productive first
baseman Tom O'Malley (18 home runs, .315) in an
apparently desperate move to save money.
With
the Swallows' best hitter leaving, virtually no one
entertained the possibility of a Yakult comeback. Their
pitching staff in tatters and new comer Dwayne Hosey
reportedly having trouble hitting and fielding, things
looked bad for Yakult as they entered the 1997 season.
Facing Yomiuri's ace Masaki Saito, who had won three
straight opening day contests, Yakult's new first baseman
Takehiko Kobayakawa drilled three home runs on the first
day of the season and got the Swallows off to a winning
start.
Leading
the league from wire to wire, Yakult finished the season
at 83-52, eleven games above second-place Yokohama. Along
the way, 24-year-old southpaw Kazuhisa Ishii pitched a no
hitter, Hosey earned the CL home run crown with 38
roundtrippers and catcher Furuta earned his second MVP.
Going
into the Japan Series, several critics claimed it would
be a battle of Yakult's clutch hitting versus Seibu's
pitching, with the Lions favored to win. But the Swallows
compiled a best in Japan 3.26 ERA (to Seibu's 3.63 mark)
while outscoring their opponents by a much wider margin
than the Lions. With a team .276 batting average and 138
home runs, the Swallows scored 672 runs while only
allowing the other five to teams to score on 503
occasions. Yakult's 169 run surplus far surpassed that of
Seibu (102), indicating that the Swallows were on course
to destroy the Lions. And it was a blood-bath.
Allowing
only three hits in game one, ace lefty Ishii shut out the
Lions and tied the record for most strikeouts in a
nine-inning Japan Series game, returning twelve Seibu
batters back to their dugout.
Though
the Lions rallied in game two, the Swallows took three in
a row when the series shifted to their home ballpark,
Jingu Stadium. Led by series MVP Furuta, the Swallows
batted .312 (Lions .229) and compiled a five-game 1.58
ERA (to Seibu's 3.14 mark).
Yakult
may not have the money or prestige of other teams, but
they are clawing their way back to respectability, one
championship at a time.
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