Given their long history and many championship seasons, it's no surprise the Giants have a long list of all-time greats. Because so many of the players in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame have played for the Giants, it almost seems appropriate that the museum lies in the Tokyo Dome's basement.

Eiji Sawamura: In 1947, the Sawamura Award for pitching excellence was established. Named after Eiji Sawamura, the prize honors the legendary Giants pitcher who died in the Second World War.

After joining the Tokyo Kyojin in 1936, Sawamura pitched Japan's first two professional no-hitters, and in 1940 pitched a third. Over five seasons (1936-37, 40-41, 43), the right-handed hurler appeared in 105 games (completed 65 of them, twenty for shutouts), earned a 63-22 record (a .741 winning percentage), struck out 554 batters while only walking 301, and finished with a 1.74 career ERA.

Sawamura's legend had been growing years before he died. While several Japanese teams had been humiliated in exhibition matches against Major League all-stars, Sawamura pitched one impressive game in which struck out several Major Leaguers, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Although losing the game 1-0 after Gehrig hit a seventh-inning solo home run, the feat established Sawamura as Japan's top hurler.

A Japanese hero on and off the playing field, Sawamura died tragically in 1944, aboard a torpedoed Japanese Imperial navy warship. Because his baseball career ended in 1943, at the age of twenty-six, he pitched all of his six seasons while still young and strong, and his career stats reflect only his best years. Had Sawamura played to the age of forty, it's very doubtful that he would have the same career winning percentage and ERA.

Victor Starfin: The Russian born pitcher played from 1936 to 1955, his first nine seasons with the Giants. One of only six pitchers ever to earn over 300 wins in Japan, Starfin ended his career with a 303-176 record, 1960 strikeouts, a 2.09 ERA and a record 83 shutouts. In 1939, he won 42 games (lost15) struck out 282 batters while only giving up, on average, 1.73 runs per nine inning game.

And Starfin did all of this while pitching 458 1/3 innings. Appearing in sixty-eight games (he completed 38 of them) out of the 96 that the Giants played that year, Starfin was responsible for 42 of Yomiuri's 66 wins.

Tetsuharu Kawakami: One of the best Japanese hitters of all time, Tetsuharu Kawakami may be even better known as the manager who guided the Giants to nine straight Japan Series championships.

Playing for the Giants from 1938-58, the left-handed first baseman earned a career .313 batting average (fifth on the all-time list), 2351 hits (ninth), 408 doubles (seventh), 99 triples (fourth), and 181 home runs. Stroking 25 long balls to earn the 1948 home run crown in the middle of Japan's dead ball era, Kawakami's 181 lifetime homers probably understate his power.

Earning two home run crowns and four RBI titles while leading the CL in batting in five different years, Kawakami's .377 average in 1951 remained the league's high-water mark until Randy Bass hit .389 in 1986.

As a manager, Kawakami led the Giants to eleven pennants in fourteen years (1961-74), including nine straight Japan Series championships starting in 1965.

Hideo Fujimoto: With a 1.90 lifetime earned run average, Hideo Fujimoto holds the Japanese record for lowest career ERA (with at least 2,000 innings pitched). Except for playing the 1947 season with the Dragons, the right-handed pitcher played his entire career with the Giants (1942-55).

Compiling a 200-87 record, Fujimoto also holds the Japanese record for highest career winning percentage (.697). In his thirteen years as a player, the 1949 Sawamura Award winner struck out 1,177 batters while leading the league in ERA three times, wins once, winning percentage three times and strikeouts twice.

Takehiko Bessho (aka Akita Bessho): Twice winner of the Sawamura Award (1947 and '55), Takehiko Bessho was one of the Giants' top hurlers through the 1950s.

Beginning his seventeen year career (1942-60) with the Nankai organization, Bessho won his first Sawamura Award in 1947 with a 1.86 ERA while leading the league in wins (a 30-19 record) and strikeouts (191). In 1949, the right-handed pitcher joined the Giants and remained with Yomiuri for the next twelve seasons.

Bessho won the Central League MVP in both 1952 and '56 while leading the circuit in wins both years. In 1955, he picked up his second Sawamura Award along with a CL best 1.32 ERA. In 1952 and '55, he was named the Japan Series MVP.

With a 310-178 career record, Bessho remains the fifth winningest pitcher in Japanese baseball history. In his seventeen years, he also compiled a 2.18 ERA (seventh on the all-time list), 72 shutouts (fourth), 43 games without a walk (fifth), 335 complete games (fourth) and 1,934 strikeouts (eighteenth).

Wally Yonamine: One of the only foreign-born players to join the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, Hawaiian Wally Yonamine returned to his ancestral homeland and played for twelve years (1951-62) with the Giants and Dragons.

Earning three batting titles (1954, '56 and '57), the left-handed former-football player earned a career .311 average (seventh on the all-time list) with 163 stolen bases, 45 triples and 82 home runs. In 1957, he earned the Central League MVP while batting .343.

Moving to the Dragons in 1961, Yonamine played for two more seasons before hanging up his glove and bat for good. From 1972-77, he managed the Chunichi Dragons and led the team to a pennant in '74. In 1994, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Masaichi Kaneda: Although playing his first fifteen seasons with the Kokutetsu Swallows, Japan's all time wins (400) and strikeouts (4490) leader Masaichi Kaneda joined the Giants in 1965 and pitched his last five seasons there.

Shigeo Nagashima: Probably the most popular baseball player in Japanese history, Shigeo Nagashima hit 444 home runs and batted .305 over seventeen seasons (1958-1974). In addition to being named 1958 CL Rookie of the Year, the five-time MVP earned two home run titles and five RBI crowns while leading the Central League in batting six times.

As successful as he may have been, Nagashima's popularity probably has more to do with his amiable personality and hard work ethic than his contributions to the team. A clutch hitter, "Mr. Giants" earned immortality when in 1959 he hit a ninth-inning game-winning sayanora home run in the first game ever attended by Emperor Hirohito

Sadaharu Oh: Regardless of whether his 868 career home runs are a "world" record, Sadaharu Oh is the greatest baseball player Japan has ever produced. In addition to being home run king, in his 22-year career the left-handed batter also hold the Japanese record for career RBIs (2,170), total bases (5,862), walks (2,504). Well-known for his unusual flamingo batting stance, Oh also holds the record for most home runs in a season (55).

A reserved person who experienced discrimination because his father was Chinese, Oh remains one of the most interesting Japanese baseball personalities. An incredible hitter with only marginal success as a manager, the slugger with a Taiwanese passport once said that he's probably more popular abroad than he is in Japan. Oh has been known to sign autographs for hours, often mailing his signature to fans living abroad.

Probably the only stain on his otherwise exemplary character is an incident which happened over a decade ago. Allowing his pitchers to walk Randy Bass on the last game of the 1985 season, the Giants manager made sure that the American slugger would not break his single season home run record. Writing in his autobiography several years before, Oh confessed that he loved his records and hoped they would never be broken. At least for now, none have been.

Isao Harimoto: Japan's all-time career hits leader (3085), Isao Harimoto played for four years (1976-1979) with the Giants toward the end of his twenty-three season career. His best years were with the Toei Flyers.

Suguru Egawa: Currently a television sports commentator and author of an annual guide to Japanese baseball, Suguru Egawa was one of the finest pitchers of the 1980s--and the most controversial.

A record setting pitcher for Hosei University, Egawa refused a lucrative contract in 1977 from the Lions, the team that had selected him in the annual draft. Playing semi-pro baseball in America for a year, Egawa returned to Japan and signed with the Giants, his favorite team. One day later, however, the Hosei star was picked by the Hanshin Tigers in the 1988 draft and a tug-of-war ensued over the young pitcher.

His contract with Yomiuri ruled illegal, the Giants threatened to withdraw from the Central League and form their own baseball circuit. At that point, Hanshin was pressured to trade Egawa to the Giants. The move violated league rules, however, and Egawa and the Kyojin were vilified in the Japanese press. Because of the public uproar, many Giants fans drifted to other teams and the Yomiuri Shimbun's circulation dropped.

Still the Giants got their man, and for ten years the troublesome flame-thrower dominated Central League batters. In 1980, Egawa earned a 16-12 record (most wins in the CL) with 2.48 ERA (second best) and 219 strikeouts. The following year, he earned the MVP, sweeping all the major pitching honors while improving to 20-6 with 221 strikeouts and a 2.29 ERA.

In his nine year career (1979-87) Egawa twice led the league in wins (and came in second three times) and won three straight strikeout crowns (1980-82). Retiring at the age of thirty-two, Egawa claimed his sore arm had reduced his effectiveness. Compiling a 135-72 record, Egawa earned a 3.02 lifetime ERA with 1,366 strikeouts.

Tatsunori Hara: The weak link in the chronological chain of Giants sluggers that includes Sadaharu Oh and Hideki Matsui, Tatsunori Hara earned 382 career homers despite never earning a home run title. Picking up the 1983 RBI crown, his only headgear not embroidered with a Y and G, the Yomiuri third baseman earned a .279 career average with 1093 RBIs. Retiring after fifteen seasons (1981-95), Hara now has a career asking irrelevant questions on a televised sports program.

Warren Cromartie: One of the best foreign players to ever appear in Giants uniform, Warren Cromartie slugged it out in Japan for seven years (1984-90). Probably the best Yomiuri hitter of the late 1980s, the former-Montreal Expo took the Central League batting crown in 1989 with a .378 average.

In his comparatively long Japanese career (for a foreign player), Cromartie led the Giants three times in RBIs, twice in home runs and twice in batting. Before retiring after the 1990 season, the imported outfielder compiled a .321average with 171 home runs and 558 RBIs.

For anyone with an interest in the Yomiuri Giants and how foreign players are treated in Japan, Cromartie's autobiography Slugging it Out in Japan (ghost-written by Robert Whiting) is a must read.