2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season

2008 2008 NPB season Nippon Professional Baseball Baseball March 20 – November 9 Central League pennant Yomiuri Giants Hanshin Tigers Alex Ramírez (Yomiuri) Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award Pacific League pennant Saitama Seibu Lions Orix Buffaloes Hisashi Iwakuma (Rakuten) Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award Climax Series Climax Series CL 2008 Central League Climax Series Yomiuri Giants Chunichi Dragons PL 2008 Pacific League Climax Series Saitama Seibu Lions Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Japan Series 2008 Japan Series Seibu Dome, Tokorozawa, Saitama Tokyo Dome, Bunkyō, Tokyo Saitama Seibu Lions Yomiuri Giants Takayuki Kishi (Seibu) Japan Series Most Valuable Player Award List of Nippon Professional Baseball seasons NPB 2007 Nippon Professional Baseball season 2007 2009 Nippon Professional Baseball season 2009 The 2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 59th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950. The regular season started on March 20 with the Pacific League opener, and on March 28 with the Central League opener. On March 25 and 26, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics played 2 regular season Major League Baseball games at Tokyo Dome. During their visit, they also played exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants. Format Both League Season format Regular season Climax Series 1st stage: Regular season 2nd place vs. regular season 3rd place – Best of 3 Climax Series 2nd stage: Regular season 1st place vs. Climax Series 1st stage winner – Best of 7 (regular-season 1st place take a one-win advantage) Regular season 1st place is the champion Japan Series Central League Climax Series 2nd stage winner vs. Pacific League Climax Series 2nd stage winner – Best of 7 Changes The Seibu Lions added the prefecture name "Saitama" in front of the team name starting with this season. As to reduce the interference to teams whose main players would play in the Olympic Games, this year's trade and new foreign players deadlines were pushed to the end of July, instead of the end of June. Also, teams having more than three players selected by National teams were given an extra quota of foreign player limit during the Olympic Games. The postseason playoff ("Climax Series") regulations have changed to give more advantages to League Champions, now the second stage series will play for 6 games, while the League Champion will have a one-win advantage. In late June, the Free Agency regulation was amended after negotiation between the players committee and owners. Players are now eligible for free agency after 8 years of service to a team (1 playing year = 145 days on the active roster), players drafted before 2007 are shortened to 7 (University/Company/Independent League) to 8 (High School) years. However, oversea FA right which allow them to play in the Major League Baseball still needs 9 playing years. This amendment is also effective on non-Japanese players. Alex Ramírez, who served 8 playing years in Japan, became a "local player" after the season.In NPB, no team can have more than 4 "non-local" players in their active roster, and they cannot be all pitchers or all fielders, non-Japanese players who entered NPB by draft, or obtained the FA right are not bounded with this restriction. Standings Central League Regular season main WDL Central League regular season standings Central n y y none y % YOM Yomiuri Giants 84 57 3 HAN Hanshin Tigers 82 59 3 CHU Chunichi Dragons 71 68 5 HIR Hiroshima Toyo Carp 69 70 5 TOK Tokyo Yakult Swallows 66 74 4 YOK Yokohama BayStars 48 94 2 Climax Series 1st stage Hanshin Tigers (1) vs. Chunichi Dragons (2) GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1Chunichi Dragons – 2, Hanshin Tigers – 0October 18Kyocera Dome Osaka33,824http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101801657.html 2008 CL Climax Series 1st Stage Game 1 19 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081022090531/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101801657.html 22 October 2008 live 2Chunichi Dragons – 3, Hanshin Tigers – 7October 19Kyocera Dome Osaka33,881http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101901659.html 2008 CL Climax Series 1st Stage Game 2 20 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081026110331/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101901659.html 26 October 2008 live 3Chunichi Dragons – 2, Hanshin Tigers – 0October 20Kyocera Dome Osaka33,021http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102001661.html 2008 CL Climax Series 1st Stage Game 3 21 October 2008 Climax Series 2nd stage Yomiuri Giants (3) vs. Chunichi Dragons (1) The Giants have a one-game advantage. GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1Chunichi Dragons – 4, Yomiuri Giants – 3October 22Tokyo Dome44,072http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102201663.html 2008 CL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 1 23 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081026103938/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102201663.html 26 October 2008 live 2Chunichi Dragons – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 11October 23Tokyo Dome43,536http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102301665.html 2008 CL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 2 24 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081027130139/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102301665.html 27 October 2008 live 3Chunichi Dragons – 5, Yomiuri Giants – 5 (12 innings)October 24Tokyo Dome45,846http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102401666.html 2008 CL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 3 25 October 2008 4Chunichi Dragons – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 6October 25Tokyo Dome46,797http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102501667.html 2008 CL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 4 26 October 2008 Pacific League Regular season main WDLHA Pacific League regular season standings Pacific none % y y y y SAI Saitama Seibu Lions 44 27 1 32 37 3 ORI Orix Buffaloes 41 31 0 34 37 1 HOK Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 41 30 1 32 39 1 y CHI Chiba Lotte Marines 41 30 1 32 40 0 TOH Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 37 34 1 28 42 2 FUK Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 36 33 3 28 44 0 #bbe0f1 A A A complete https://npb.jp/bis/eng/2008/stats/std_p.html 2008 Pacific League Standings Nippon Professional Baseball January 31, 2021 Climax Series 1st stage Orix Buffaloes (0) vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2) GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 4, Orix Buffaloes – 1October 11Kyocera Dome Osaka25,532http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101101652.html 2008 PL Climax Series 1st Stage Game 1 18 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081014061336/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101101652.html 14 October 2008 live 2Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 7, Orix Buffaloes – 2October 12Kyocera Dome Osaka26,703http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101201655.html 2008 PL Climax Series 1st Stage Game 2 18 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081014061355/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101201655.html 14 October 2008 live Climax Series 2nd stage Saitama Seibu Lions (4) vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2) The Lions have a one-game advantage. GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 3, Saitama Seibu Lions – 10October 17Omiya Park Baseball Stadium20,500http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101701656.html 2008 PL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 1 18 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081021010404/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101701656.html 21 October 2008 live 2Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 5, Saitama Seibu Lions – 0October 18Seibu Dome30,918http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101801658.html 2008 PL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 2 19 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081022090542/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101801658.html 22 October 2008 live 3Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 7, Saitama Seibu Lions – 4October 19Seibu Dome33,078http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101901660.html 2008 PL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 3 20 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081023120258/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008101901660.html 23 October 2008 live 4Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 4, Saitama Seibu Lions – 9October 21Seibu Dome18,704http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102101662.html 2008 PL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 4 22 October 2008 5Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters – 0, Saitama Seibu Lions – 9October 22Seibu Dome21,731http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102201664.html 2008 PL Climax Series 2nd Stage Game 5 23 October 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081026103947/http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008102201664.html 26 October 2008 live Interleague Games main WLHA Interleague y y n none % y FUK Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 10 2 5 7 HAN Hanshin Tigers 10 2 5 7 HOK Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 8 4 6 6 YOM Yomiuri Giants 9 3 5 7 TOH Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 6 6 7 5 HIR Hiroshima Toyo Carp 6 6 7 5 CHU Chunichi Dragons 8 4 4 8 ORI Orix Buffaloes 6 6 5 7 TOK Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4 8 7 5 CHI Chiba Lotte Marines 6 6 4 8 SAI Saitama Seibu Lions 7 5 3 9 YOK Yokohama BayStars 5 7 1 11 Whenever multiple teams have same number of wins, the team having better standings in last year's interleague games will have advantage, thus Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the interleague title, despite Hanshin Tigers beating the Hawks 3 out of 4 games. A similar rule applies to other teams tied in wins. compute https://npb.jp/bis/2008/stats/std_inter.html 2008年度 交流戦 Nippon Professional Baseball January 31, 2021 ja 2008 Interleague Play Climax Series 2008 Central League Climax Series 2008 Pacific League Climax Series Note: All of the games that are played in the first two rounds of the Climax Series are held at the higher seed's home stadium. The team with the higher regular-season standing also advances if the round ends in a tie. 200 First stage Final stage Japan Series Central League Pacific League 2 Hanshin Tigers 1 3 Chunichi Dragons 2 2 Orix Buffaloes 0 3 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 2 1 Yomiuri Giants 3 3 Chunichi Dragons 1 1 Saitama Seibu Lions 4 3 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 2 CL1 Yomiuri Giants 3 PL1 Saitama Seibu Lions 4 Japan Series Saitama Seibu Lions (4) vs. Yomiuri Giants (3) GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1Saitama Seibu Lions – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 1November 1Tokyo Dome44,757http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110101668.html 2008 Japan Series Game 1 3 November 2008 2Saitama Seibu Lions – 2, Yomiuri Giants – 3November 2Tokyo Dome44,814http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110201669.html 2008 Japan Series Game 2 3 November 2008 3Yomiuri Giants – 6, Saitama Seibu Lions – 4November 4Seibu Dome24,495http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110401670.html 2008 Japan Series Game 3 5 November 2008 4Yomiuri Giants – 0, Saitama Seibu Lions – 5November 5Seibu Dome27,930http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110501671.html 2008 Japan Series Game 4 7 November 2008 5Yomiuri Giants – 7, Saitama Seibu Lions – 3November 6Seibu Dome28,763http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110601672.html 2008 Japan Series Game 5 7 November 2008 6Saitama Seibu Lions – 4, Yomiuri Giants – 1November 8Tokyo Dome44,749http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110801673.html 2008 Japan Series Game 6 8 November 2008 7Saitama Seibu Lions – 3, Yomiuri Giants – 2November 9Tokyo Dome44,737http://bis.npb.or.jp/2008/games/s2008110901674.html 2008 Japan Series Game 7 9 November 2008 See also 2008 Korea Professional Baseball season 2008 Major League Baseball season References Central League standings Pacific League standings External links http://www.npb.or.jp/ ja Nippon Professional Baseball Category:Nippon Professional Baseball seasons