Sports tabloid Daily Sports to offer digital edition

TOKYO (TR) – The newspaper industry in Japan appears to be readying itself for the electronic era. Tabloid Daily Sports reported last week that it would begin a special digital newspaper service today. Read more

Female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida battles Carp, wants to join NPB

The top of the order for the Central League’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp could not contain right-handed knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, Japan’s first female professional baseball player, during an exhibition game in Hiroshima on Wednesday, reports Daily Sports (Nov. 23).

The seventeen-year-old Yoshida, nicknamed “Eri-chan,” who recently left the Kobe 9 Cruise of the Kansai Independent League, was on the mound against the “best lineup” the Hiroshima Carp were capable of fielding during the club’s “Fan Festival” on Monday at Mazda Stadium.

The exhibition was played under a special rule in which Yoshida would be declared the winner if she was able to hold the Carp to two or fewer runs in one inning. Read more

New Tigers’ outfielder Mench already getting fried

With the Hanshin Tigers’ season only two games old, Osaka-based Daily Sports (Apr. 5) wasted little time in lambasting newly acquired outfielder Kevin Mench.

The right-handed-hitting Mench, who this year signed a one-year contract with the Central League’s Tigers, was off to a slow start, having failed to collect a hit in his first eight at-bats against the Yakult Swallows. “Mench better change!!” screamed the tabloid’s bright yellow headline, which appeared just to the right of the slugger lunging and missing a pitch.

Adding to this, the tabloid said, his batting average was not particularly impressive during spring training. Yet manager Akinobu Mayumi is giving Mench, who batted .269 for three teams in MLB over seven seasons, a chance to redeem himself by continuing to pencil number 32 into the starting lineup. Read more