Thomas Love Seagull

2007 BBM Atsuya Furuta Memorial set #17

Your mention of the Swallows doing training camp in Yuma makes me want to share this card

This card is awesome. I'm off to scour Mercari.

He also once threw out Barry Bonds.

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 10, Atsuya Furuta The four-eyed catcher who changed Japanese baseball

Atsuya Furuta believed catching wasn't about toughness. It was about understanding people.

He won batting titles. He guided a dynasty. He led a strike to preserve Japanese baseball.

And he did it all wearing glasses.

10.19: The Day Baseball Ran Out of Time On October 19, 1988, the Kintetsu Buffaloes played two games, didn’t lose either one, and still lost the pennant.

This is the longest piece I’ve written for this newsletter and maybe the strangest story in Japanese baseball history.

October 19, 1988: a pennant race decided by the clock.

Yes, a clock.

Saturday means sushi. Yeah, that's salmon with pesto and mozzarella. It was delicious.

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 11, Masumi Kuwata The thinking pitcher who survived by understanding the game

Draft controversy. Suspension. Injury. Reinvention. An MLB debut at 39.

When his body changed, he adapted.

Few careers in Japanese baseball were stranger or more thoughtful than Masumi Kuwata’s.

It's too bad we can't watch here in Japan.

PacificLeagueTV This is the Pacific League TV channel with English descriptions on news items and clips that help keep you updated with players and teams in the Pacific League.

It's time to ruin your sleep schedule again: the #PacificLeague Midnight Matinee is back for a 5th season.
Sunday April 5 Marines vs Hawks
Sunday April 26 Eagles vs Lions
Sunday May 24 Lions vs Buffaloes
All 12am EDT starts; tune in at youtube.com/@pacificleag...
(all games subject to change)

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 12, Masayuki Kakefu The unlikely star who learned what it meant to carry Hanshin

Masayuki Kakefu wasn’t a phenom or a top prospect.

He was a tryout player drafted in the sixth-round who became the face of the Hanshin Tigers and one of the most beloved players in Japanese baseball history.

Welcome back.

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary card of Don Buford

1975/76/77 Calbee card of Davey Johnson

1988 Takara Swallows card of Doug Decinces

2021 Topps NPB card of Adam Jones

Card Of The Week - there are four members of the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame who played in NPB japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/02/card...

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 13, Kazuhiro Kiyohara The controversial slugger who never ruled a season

Kazuhiro Kiyohara hit over 500 home runs, was one of the greatest sluggers in Japanese baseball history, and one of the hardest to understand.

This is the story of the Uncrowned King.

Japan in Pictures: The End of the Year Snowstorms, sushi, and a snowman that never happened

We rang in the New Year with ice cream, fell asleep early, and drove through a snowstorm to go shopping.

My latest is a photo post from our trip to snow country in northern Japan.

Card Of The Week January 25 It was announced last week that former Chiba Lotte Marine Takashi Ogino had signed with Draci Brno of the Czech Extraliga baseball league . ...

Card Of The Week - Takashi Ogino is headed for the Czech Republic japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2026/01/card...

Godspeed.

Only in Baseball: The Strangest Moments of the 2025 NPB Season Moments from last season that reminded us why baseball remains the weirdest and most beautiful sport we have.

I turned 38 this week and celebrated by writing about strange things that happened in Japanese baseball.

Phantom home runs.
No-hitters with runs allowed.
A game-ending fake fall.

13 weird moments from the 2025 NPB season:

At least he was able to outperform Oh as a manager.

Can't wait for this to start. Still can't believe I missed on every lottery for tickets.

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 14, Tatsunori Hara The man asked to follow Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima

There’s a difference between being a star and being a successor.

Tatsunori Hara was asked to be the latter from the moment he arrived.

I wrote about what that did to him.

#NPB #baseball

Digging in the Dirt Potato farming with our favorite baseball player

With the news that Takashi Ogino is signing with Draci Brno—the powerhouse of Czech baseball—this feels like a good time to revisit the day I met him at his potato farm.

Good for him. We're gonna miss him here in Japan, but excited for him to show more people what he can do.

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 15, Katsuya Nomura He caught nearly 3,000 games, hit 657 home runs, and never believed he was gifted

I wrote a long piece about Katsuya Nomura—the catcher with more home runs, games, and hits than anyone who ever played the position.

He didn’t think of himself as talented.
He thought of himself as observant.

Japan's Favorite Players, No. 15.

SABR Asian Baseball Research Committee Blog

Starting today, you can also find some of my pieces on the SABR Asian Baseball Research blog. Incredibly honored to be part of it.

Thank you. I will look into Ghost this weekend.

Thank you for saying that. I've thought about Beehiv and Patreon as an alternative. What platform (not just those two) would you feel comfortable with?

The Blank Day A single day with no games and no pitches thrown exposed a loophole, a power struggle, and the cost of winning at any price.

My first paid-subscribers-only essay is live.

It’s about the Blank Day—when Japanese baseball bent its rules to the breaking point over one pitcher.

The Blank Day A single day with no games and no pitches thrown exposed a loophole, a power struggle, and the cost of winning at any price.

I’ve been working on a long essay about the Blank Day, the most chaotic day in Japanese baseball history. It's a companion piece to my Suguru Egawa profile.

It goes live tomorrow as my first paid-subscriber-only post.

thomasloveseagull.substack.com/p/the-blank-...

I need this.

Japan's Favorite Players: No. 16, Suguru Egawa He was Japan’s most dominant pitcher—and its most controversial. The Monster arrived decades ahead of his time, and paid the price for it.

Suguru Egawa was Japan’s most dominant pitcher—and its most polarizing.

Branded a villain for managing his body, ignoring unwritten rules, and refusing to perform suffering on demand, he may have been the first modern athlete in NPB history.

Japan’s Favorite Players, No. 16.