is a professional baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's Central League

Central League

The or is one the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country,The Central League...

.

The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, the Yakult

Yakult

is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It was created by Minoru Shirota who graduated from the Medical School of Kyoto University in 1930. In 1935, he started manufacturing and...

 Corporation. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways

Japanese National Railways

, abbreviated or "JNR", was the national railway network of Japan from 1949 to 1987.-History:The term Kokuyū Tetsudō "state-owned railway" originally referred to a network of railway lines operated by nationalized companies under the control of the Railway Institute following the nationalization...

 (known as Kokutetsu (国鉄) in Japanese) and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei Shimbun

Sankei Shimbun

is a daily newspaper in Japan published by the . It has the sixth highest circulation for a newspaper in Japan, and is considered as one of the five "national" newspapers...

 from 1965 to 1968 and called the Sankei Atoms. Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and restored its original Swallows name in 1974. Then it was renamed the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006.

Current roster

Manager and Head Coach(小川 淳司)

Pitchers(佐藤 由規)(林 昌勇)(佐籐 賢)(中沢 雅人)(村中 恭兵)(加藤 幹典)(川島 亮)(石川 雅規)(鎌田 祐哉)(松岡 健一)(増渕 竜義)(花田 真人)(館山 昌平)(岡本 秀寛)(西崎 聡)(橋本 義隆)(松井 光介)(萩原 淳)(高市 俊)(高木 啓充)(石井 弘寿)(吉川 昌宏)(山本 斉)(バーネット)(押本 健彦)(山田 弘喜) Catchers(相川 亮二)(川本 良平)(福川 将和)(衣川 篤史)(米野 智人)(水野 祐希) Infielders(川島 慶三)(宮本 慎也)(田中 浩康)(武內 晋一)(藤本 敦士)(畠山 和洋)(川端 慎吾)(梶本 勇介)(鬼崎 裕司)(ホワイトセル)(野口 祥順)(三輪 正義) Outfielders(志田 宗大)(青木 宣親)(バレンティン)(ガイエル)(飯原 誉士)(高井 雄平)(松元 ユウイチ)(上田 剛史)(中尾 敏浩) Coaches(荒木 大輔) – pitching(八重樫 幸雄) – batting(大田 卓司) – batting(馬場 敏史) – defending and base-running(中西 親志) – battery(猿渡 寬茂) – farm manager(八木沢 荘六) – farm pitching(山部 太) – farm pitching and training(淡口 憲司) – farm batting(土橋 勝征) – farm batting(角 富士夫) – farm defending and base-running(佐藤 真一) – farm defending and base-running(高橋 寬) – farm bringing-up(山口 重幸) – batting pitcher(伊藤 真) – batting pitcher(阿部 茂樹) – catcher in the bull pen(乱橋 幸仁) – batting pitcher – batting pitcher – catcher in the bull pen – batting pitcher(前田 浩継)- batting pitcher(鮫島 秀旗) – catcher in the bull pen – batting pitcher(押尾 健一) – batting pitcher Honored Numbers 1-Tsutomu Wakamatsu Tsutomu Wakamatsu Tsutomu Wakamatsu was a Japanese baseball player, coach, and manager for the Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball. He batted left-handed, and threw right-handed... (若松 勉) 8-Katsuo Ohsugi(大杉 勝男) 27-Atsuya Furuta Atsuya Furuta Atsuya Furuta is a Japanese former baseball player and player-manager for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball club in the Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League... (古田 敦也) – Player manager in 2006–2007

MLB Players

Active:

• Akinori Iwamura
  Akinori Iwamura
  Akinori Iwamura is a Japanese Major League Baseball infielder, who is currently with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League...
  
   (2007–)
• Ryota Igarashi
  Ryota Igarashi
  is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He previously pitched for the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball and the New York Mets of Major League Baseball.-Japanese career:...
  
    (2010–)

Retired:

• Masato Yoshii
  Masato Yoshii
  is a retired Japanese baseball player who is currently a pitching coach for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese Pacific League. He pitched in the Major Leagues from to .-Biography:...
  
   (1998–2002)
• Kazuhisa Ishii
  Kazuhisa Ishii
  Kazuhisa Ishii is a Japanese former Major League Baseball pitcher who currently plays for the Saitama Seibu Lions....
  
  (2002–2005)
• Shingo Takatsu
  Shingo Takatsu
  Shingo Takatsu is a professional baseball pitcher for the Sinon Bulls of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He had a short stint with the Chicago White Sox where he was the closer for two seasons until struggles closing games ultimately led to his demotion to the minors...
  
  (2004–2005),(2008),(2009)

External links

Tokyo Yakult Swallows official web site

• English-language site covering the Tokyo Yakult Swallows