NPB’s Tokyo Yakult Swallows won 12-1 against Tokyo Big-6 All-Stars
The ritual match of the 90th Anniversary of Meiji Jingu (Shrine)Outer Garden attracted 24,090 fans on Saturday, November 5, 2016 to Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium in Tokyo.
Tokyo Big-6 team comprised 25 players from Tokyo, Rikkio, Waseda, Keio, Meiji and Hosei Universities and included a few who have got drafted into the NPB on October 20. In the meantime, Yakult Swallows had a few ex-Tokyo Big-6 star players such as Shin-ichi Takeuchi of Waseda University and Keiji Obiki of Hosei University.
Nobuchika Aoki who played with Waseda University, Yakult Swallows and Seattle Mariners threw ceremonial first pitch and went on to act as a commentator of TV broadcast of the game. He is likely to play at Houston Astros next year.
Highlight of the game was the starter Tomoya Yanagi of Meiji University for Tokyo Big-6, who was second draft pick of Yakult Swallows, got out two scoreless innings and struck out his future team mate Tetsuto Yamada swinging. Yamada captured the triple crown for the second successive year in 2016: leading hitter (.304), homerun king (30) and most stolen base champion (30) of the NPB’s Central League. No wonder Manager Manaka placed more expectations on Pitcher Yanagi for the coming baseball season.
Masayuki Naito, Secretary General of Tokyo Big-6 was very pleased with the success of the event as the day’s turn out was about 10,000 more fans than that of same match-up of 10 years ago. “Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium was built for the Tokyo Big-6 and is now also a home of Yakult Swallows. May interexchange of professionals and colleges as we had today help lower any barrier between the two.” said Naito.
