Can the best lineup for the pro baseball All-Star Game be filled with players from a specific team?

It seems possible for the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese professional baseball team. On the 19th, the Japan Baseball Organization (NPB) made the final interim announcement of the fan voting to select players to play in the 2023 All-Star Game. Hanshin player took first place in all 9 categories, and 10 out of 11 players were Tigers players. In Nippon Professional Baseball, voting is conducted by dividing the pitcher division into three parts: starting, middle, and finishing.스포츠토토

Shoki Murakami (starter), Yuta Iwasaki (middle pitcher), Atsuki Yuasa (closer), Ryotaro Umeno (catcher), Yusuke Oyama (first baseman), Takumu Nakano (second baseman), Teruaki Sato (third baseman), Seiya Kinami (shortstop), and Koji Chikamoto (outfielder) ranked first in all nine categories.

Following Chikamoto, Akiyama Shogo (Hiroshima Carp) and Shendon Noiji (Hanshin) ranked second and third in the outfield category. Excluding Akiyama, 10 out of 11 players are Hanshin players. Even Shota Morishita, who is fourth in the outfield, belongs to Hanshin.

Jikamoto received 685,556 votes, the most votes in both the Central and Pacific Leagues. he is 19

Hanshin ranks first among 12 Japanese professional baseball teams this season. It was the only one that exceeded 40,000 average spectators. Partnership with Sports Nippon headquarters
Currently, he has a batting average of .292 (74 hits in 253 bats), 3 home runs, 31 RBIs and 42 runs scored. He is ninth in the league in batting average, fourth in hits, tied for ninth in RBI, and first in runs scored.

Until now, there has been no case where a specific team has won first place in all categories in the fan vote. The record for the most number one is held by Hanshin. In 2003, he won first place in 7 categories, and that year, 9 were selected as All-Stars by fan voting. Hanshin is poised to rewrite the history of Japanese professional baseball this season.

After last season, Hanshin, who reorganized the team under the system of coach Okada Akinobu (66), who has been a veteran, is leading the Central League. As of the 19th, it has 38 wins, 2 draws and 24 losses, and a win rate of 6.1%. They are 2.5 games ahead of second place Yokohama Baystars. With 7 wins, 1 draw and 10 losses in the interleague, the gap with 2nd place narrowed. Coach Okada is the oldest coach in the Japanese professional baseball this year.

Hanshin failed to stand at the top after winning the 2005 league championship led by manager Okada in the first round. In that year’s Japan Series, Lee Seung-yeop was beaten by the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Pacific League.

Chiba Lotte Sasaki surpassed Yamamoto to become the Pacific League starting pitcher. Photo source = Chiba Lotte Marines SNS
Hanshin’s home stadium is Nishinomiya Koshien Stadium in Hyogo Prefecture, near Osaka. It is the most popular team based in the Kansai region in the center of Osaka. Over the past few years, it has surpassed the Yomiuri Giants and ranked first in the number of spectators. In 35 games held at home this year, 143 people and 8,838 people entered, recording an average of 41,110 people per game. It is the overwhelming first place among the 12 teams in the Japanese professional baseball league.

Even when the results were not good, they received enthusiastic support from the fans, but this year, as they ran for first place, the interest became even hotter. Regardless of the player’s individual performance, he is poised to sweep all categories.

In the Pacific League, the Orix Buffaloes had the most with 4 players. Loki Sasaki, the “monster pitcher” of the Chiba Lotte Marines, surpassed Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) to become the number one starting pitcher. Roberto Osuna (Softbank Hawks) was the only foreign player in both leagues to finish first.

Murakami, who hit 56 homers last year, was the fourth hitter for Yakult, and was pushed to fourth place in the Central League third baseman category.

The final result of the fan vote will be announced on the 28th. This year’s Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game will be held at the Nagoya Dome on July 19th and at Matsuda Stadium in Hiroshima on the 20th.