2003 Nippon Professional Baseball season

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
This article is about the 2003 Nippon Professional Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 2003 in baseball.
2003 NPB season
LeagueNippon Professional Baseball
SportBaseball
DurationMarch 28 – October 27, 2003
Regular season
Season MVPCL: Kei Igawa (HAN)
PL: Kenji Johjima (DAI)
League postseason
CL championsHanshin Tigers
  CL runners-upChunichi Dragons
PL championsFukuoka Daiei Hawks
  PL runners-upSeibu Lions
Japan Series
ChampionsFukuoka Daiei Hawks
  Runners-upHanshin Tigers
Finals MVPToshiya Sugiuchi (DAI)
NPB seasons

The 2003 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 54th season of operation for Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). This was the last season in which both leagues had their champion automatically go to the Japan Series, as the Pacific League would institute a playoff in 2004. This was the last season for the Nippon-Ham Fighters at the Tokyo Dome (which also housed the Yomiuri Giants), who elected to move to the Sapporo Dome in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō in the Sapporo metropolitan area.[1] Hanshin clinched their first league pennant in eighteen years with their victory on 14 September.[2] The season ended with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks defeating the Hanshin Tigers in the 2003 Japan Series in seven games in a historic matchup that saw the home team win all seven games for the first time ever to go along with three games ending on walk-off hits.[3]

Standings

[edit]

Central League

[edit]
Central League G W L T Pct. GB
Hanshin Tigers 140 87 51 2 .629 --
Chunichi Dragons 140 73 66 1 .525 14.5
Yomiuri Giants 140 71 66 3 .518 15.5
Yakult Swallows 140 71 66 3 .518 15.5
Hiroshima Toyo Carp 140 67 71 2 .486 20.0
Yokohama BayStars 140 45 94 1 .325 42.5

Pacific League

[edit]
Pacific League G W L T Pct. GB
Fukuoka Daiei Hawks 140 82 55 3 .596 --
Seibu Lions 140 77 61 2 .557 5.5
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes 140 74 64 2 .536 8.5
Chiba Lotte Marines 140 68 69 3 .496 14.0
Nippon-Ham Fighters 140 62 74 4 .457 19.5
Orix BlueWave 140 48 88 4 .357 33.5

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-11-30-03-recap-hamming-it-down-in-japan.html
  2. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/16/japan.sport
  3. ^ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2003/10/28/baseball/mlb/this-years-japan-series-best-since-1989/


Stub icon

This article relating to a baseball season is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon 1 Stub icon 2

This article relating to baseball in Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.