NPB's Evil Empire - A Brief History of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks

Hey all, throughout December, and into January, I'll be putting out brief history videos on all 12 NPB teams. The next video will be on the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

[デンジュモク-ci]

9:18
"He's big, Kawa small"
"Monkeys never cramps"
"I'm
"I have two books"

[haydeli]

Between your channel, Yakyu Cosmopolitan and HTEN. I have all the NPB knowledge I could need. Y'all do tremendous work for the English speaking NPB fans! Thank you!

[GreenHornet]

The Giants may be the Yankees of Japan, but the Hawks are the Cardinals of NPB albeit with no cheating and more consistency. The ups and downs of this team are amazing and kind of follow that of the team they were almost named after. It's also impressive how this team under Sadaharu Oh has been able to transform how much NPB's farm system is done through the Hawks. Another excellent video as always, Gaijin Baseball. Can't wait to see the next one.

[johnnysama]

@7:04: The only reason Nankai held on to the Hawks was because the then-president of Nankai Railway and primary owner of the team, Den Kawakatsu refused to give up on what was kind of his baby; he was not swayed by the company's board of directors and union leadership. Then Mr. Kawakatsu died on April 23, 1988 at 86, and Nanaki's surviving management refused to support what had by then become a money-losing venture.

[maltaethiron]

Thank you for this. I started dating a Japanese girl and her dad is a big Hawks fan so I need to learn. Appreciate this video!

[AlexOnStreets]

Major Hawks fan here. Multiple championships I saw in person. Weekly attended Cuban-American loudest gaijin in the stadium. Unfortunately I moved to Tokyo but I still go to the visitor cheering section side. Hawks for life. Suck it Lions.

[デンジュモク-ci]

By the way, current Hawks owner Masayoshi Son's total assets surpass those of Mets owner Steve Cohen, making him the richest baseball team owner and the sixth richest sports club owner in the world.
The Hawks have the largest player salary total in NPB, but considering how rich Son is, they can be seen as keeping it within a reasonable range for the size of the NPB market.

[supersasukemaniac]

I think Yomiuri Giants are more the evil empire.

[derkaiserzen]

As an Eagles fan..
I somehow never thought SoftBank Dynasty as the "Reign of Terror".
Because compared to Yomiuri (And Tsuneo Watanabe in general), they not do anything douchebaggery as what Giants did in the past 100 years (Draft Dodgers, Scandal coverup by media controlled by themselves etc).
In that sense, I guess I "tolerated" SoftBank Dynasty more than Yomiuri (?)

[lancerdawgpete]

Love the content! I can't wait for your brief history on the Carp as a gaijin living in Hiroshima and goes to Carp games whenever I can afford the time and the money to do so.

[ringo]

Yep, I know I would love this as soon as I clicked on it.

[specialk]

Great video. I lived in Tokyo in the 80s and 90s when the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks were called the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. Daiei was a department store chain.

[RicciChoi]

Fun fact: Both SoftBank and Lotte were founded by ethnic Koreans. Their ancestors moved to Japan when the pre-WWII Imperial Japan was still colonising Korea.

[GFLY]

Ahhh, Goose Gossage. He should have gotten into Cooperstown just for that combination of facial hair and insane post-retirement hot takes alone lol

[ciello___]

Will you do a history for the Buffaloes? I know you have done videos for them in the past since they have such a complicated history

[BaseballisEverything]

I hate this team so much, The Yankees might be the "Evil Empire" but I prefer them more since they don't beat my favorite teams in the playoffs.

[chinny]

Yomiuri Giants with a different paint: The Dodgers of NPB (aka New Evil Empire)

And a likeable mascot (9:52)

[supersasukemaniac]

Sorry i have too. Great Ring? Sounds Kinki.

[TheGreatEagle_]

It’s 4am and I just placed at $15 bet with +1200 odds that this team wins.

[Milk]

Bro same thare the worst team the softbank hawks Beacuse they never stop winning