| Formerly | Japan Occupational Baseball League |
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Founded | February 5, 1936 |
| First season | September 1936 |
| Ceased | November 26, 1949 (reorganized as Nippon Professional Baseball) |
| President | Jiro Morioka |
| No. of teams | 11 (overall); 8 at time of reorganization as NPB |
| Country | Japan |
| Last champion(s) | Tokyo Kyojin / Yomiuri Giants |
| Most titles | Tokyo Kyojin / Yomiuri Giants (9 titles) |
The Japanese Baseball League (日本野球連盟, Nihon Yakyū Renmei) was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball.
The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league championships, including six in a row from 1938 to 1943, when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army.[1]
Standout players from the Japanese Baseball League era included Haruyasu Nakajima, Tetsuharu Kawakami, and Kazuto Tsuruoka; pitchers Hideo Fujimoto, Eiji Sawamura, Victor Starffin, and Tadashi Wakabayashi; and two-way players Fumio Fujimura, Shosei Go, Masaru Kageura, and Jiro Noguchi.
- ^ Reaves, Joseph A. (2002). Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0-8032-3943-2.