MLB Japan All-Star Series
The MLB Japan All-Star Series is a set of games played since 1986 between All-Star teams from North America's Major League Baseball (MLB) and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), except 2014, where the Japanese national team competed against the MLB All-Stars. The series takes place every even-numbered year in NPB home stadiums. There have been many great players to step on the field in the series including Nori Aoki, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki, Shinnosuke Abe, David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Jose Altuve, Robinson Cano and Manny Ramírez. The American, Canadian and Japanese national anthems are all played before all games.
MLB v NPB (1986-2012)
| Year | Series | MLB All-Stars Won | NPB All-Stars Won (1986-98 as All-Japan) | Tied | Most Valuable Player |
| 1986 | Best-of-7 | 6 Games | 1 Game | 0 Games | Tony Peña (MLB) |
| 1988 | Best-of-7 | 3 Games | 2 Games | 2 Games | Barry Larkin (MLB) |
| 1990 | Best-of-8 | 3 Games | 4 Games | 1 Game | Ken Griffey, Jr. (MLB) |
| 1992 | Best-of-8 | 6 Games | 1 Game | 1 Game | Mark Grace (MLB) |
| 1994 | Cancelled (due to the MLB players strike) | ||||
| 1996 | Best-of-8 | 4 Games | 2 Games | 2 Games | Steve Finley (MLB) |
| 1998 | Best-of-8 | 6 Games | 2 Games | 0 Games | Sammy Sosa (MLB) |
| 2000 | Best-of-8 | 5 Games | 2 Games | 1 Game | Barry Bonds (MLB) |
| 2002 | Best-of-8 | 5 Games | 3 Games | 0 Games | Torii Hunter (MLB) |
| 2004 | Best-of-8 | 5 Games | 3 Games | 0 Games | Vernon Wells (MLB) |
| 2006 | Best-of-5 | 5 Games | 0 Games | 0 Games | Ryan Howard (MLB) |
| 2008 | Cancelled (in favour of World Baseball Classic) | ||||
| 2010 | |||||
| 2012 | |||||
| Total | MLB 9–1 NPB | 48 Games | 20 Games | 7 Games | MLB 10–0 NPB |
MLB v JPN (2014)
The Japan All-Star Series continued again after an eight-year break.[1] Katsuhiko Kumazaki, the new NPB Commissioner, announced the national team (dubbed as Samurai Japan) would compete, instead of a NPB All-Star line-up, for the 2014 series. The MLB All-Star team is equal to a World Cup All-Star team, and Kumazaki saw in this championship a big opportunity for the Japanese team to gain hugely useful experience for the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Japan were clearly the underdog, but unexpectedly won the series by 3-2 games. A combined no-hitter shut out the MLB All-Stars 4-0 in Game 3.[2]
| Year | Series | MLB All-Stars Won | Japan Won | Tied | Most Valuable Player |
| 2014 | Best-of-5 | 2 Games | 3 Games | 0 Games | Yuki Yanagita (JPN) |
| Total | MLB 0–1 JPN | 2 Games | 3 Games | 0 Games | MLB 0–1 JPN |
References
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