This article is about the 2006 Nippon Professional Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 2006 in baseball.

2006 NPB season
League	Nippon Professional Baseball
Sport	Baseball
Duration	March 25, 2006 – October 26, 2006
Regular Season
Season MVP	CL: Kosuke Fukudome (CHU) PL: Michihiro Ogasawara (NIP)
League Postseason
CL champions	Chunichi Dragons
CL runners-up	Hanshin Tigers
PL champions	Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
PL runners-up	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Japan Series
Japan Series champions	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Runners-up	Chunichi Dragons
Japan Series MVP	Atsunori Inaba (NIP)
NPB seasons
← 2005	2007 →

In 2006 the Nippon Professional Baseball season ended with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Pacific League defeat the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League in the Japan Series.

Contents 1 Format 1.1 Central League 1.2 Pacific League 1.3 Japan Series 2 Standings 2.1 Central League 2.1.1 Regular Season 2.2 Pacific League 2.2.1 Regular Season 2.2.2 Playoff 1st Stage 2.2.3 Playoff 2nd Stage 3 Leaders 3.1 Batting 3.2 Pitching 4 Japan Series 5 Awards 5.1 Best Nine Awards 5.2 Gold Gloves 6 References

[edit] Format

[edit] Central League

• Season Format
  • Regular Season
• Regular Season 1st place are the champions

[edit] Pacific League

• Season Format
  • Regular Season
  • Playoff 1st Stage: Regular Season 2nd place vs. Regular Season 3rd place - Best of 3
  • Playoff 2nd Stage: Regular Season 1st place vs. Playoff 1st Stage winners - Best of 5 (Regular Season 1st place take a one-win advantage)
• Playoff 2nd Stage winners are the champions

[edit] Japan Series

• Central League champions vs. Pacific League champions - Best of 7

[edit] Standings

[edit] Central League

• Champions: Chunichi Dragons

[edit] Regular Season

Central League	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB
Chunichi Dragons	146	87	54	5	0.617	--
Hanshin Tigers	146	84	58	4	0.592	3.5
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	146	70	73	3	0.490	18
Yomiuri Giants	146	65	79	2	0.451	23.5
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	146	62	79	5	0.440	25
Yokohama BayStars	146	58	84	4	0.408	29.5

[edit] Pacific League

• Champions: Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters

[edit] Regular Season

Pacific League	G	W	L	T	Pct.	GB
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters	136	82	54	0	0.603	--
Seibu Lions	136	80	54	2	0.597	1
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	136	75	56	5	0.573	4.5
Chiba Lotte Marines	136	65	70	1	0.481	16.5
Orix Buffaloes	136	52	81	3	0.391	28.5
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	136	47	85	4	0.356	33

[edit] Playoff 1st Stage

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks win the series, 2-1

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - 0, Seibu Lions - 1	October 7	Invoice Seibu Dome	29,187[1]
2	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - 11, Seibu Lions - 3	October 8	Invoice Seibu Dome	31,338[2]
3	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - 6, Seibu Lions - 1	October 9	Invoice Seibu Dome	27,344[3]

[edit] Playoff 2nd Stage

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters win the series, 3-0 (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters have a one-win advantage)

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - 1, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters - 3	October 11	Sapporo Dome	42,380[4]
2	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - 0, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters - 1	October 12	Sapporo Dome	42,380[5]

[edit] Leaders

[edit] Batting

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Pitching

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Japan Series

This section requires expansion.

In the 2006 Japan Series, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters defeated the Chunichi Dragons 4 games to 1 in 5 games.

After the Japan Series, the Fighters moved on to the Asian Series, a series which determins the champion of the four major Asian baseball leagues.

[edit] Awards

The Eiji Sawamura Award, the award given to the top pitcher in Japan, was given to pitcher Kazumi Saito of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He had a win-loss record of 18-5, 205 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.75 in 201.0 innings, winning the Pacific League's pitching triple crown.

[edit] Best Nine Awards

Central League

Position	Player	Team
P	Kenshin Kawakami	Chunichi Dragons
C	Akihiro Yano	Hanshin Tigers
1B	Tyrone Woods	Chunichi Dragons
2B	Masahiro Araki	Chunichi Dragons
3B	Akinori Iwamura	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
SS	Hirokazu Ibata	Chunichi Dragons
OF	Norichika Aoki	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
OF	Kosuke Fukudome	Chunichi Dragons
OF	Tomoaki Kanemoto	Hanshin Tigers

Pacific League

Position	Player	Team
P	Kazumi Saitoh	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
C	Tomoya Satozaki	Chiba Lotte Marines
1B	Michihiro Ogasawara	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
2B	Kensuke Tanaka	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
3B	Jose Fernandez	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
SS	Munenori Kawasaki	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Atsunori Inaba	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	Nobuhiko Matsunaka	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Kazuhiro Wada	Seibu Lions
DH	Fernando Seguignol	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

[edit] Gold Gloves

Central League

Position	Player	Team
P	Kenshin Kawakami	Chunichi Dragons
C	Motonobu Tanishige	Chunichi Dragons
1B	Andy Sheets	Hanshin Tigers
2B	Masahiro Araki	Chunichi Dragons
3B	Akinori Iwamura	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
SS	Hirokazu Ibata	Chunichi Dragons
OF	Norihiro Akahoshi	Hanshin Tigers
OF	Norichika Aoki	Tokyo Yakult Swallows
OF	Kosuke Fukudome	Chunichi Dragons

Pacific League

Position	Player	Team
P	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Seibu Lions
C	Tomoya Satozaki	Chiba Lotte Marines
1B	Michihiro Ogasawara	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
2B	Kensuke Tanaka	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
3B	Toshiaki Imae	Chiba Lotte Marines
SS	Munenori Kawasaki	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
OF	Atsunori Inaba	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	Hichori Morimoto	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
OF	Tsuyoshi Shinjo	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

[edit] References

• 2006 NPB Final standings (Japanese)

v • d • e Nippon Professional Baseball (2010)
Central League	Pacific League
Chunichi Dragons	Chiba Lotte Marines
Hanshin Tigers	Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	Orix Buffaloes
Yokohama BayStars	Saitama Seibu Lions
Yomiuri Giants	Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
Postseason: Japan Series · Asia Series · Climax Series
All-Star Game · World Baseball Classic · Baseball awards · Hall of Fame · JPBPA · Players · Seasons · Western League · Eastern League · Japanese Professional Baseball

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