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Miyazaki, Japan. Order seems restored to the baseball world as training camp begins with the most hallowed franchises in the United States and Japan as champions.

The Yankees have reported to camp in Tampa, Florida, and the Yomiuri Giants have been working out on the southern island of Kyushu since Feb. 1.

The Giants, or Kyojin, as they are commonly known, won their 21st Nippon Series and 33rd Central League pennant since the two-league system was installed in 1950. The Yankees won their 27th World Series and 40th pennant. Last year was the first time since 2000, and the sixth time overall, these franchises won titles in the same season.

As a statement of how baseball has changed in each country, Hideki Matsui, who played for the Giants’ championship team in 2002, became the first Japanese most valuable player of a World Series. A group of foreigners, including pitchers Dicky Gonzalez and Marc Kroon and regular-season MVP Alex Ramirez, led the Giants, who were the last franchise in Japan to sign players with no Japanese heritage in 1975.

The Giants’ run of nine consecutive Nippon Series championships, known as the V9 era, captivated Japan from 1965 to 1973. Many people of that generation grew up rabid Giants fans regardless of their hometowns.

Current manager Tatsunori Hara is one of them. Despite several franchises playing closer to his home, he has been a die-hard Giants fan since childhood.

“The Giants games were the ones always shown on TV,” he said. “Without question, they were the team. No other team could even compare.”

Hara recalled the duo of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh, who anchored the V9 teams from 1959 to 1974. They were the equivalent of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the 1923 to 1934 Yankees.

Ruth and Gehrig combined for nine home run titles and seven RBI titles while leading the Yankees to four World Series championships in five appearances. Nagashima and Oh teamed for 14 home run titles, 13 RBI titles, 11 batting titles and 12 MVP awards.

They added to their legacies by later leading the Giants to the Nippon Series as managers.

The Giants are the only team in American or Japanese baseball that has never had a manager from outside the organization. Seven men have served as manager since 1950, each a former player who began and ended his career in the orange and black.

“It speaks volumes about the quality of player the organization cultivates,” said Hara, a Giants infielder from 1981 to 1995.

The Giants have another distinction, one that clearly differentiates them from the Bronx Zoo Yankees of the 1970s and ’80s. They have never fired a manager during the season. The organization is not willing to tarnish its image or that of its players with a disruptive in-season managerial change. That, however, should not be confused with a lack of pressure to win.

Ramirez, a former Major League outfielder, came to Japan in 2001. He played first for the Giants’ cross-town rival, the Yakult Swallows.

“When I played for the Swallows,” Ramirez said, “even though we won the championship and finished second a couple of times, we always faced the other team’s third, fourth and fifth starters. Now, when you play for the Giants, you’re facing No. 1, 2 and 3 all the time. The other teams set up the rotation to face the Giants.”

He added: “Not only is the pressure from that stuff, but also the pressure from the fans, the pressure from the media that you are not allowed to fail.”

The Giants have committed substantial resources to acquiring top talent through drafts, trades and free agency. With the core of the championship team returning, Hara said he liked the Giants’ chances to repeat as champions.

“I think this year’s team will compete better than the 2009 group,” he said. “We have lots of competition in camp, and I can’t tell you right now who all our starters will be. What I can say is everyone has come to camp prepared, and I think compared to last year, a stronger team will emerge.”

If similar optimism radiates from the Yankees’ camp, the two franchises will attempt to repeat as champions in the same year for the first time since 1953.

Baseball

The New York Times