The NPB – Nippon Professional Baseball league of Japan. The highest professional league in Asia, and many consider it to be the second most competitive and talented league in the world after Major League Baseball. It did help to produce the world’s best current baseball player, Shohei Ohtani. In addition to top-level MLB talents, Japan’s current Mizuno game balls are on par with MLB’s Rawlings baseballs. In fact, some MLB pitchers say they prefer the Mizuno NPB official game ball to the MLB’s Rawlings ROMLB game ball. MLB players often discover NPB baseballs for the first time while playing in the MLB-Japan All-Star Series or World Baseball Classic. In addition to the NPB, Japan has numerous independent leagues which we’ll feature, including a professional women’s league.
And as an avid collector of Japanese market baseballs, I can tell you, the NPB special event / commemorative logo official game balls are spectacular. That goes not just for quality and craftsmanship, but for aesthetics, creativity and especially in recent years, incredible consistency in stamping and blemish-free leather. Check the links below for dedicated galleries for NPB’s All-Star Game, Fresh All-Star Game, Japan / Nippon Series (NPB Championship Series), Farm Japan Championship (Minor League Championship), the defunct, super rare and very cool Pacific League All-Star Game. Plus a catch-all gallery for NPB’s standard regular season game balls, older Central and Pacific League standard league balls, and team-specific regular season special event commemorative logo balls. We’ll also group all non-NPB leagues, the semi-pros, independents, women’s leagues and defunct Japan leagues in a separate gallery, linked below.
At the rate Japan is developing talent, and with more of its players dominating in The Show, I’m banking on NPB game balls to become a much more sought after commodity for signings and as general sports collectibles. Personally I now list Nippon Pro Baseball game balls above MiLB’s Triple-A in terms of how a value them, and how I view the league’s players’ skills and overall competition level. Here is your warning to jump on the bandwagon while it’s still early (and somewhat affordable).