» March 1, 1936: After spring training with Lefty O'Doul's San Francisco Seals (PCL), the Yomiuri Giants of Japan beat the Seals, 5–0. On March 5th they will win again 11–7.

» November 12, 1939: P Victor Starfin wins his 42nd game in a 96-game season, leading the Yomiuri Giants to the pennant, and setting a post-1900 world record for season victories that will be equaled (by Kazuhisa Inao in 1961) but never broken. Starfin, the 6'4" son of Russian immigrants, was exempt from the military call-up of able-bodied Japanese. From 1936-55 he won 303 games, the first in Japanese baseball to top the 300 mark. Except for Sadaharu Oh, he is the only non-Japanese player in the Japanese baseball Hall of Fame.

» December 11, 1939: The Yomiuri Giants beat the Hanshin Tigers, 4–2, to clinch the Japanese league pennant. The Giants will win the pennant for the next four years.

» October 17, 1951: The Yomiuri Giants win the Japan Series over the Nankai Hawks. Incredibly, they will win the pennant 19 times in the next 23 years, including nine in succession (1965-73).

» October 19, 1956: Playing below par after their 7-game WS loss to the Yankees, the Dodgers lose the first game of an exhibition series in Japan to the Yomiuri Giants 5-4. Nonetheless, the Dodgers will win 14, lose 4, and tie one in the series.

» November 1, 1957: The Nishitetsu Lions sweep the Yomiuri Giants in the Japanese World Series.

» November 20, 1957: Shigeo Nagashima, a star at Rikkyo University, signs with the Yomiuri Giants for a record bonus of $69,000. He will go on to have one of the great careers in Japanese baseball.

» April 5, 1958: Shigeo Nagashima, a rookie phenom, makes his pro debut with the Yomiuri Giants. He is fanned 4 times, but will go on to win the Central League batting title and have one of the distinguished careers in Japanese baseball.

» June 14, 1958: P Shoichi Kaneda of the Kokutetsu Swallows wins 7–1 over the Yomiuri Giants, his 28th victory in only 70 days. He wins 20 games or more for his 8th consecutive season.

» October 4, 1958: A Tokyo schoolboy star named Sadaharu Oh is signed by the Yomiuri Giants for a bonus of Y13,000,000 (about $55,000). Oh will become one of the most famous players in baseball, setting many world hitting records.

» April 26, 1959: Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants hits the first of 868 career home runs.

» June 26, 1959: The "Emperor's game," the greatest in Japanese baseball history, is played by the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers, with Emperor Hirohito and his wife attending at Tokyo's Korakuen Stadium. The game is tied 4–4 in the 7th on Giants rookie Sadaharu Oh's 2-run home run, then won 5–4 in the last of the 9th on a home run by the Giant's Shigeo Nagashima. This starts the famed "O-N cannon," the hitting combination of Oh and Nagashima, that will bring the Giants nine pennants between 1965 and 1973. In all, the O-N cannon hits dual home runs in 106 games.

» October 29, 1959: The Nankai Hawks of the Pacific League win the Japanese WS by sweeping the Yomiuri Giants 4-0.

» October 11, 1961: Kazuhisa "Iron Man" Inao of the Nishitetsu Lions lives up to his nickname and notches his 42nd win of the season, tying the all-time world record since 1893 set by Victor Starfin of the Yomiuri Giants in 1939. He also sets a season strikeout record by fanning 353.

» May 3, 1964: Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants hits four home runs in one 9-inning game against the Hanshin Tigers to set a Japanese record, and tie the American major-league record held by seven players.

» October 30, 1964: Joe Stanka of the Nankai Hawks wins the Pacific League MVP award. With a season record of 26-7, Stanka pitched his team to three straight victories over the Yomiuri Giants to win the Japan Series. In his career with the Hawks (1960-65), and later with the Taiyo Whales (1966), he will win 100 games, the record for an American pitcher.

» July 27, 1965: The official number of foreigners permitted on each Japanese team is lowered from three to 2. The Yomiuri Giants announce they will henceforth have no foreigners—a policy that lasts until 1975, when they sign 2B Davey Johnson.

» October 10, 1969: In his final season, P Masaichi Kaneda of the Yomiuri Giants gets his 400th lifetime win, against 250 losses. During a 20-year career (1950–69), he won 30 games twice and 20 games 14 times. He also holds the Japanese record for strikeouts (4,490), averaging 225 a season, while giving up only 1,809 walks.

» November 2, 1971: The Orioles Pat Dobson pitches a no-hitter against the Yomiuri Giants, winning 2–0. It is the first no-hitter in Japanese-American exhibition history. The Orioles compile a record of 12-2-4 on the tour.

» June 6, 1972: Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants (Japanese League) hits home runs 499 and 500.

» September 20, 1972: Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants hits a home run to set a new Japanese record of seven home runs in seven consecutive games. Dale Long in 1956 hit in eight straight, and several players have hit in 6.

» July 23, 1976: In a game against the Taiyo Whales, Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants hits his 700th home run, the only player in Japanese baseball to do so.

» December 28, 1983: Free-agent OF Warren Cromartie signs a reported 3-year, $2.5 million contract to play for Japan's Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. The 30-year-old Cromartie, who hit .278 for the Expos last season, is the best American player to jump to Japan while still in his prime.

» May 18, 1994: Japanese P Hiromi Makihara of the Yomiuri Giants pitches a perfect game, 6–0 win over the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. It is the 15th perfect game in Japanese baseball history.

» September 9, 1995: In the Japan-Central League, the visiting Yakult Swallows beat the Yomiuri Giants 0, behind Terry Bross's no hitter. Bross becomes only the second foreign-born pitcher to pitch a no-hitter.