The 1982 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 33rd season of operation for the league. This was the last season of the first-half/second-half playoff system for the Pacific League, which changed their system for 1983 that would see the first-place team play the second-place team in a playoff only if they finished within five games of each other (in contrast, the ten-season tenure of matching the champion of the halves saw two occasions where one team won both halves). As it never ended up being used until its dissolution in 1985, the next season in which either league had a playoff system until 2004. The Chunichi Dragons narrowly won the Central pennant by defeating the fifth-place Taiyo Whales, who they played three times to end the season and needed to beat twice.
Regular season standings
Central League Central League G W L T Pct. GBChunichi Dragons 130 64 47 19 .577 –Yomiuri Giants 130 66 50 14 .569 0.5Hanshin Tigers 130 65 57 8 .533 4.5Hiroshima Toyo Carp 130 59 58 13 .504 8.0Yokohama Taiyo Whales 130 53 65 12 .449 14.5Yakult Swallows 130 45 75 10 .375 23.5
Pacific League Pacific League G W L T Pct. 1st half ranking 2nd half rankingSeibu Lions 130 68 58 4 .540 1 3Nippon-Ham Fighters 130 67 52 11 .563 4 1Kintetsu Buffaloes 130 63 57 10 .525 3 2Hankyu Braves 130 62 60 8 .508 2 5Lotte Orions 130 54 69 7 .439 6 4Nankai Hawks 130 53 71 6 .427 5 6
Pacific League playoff The Pacific League teams with the best first and second-half records met in a best-of-five playoff series to determine the league representative in the Japan Series. Terry Whitfield hit two home runs in the deciding Game 4 to send the Lions to the Japan Series.
Seibu Lions won the series 3–1.
Japan Series
Seibu Lions won the series 4–2. GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1 Dragons – 3, Lions – 7 October 23Nagoya Stadium 29,1962 Dragons – 1, Lions – 7 October 24Nagoya Stadium 29,1943 Lions – 3, Dragons – 4 October 26Seibu Lions Stadium 25,3424 Lions – 3, Dragons – 5 October 27Seibu Lions Stadium 29,3235 Lions – 3, Dragons – 1October 28Seibu Lions Stadium 26,2306 Dragons – 4, Lions – 9October 30Nagoya Stadium 28,725
See also 1982 Major League Baseball season
References