The 1973 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 24th season of operation of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). This was the first season with a playoff system, albeit only in the Pacific League, which would match the first-place teams of the first half and second half of the season; if a team finished first place in both halves of the season, they automatically were the champion of the league and therefore went on to play in the Japan Series. On July 11, 1973, a 9-8 victory by the Nittaku Flyers over the Lotte Orions meant that the Nankai Hawks won the inaugural first-half championship. On July 27, the second half began for the Pacific League. On October 5, the Hankyu Braves clinched the second-half in the Pacific when the Lotte Orions lost to the Taiheiyo Lions that would set up a Braves-Hawks playoff series starting on October 19. Meanwhile, the Central League went down to the wire, with the Hanshin Tigers leading with two games remaining before the Tigers hit a lull as the Yomiuri Giants rallied to win the pennant again with a 9-0 victory on October 22 over the Tigers.
This system would continue until 1982.
Regular season standings + Central League regular season standings Pos Team G W L T Pct. GB1Yomiuri Giants13066604.524—2Hanshin Tigers13064597.5200.53Chunichi Dragons13064615.5121.54Yakult Atoms13062653.4884.55Taiyo Whales13060646.4845.06Hiroshima Toyo Carp13060673.4726.5
+ Pacific League regular season standings Pos Team G W L T Pct. 1st half rank 2nd half rank1st half winnerNankai Hawks13068584.540132nd half winnerHankyu Braves13077485.616313Lotte Orions130704911.588224Taiheiyo Club Lions13059647.480455Nittaku Home Flyers13055696.444536Kintetsu Buffaloes13042835.33666
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. 13,800 turned out for the first ever Pacific League playoff game on October 19.
Nankai Hawks won the series 3-2. GameScoreDateLocation1 Hawks – 4, Braves – 2 October 19Osaka Stadium2 Hawks – 7, Braves – 9 October 20Osaka Stadium3 Braves – 3, Hawks – 6 October 22Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium4 Braves – 13, Hawks – 1 October 23Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium5 Braves – 1, Hawks – 2 October 24Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium
Japan Series
Yomiuri Giants won the series 4-1. GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1 Hawks – 4, Giants – 3 October 27Osaka Stadium 27,0272 Hawks – 2, Giants – 3 October 28Osaka Stadium 28,1353 Giants – 8, Hawks – 2 October 30Korakuen Stadium 34,7134 Giants – 6, Hawks – 2 October 31Korakuen Stadium 38,2705 Giants – 5, Hawks – 1 November 1Korakuen Stadium 37,761
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