I may have been a little premature in announcing Kazuhisa Ishii's return to the Tokyo Swallows. He has not officially announced his decision yet, and his personal website is still being updated. Actually, they have been updating it for several days, so maybe I'm looking to the wrong media outlet for confirmation.
The bottom line: only Ishii, and those close to him, know where he will be playing this season.
In case you were wondering, I will no longer be naming the company sponsor (Yakult) when I talk about the Swallows. I've never been a big fan of naming teams after corporations. Teams named after cities I like. And marketing the Swallows (an unfortunate name in its own right) with the name of a yogurt company attached to its front is not sound business practice. They might as well have been called the Yogurt Penguins. Not very potent. You get the picture.
Come to think of it, their little mascot does kind of look like a penguin...
Tokyo Swallows Mascot Picture
