The are a
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese professional
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team based in Sapporo,
Hokkaidō, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
. They compete in the
Pacific LeagueThe or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series...
of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at the
Sapporo DomeThe is a stadium located in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Japan, and is primarily used for baseball and football. It is the home field of the baseball team Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the football club Consadole Sapporo.-History:...
. The Fighters also host a select number of regional home games in cities across Hokkaidō, including Hakodate, Asahikawa, Kushiro, and Obihiro. The team's name comes from its parent organization,
Nippon Hamis a food processing conglomerate headquartered in Hommachi, Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. Founded in 1949, the company is commonly known as Nippon Ham. As a multinational corporation, Nippon Ham operates subsidiaries around the world, including China and the United States...
, a major Japanese food processing company.
Founded in 1946, the Fighters called
Tokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
home for 58 years, as co-tenants of the
Tokyo DomeTokyo Dome is a 55,000-seat baseball stadium located in Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo, Japan.The stadium opened for business on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome which was next door to the site of the predecessor ballpark, Kōrakuen Stadium...
with the
Central League'sThe or is one the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country,The Central League...
Yomiuri GiantsThe are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
near the end of their tenure in the capital city. The franchise has won two
Japan Series, or is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a seven-game series between the winning clubs of the league's two circuits, the Central League and the Pacific League....
titles, in 1962 and 2006.
Senators and Tokyo eras
In 1946, Saburo Yokozawa, leader of the Tokyo Senators before
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, looked to revive the franchise and soon founded the new
Senators. He assembled a team of ready and able players like Hiroshi Oshita, Shigeya Iijima and Giichiro Shiraki, but as a newly formed team the Senators faced strict fiscal management and resorted to using hand-me-down uniforms from the Hankyu Railway's pre-war team (who would eventually become the modern-day
Orix BuffaloesThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan. They play in the Pacific League. The team is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo....
). Former Japanese statesman Kinkazu Saionji, grandson of the influential Kinmochi Saionji, became the team's owner, and Noboru Oride, borrowing heavily from a
Ginzais a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...
cabaretCabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
proprietor, became the team's sponsor. Eventually, trapped by a lack of funds Yokozawa was forced to resign as the team's administrator. For a time, the team was even mockingly nicknamed "Seito" (Bluestockings) after a Japanese
feministFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
magazine of the same name. As the
Tokyo GiantsThe are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
' pet name was "Kyojin," baseball personality Soutaro Suzuki thought that other teams should also have pet names like the Giants, and names such as the
Osaka TigersThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...
' alias "Mouko" (fierce tiger), the Senators' "Seito" and the Pacific's "Taihei" (tranquility) began to be used by the
pressMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. However, the other teams rejected the use of these pet names, so they were not fully adopted.
On January 7, 1947, the team was sold to the Tokyu Corporation. The Tokyu baseball club was inaugurated into the league, and the team’s name became the
Tokyu Flyers. At that time Tokyu dominated the Japanese transportation sector, owning several other
railwayRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
companies, although it was faced with troubles and the possibility of a breakup. Tokyu purchased the team to act as a banner of solidarity for the swelling company, and managing director Hiroshi Okawa assumed ownership of the club. The newly-born Flyers, with Hiroshi Oshita becoming one of the most popular players in the
leagueFor the current Japanese Professional League, see Nippon Professional Baseball. was a professional baseball league in Japan.It was established on February 5, 1936 as "Japan Occupational Baseball League". Then it was renamed "Japanese Baseball League" in 1939. It was run until 1949. There was no...
, began to attract many fans, but the team's administration still went into a deficit.
With the formation of the National Baseball League drawing nearer, in 1948 the not-yet-affiliated
Daiei clubThe are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by the Lotte conglomerate.-History:...
, which had played a few exhibition games against the Otsuka Athletics, joined with Tokyu to create the
Kyuei Flyers ("Kyuei" being a portmanteau of the two companies' names). However, Daiei decided to purchase a separate team, the Kinsei Stars, and after only one year the Flyers reverted back to their former name.
During the off-season of 1949, the Flyers joined the
Pacific LeagueThe or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series...
after the former league split. In September 1953, the team completed a new ballpark—
Komazawa StadiumKomazawa Olympic Park Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Tokyo, Japan. It is currently used mostly for football matches . The stadium holds 22,892 people....
—along one of Tokyu's train lines in Setagaya,
Tokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, moving from
Bunkyois one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. Situated in the middle of the ward area, Bunkyō is a residential and educational center. Beginning in the Meiji period, literati like Natsume Sōseki, as well as scholars and politicians have lived there...
ward's
Korakuen Stadiumwas a stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Completed in 1937, it was primarily used for baseball and was home to the Yomiuri Giants until 1988 when they moved next door, to the Tokyo Dome, which sits on the site of the Velodrome. The ballpark had a capacity of 50,000 people. In 1942 Korakuen Stadium played...
. The Flyers' wild play on the field eventually earned them the nickname, "Komazawa's hooligans."
Toei and Nittaku eras
On February 1, 1954, Tokyu entrusted the management of the Flyers to the
Toei Companyis a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...
, of which Okawa had newly become president. Toei transferred control of the club to a subsidiary company, Toei Kogyo (industrial enterprise). The team's name was changed to the
Toei Flyers, and its legal name consequently became the Toei Flyers Baseball Club. This name stuck for nineteen years.
In 1961, when Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeru Mizuhara resigned from his position, Okawa attempted to woo him to join his team, bringing him to a bar in
Kyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
and calling famous movie producer Koji Shundo to meet with them. Shundo, an old drinking buddy of Mizuhara’s, convinced the four-time
Japan Series, or is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a seven-game series between the winning clubs of the league's two circuits, the Central League and the Pacific League....
champion manager to join the Flyers, and he solidified a strong relationship with Okawa and Toei Studios.
Komazawa Stadium was to be torn down to make way for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, so in 1962 the Flyers moved their base of operations to
Meiji Jingu Stadiumis a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team...
in Shinjuku. (At that time, college baseball teams had priority at Meiji Jingu, so during weekends or other times when school games were being played the Flyers had to use Korakuen or another field for their games.) In the same year, two star aces, Masayuki Dobashi and
Yukio Ozakiwas a liberal Japanese politician, born in modern-day Sagamihara, Kanagawa. Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years, from 1890-1953...
, blossomed under Mizuhara’s coaching and the Flyers captured their first league championship. They would go on to defy odds in the Japan Series and defeat the Hanshin Tigers for their first Japan Series title. This championship would be their only one in the Toei era. The Kokutetsu Swallows jointly occupied Meiji Jingu with the Flyers the following season, and in 1964 the Flyers went back to their old home, Korakuen.
The Flyers assembled a group of powerful sluggers over the next few years—among them:
Isao HarimotoIsao Harimoto is a Korean former Nippon Professional Baseball player and holder of the record for most hits in the Japanese professional leagues. An ethnic Korean, his birth name is Jang Hun...
, Katsuo Osugi, Inchon Bek, and Shoichi Busujima—but on top of a declining movie industry and the "
Black MistIn Japan, the refers to a series of game fixing scandals in the professional leagues between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from these scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; the resulting abandonment of...
" match-fixing scandal that rocked the professional baseball world in 1970 (after which Flyers ace Toshiaki Moriyasu was banned from the game for life), in 1971 Flyers owner Okawa died suddenly. Shigeru Okada, who did not view Okawa favorably, took over Toei after his death. Together with Noboru Goto, company president of Tokyu and loyal friend of Okada (and one who also thought unfavorably of Okawa), Okada let go of the unprofitable team.
The team was sold to Akitaka Nishimura of the Nittaku Home
real estateIn general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
enterprise, a common acquaintance of Okada and Goto, on February 7, 1973. The team’s name became the
Nittaku Home Flyers. Nishimura, in an attempt to inject life back into the unpopular Pacific League, developed seven different uniforms for his team and experimented in every aspect of the team’s operation, but the effort failed to produce results. Believing that the Pacific League’s chances of survival were grim, Nishimura was on the verge of partnering with the
Lotte OrionsThe are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by the Lotte conglomerate.-History:...
, who were eyeing a league reunification. When the deal fell through, Nishimura, tired of the baseball establishment, resigned from his leadership position and abandoned the Flyers.
Nippon-Ham era
On November 19, 1973, meatpacking company
Nippon Hamis a food processing conglomerate headquartered in Hommachi, Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. Founded in 1949, the company is commonly known as Nippon Ham. As a multinational corporation, Nippon Ham operates subsidiaries around the world, including China and the United States...
purchased the team. The club’s name changed to the
Nippon-Ham Fighters, its official name became the Nippon-Ham Baseball Corporation, Osamu Mihara became the team president and Futoshi Nakanishi its manager. After twenty seven years, the "Flyers" nickname was abandoned. The “Fighters” nickname was born from a public appeal by the team’s management. A female high school student from
Okayama prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Okayama.- History :During the Meiji Restoration, the area of Okayama Prefecture was known as Bitchū Province, Bizen Province and Mimasaka Province.- Geography :...
submitted the winning name, giving the reasoning that "(former Fighters player) Katsuo Osugi has guts, so he’s a fighter." Ironically, Osugi would be traded to the Yakult Swallows soon after the Fighters were rechristened.
Over the four seasons between 1974 to 1977, the Fighters dwelled at the bottom of the Pacific League, but after improving to finishing in third place for three straight years between 1978 and 1980, manager Keiji Osawa finally led the Fighters to their second Pacific League pennant in 1981. With saves-leader
Yutaka Enatsuis a former Japanese pitcher regarded as one of best Japanese pitchers of all-time. In , he recorded 401 strikeouts, which is still the world record. He recorded 9 consecutive strikeouts in one of the All-Star games, and 15 consecutive strikeouts in three of the All-Star games between and 1971....
and starter Shigekuni Mashiba (who went 15-0 over the season) forming the heart of the pitching staff, the Fighters shined with offensive sluggers
Tony SolaitaTolia "Tony" Solaita was a Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, and Montreal Expos between 1968 and 1979...
, Junichi Kashiwabara, and
Tommy CruzCirilo "Tommy" Cruz Dilan is a former mcc blue river soccer playeroutfielder in Major League Baseball who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox . Cruz batted and threw left-handed...
. The team that year also featured various important players of smaller stature, like Makoto Shimada and Nobuhiro Takashiro. They would go on to play the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series, where the Fighters lost in six games.
At this time the franchise shared Korakuen Stadium with the Giants, so scheduling games throughout the season posed a problem. League schedulers tried to avoid putting the Fighters and the Giants at Korakuen on the same day, but when they both had home games scheduled, league officials made the implicit decision that the Giants would play during the day and the Fighters during the night. One novel aspect of the Fighters was that they attracted armies of grade-school boys to sit in the outfield stands on weekend games under a “Young Boys’ Fan Club” promotion, starting the first organized
fan clubA fan club is a group that is dedicated to a well-known person, group, idea or sometimes even an inanimate object . Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to supporting them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the person...
in Japanese professional baseball.
During the 1980s the Fighters hosted many of the Pacific League’s leading pitchers, including Isamu Kida (led the P.L. with 22 wins in his rookie year in 1980; won MVP, Rookie of the Year the same year), Mikio Kudo (20 wins in 1982), Hiroshi Tsuno (recorded double-digit win totals in several years throughout the mid-eighties) and Yasumitsu Shibata (three-time All Star; recorded no-hitter in 1990). Yukihiro Nishizaki particularly stood out, recording 15 wins and an
ERAIn baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...
under three in each of his first two years (though the Rookie of the Year title eluded him), racking up seven double-digit win seasons over the course of his eleven-year stay with the Fighters and gaining a considerable following from female fans due to his easy-going demeanor.
From 1988 until the move to
Hokkaidō, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
, the Fighters played their home games in the
Tokyo DomeTokyo Dome is a 55,000-seat baseball stadium located in Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo, Japan.The stadium opened for business on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome which was next door to the site of the predecessor ballpark, Kōrakuen Stadium...
, the stadium that replaced their longtime home Korakuen. After the Dome was finished, the pitching dominance of Yukihiro Nishizaki and Yasumitsu Shibata began to emerge. Keiji Osawa came out of retirement to manage the team for a third time in 1993, only to see his team sink to the bottom of the standings; he gained notoriety for kneeling to the fans at the end of that season, begging for their forgiveness. With the Fighters experiencing more managerial troubles in 1996, then-manager Toshiharu Ueda suddenly took a personal leave during a pennant race with the
Orix BlueWaveThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan. They play in the Pacific League. The team is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo....
, eventually causing the Fighters to fade over the last month of the season. However, new life was born in the Tokyo Dome in 1998. Hitters such as
Nigel WilsonNigel Edward Wilson is a former major league baseball player from Oshawa, Ontario. He played for the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Indians...
, Jerome Brooks,
Yukio Tanakais a former Japanese baseball player for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He played baseball for Fighters during all 22 years in his professional career. He was nicknamed "Mr. Fighters". On May 15, 2007, he hit his 2000th Career Hit during a match against Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He retired...
, Atsushi Kataoka, Katsuhiro Nishiura and a young
Michihiro OgasawaraMichihiro Ogasawara is a Japanese professional baseball player. He currently plays first base for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central League . He played with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters from to .-Career:Ogasawara is one of the most consistent hitters in Japanese baseball...
formed what became known as the
Big Bang lineup and subsequently shattered various batting records. They ran away with first place for the first half of the season, but a pitching collapse in the second half caused a fall of historical proportions. The Fighters would ultimately finish in second place to the
Seibu LionsThe are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based west of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Prince Hotels, which in turn is owned by the Seibu Group...
.
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham era
Prior to the 2002 season, the idea of moving the Fighters to Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaidō and Japan’s fifth largest city, emerged. The Seibu Lions also had preliminary plans to move to the northern metropolis. Tokyo’s Fighters fans voiced their opposition to the proposed relocation (though the franchise never drew as many fans as their co-habitual counterparts, the Giants, while playing in the capital), but it was eventually announced that the team would indeed call the
Sapporo DomeThe is a stadium located in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Japan, and is primarily used for baseball and football. It is the home field of the baseball team Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and the football club Consadole Sapporo.-History:...
its new home beginning in 2004. Aiming to build a
grassrootsA grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
relationship with its future fans, the team decided to change its name to the
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
At first, with the unhappy Seibu Lions suddenly changing their approval vote, Giants owner
Tsuneo Watanabeis a Japanese businessman. He leads Yomiuri Shimbun, and he has a great influence on Japanese sports and Japanese politics. Informally he's nicknamed as Nabetsune, although he hates it.-Controversies:...
and Seibu owner
Yoshiaki TsutsumiYoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble in the late 1980s, Tsutsumi was the wealthiest person in the world for a brief period due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled...
voiced their concerns over the move. They believed that Nippon Ham’s choice to move the team would spur a decentralization in Japanese professional baseball, and they threatened that a decrease in the number of teams in the
KantōThe is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
and
KansaiThe or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...
regions should merit a one-league system instead of two. As a matter of fact, the question of reorganizing baseball’s league structure eventually became a bigger issue than the sale and renaming of the
Kintetsu BuffaloesThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan. They play in the Pacific League. The team is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo....
. The issue eventually settled down, though, and the Fighter’s relocation was eventually approved by the league. The response from the people of Hokkaidō was weak, but NPB fans welcomed the move, noting that the Fighters could now be free from the Tokyo Dome’s high rent and perpetual second-billing to the Giants. Out of respect for the Tokyo-based Fighters fans, the team decided to schedule a few “home” games per season at the Tokyo Dome.
After the move finally was complete in 2004, the Fighters signed former-Tigers superstar
Tsuyoshi Shinjois a former Japanese professional baseball outfielder.-Career:Born in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan and raised in Minami-ku, Fukuoka, he played for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan from until , then for Major League Baseball's New York Mets and San Francisco Giants...
and a revitalized
Fernando SeguignolFernando Alfredo Seguignol is a Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder who is currently a free agent. In 2010 he played for the Orix Buffaloes in the Japanese Pacific League, where he had previously played in 2002, After playing for the Newark Bears...
. American manager
Trey HillmanThomas Brad "Trey" Hillman is the current bench coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has previously been the manager of both the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan's Pacific League and the Kansas City Royals in the American League.-Playing career:Hillman signed with the Cleveland Indians in...
led the team to success in his second year on the job, and at the end of the season, the Fighters were in a fierce race with the Chiba Lotte Marines for the final spot in the new P.L. playoff system. With a vital win over the
Orix BlueWaveThe are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan. They play in the Pacific League. The team is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo....
on September 24, the newly-moved Fighters earned a trip to the postseason, advancing to play Seibu in a three-game series. Though they put up a strong effort against Seibu ace
Daisuke Matsuzakais a Japanese professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball in the United States. He previously played for the Seibu Lions in Japan's Pacific League. He was selected the MVP of the inaugural and the second World Baseball Classic, and is an Olympic bronze...
, the Fighters lost the first game of the series 6-5. They took Game 2 by a score of 5-4. In the decisive third game, the Fighters fought back in the ninth inning after trailing for the whole game but ultimately fell to a
Kazuhiro Wadais a Japanese professional baseball player. He currently plays outfield for the Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball league....
walk-off home run, losing 6-5. The Fighters would have to wait for another chance for the P.L. pennant.
During the pennant race, the Fighters began selling tickets for infield reserved seats at a low 1,500 yen price point, in an attempt to draw fans to the park. At and after 7:30 pm, usually well after the first pitch, the team began selling special child-fare tickets called “730 Tickets” (they started the same promotion at the Tokyo Dome in 2005). In addition to these, in 2005 they added extra-low priced tickets, discount parking passes and beer coupons to attract more fans. As a result of these promotions, and partially due to the rising popularity of young pitcher
Yu DarvishYu Darvish is a Japanese starting pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.Darvish pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2009 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Japanese national team...
, drafted the year before, the left field stands became constantly sold out for exhibition games, regular season games and playoff games, filled with loud and raucous ‘ouendan’. Even the right field stands, usually occupied by the visiting team’s fans, began to fill with Fighters supporters. In 2005, the Fighters drew over 1,000,000 fans for the first time since 1993, ranking second in the P.L. after the
Fukuoka Softbank HawksThe are a Japanese baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. The team was bought on January 28, 2005 by the SoftBank Corporation.The team was formerly known as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. In 1988, Daiei bought the team from Osaka's Nankai Electric Railway Co., and its headquarters were...
.
Also in 2005, a previously unknown manager,
Shigeru TakadaShigeru Takada is the former manager of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows baseball team in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He stepped down on May 26, 2010. Before assuming this role, he was a player for the Yomiuri Giants from to .-External links:...
, became the club’s first general manager. On April 27, owner Yoshinori Okoso died. The Fighters retired the number 100 in his honor, a first in club history (also the first retired number for owners in NPB). Yukio Tanaka reached a career 1000 RBI total, and
Makoto KanekoMakoto Kaneko is a professional baseball player from Abiko, Chiba, Japan. He is an infielder for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Japanese baseball team.Kaneko won the Pacific League rookie of the year award in 1996...
joined the 1000
hitIn baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice....
club in the same year. On September 20 the Lions smashed the Fighters at home, crushing the Fighters’ hopes of making the playoffs for the second year in a row. In the offseason, the Fighters acquired
Major LeagueMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
veteran
Jose MaciasJosé Prado Macías Salazar is a Major League Baseball player. He currently plays for the Piratas de Campeche in the Mexican League...
, and as former number one starter
Yusaku Irikiis a Japanese former baseball pitcher.-Biography:Iriki attended the Perfect Liberty High School and Asia University before joining the Honda amateur baseball team. He was drafted by the Yomiuri Giants in . In , his older brother, Satoshi, was traded to the Giants from the Kintetsu Buffaloes, and...
tried his luck in America the club attempted to sign
Kazuhisa IshiiKazuhisa Ishii is a Japanese former Major League Baseball pitcher who currently plays for the Saitama Seibu Lions....
, but failed. In the draft, the team selected pitchers Tomoya Yagi and Masaru Takeda. And, before the 2006 season
Shigeyuki Furukiis a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central League. Before playing for the Giants he was a member of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters....
and
Kazunari Sanematsuis a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central League. Before playing for the Giants he was a member of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.-External links:...
were traded to the Giants for pitcher
Hideki Okajimais a Japanese professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox organization in the United States, currently with their AAA affiliate, the Pawtucket Red Sox. He played with the Yomiuri Giants and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league from 1994-2006...
.
The 2006 season would turn out to be a monumental one for the Fighters. After defeating the
Tokyo Yakult Swallowsis a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League.The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, the Yakult Corporation. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei...
on the final day of interleague play, the Fighters went on an eleven game winning streak, the best such streak for the franchise in over 45 years and tying the team record. After achieving the feat, the team had a six and a seven game winning streak, demonstrating to the rest of the P.L. that they were a dangerous club.
A fierce struggle for first place developed between the Fighters, Lions and Hawks. On September 27, the Fighters emerged in first place, earning the title “Regular Season Champions.” They also boasted the best team ERA (3.05) and the best team
home runIn baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
total (135) in the NPB. Yu Darvish had an especially impressive year, winning 12 games and posting an ERA of 2.89, establishing himself as the ace of the Fighters’ staff.
The Fighters swept the Hawks in the second stage of the P.L. playoffs to earn their third pennant. In the Japan Series, the team won their first Japanese championship in 44 years, defeating the
Chunichi DragonsThe are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu region of Japan. The team is in the Central League. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series.-History:...
in five games. Fittingly, Darvish pitched for the win in the final game of the series. The series' MVP honors went to Fighters' outfielder
Atsunori InabaAtsunori Inaba is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He was the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 Japan Series....
, who hit for a .357
batting averageBatting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
during the series with one home run and six RBIs. The championship win was especially fitting for OF Tsuyoshi Shinjo, who was a longtime veteran of the Hanshin Tigers (who were perennial losers), and also had played for a brief time in the United States' Major League Baseball. It was Shinjo's ultimate desire to win a championship, and he did in the final year of his illustrious career in Japan with Nippon-Ham.
This victory gave the Fighters a berth in the four-team Asia Series, in which the team went undefeated in the round-robin and won the final 1-0 over the
La New BearsThe Lamigo Monkeys , formerly First Financial Holdings Agan and then the La New Bears , are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan...
.
The 2006 offseason saw the departure of 2 of Nippon-Ham's best players, both via free agency. First baseman Michihiro Ogasawara was signed to a blockbuster contract with the
Yomiuri GiantsThe are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...
, and left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima departed to the
Boston Red SoxThe Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
. At the start of the 2007 season, Nippon-Ham had a lot of trouble scoring runs, relying far too much on their pitching, despite the continuing maturation of Yu Darvish, who had back-to-back complete game, 14-strikeout performances early in the season. At one point, Nippon Ham was second-to-last in the
Pacific LeagueThe or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series...
, but recently has been able to turn it around. With the start of Interleague play, Nippon Ham began a 14-game winning streak, which ended on June 9 with a 3-2 extra inning loss to the Yakult Swallows, with the bullpen wasting another great performance by Darvish.
The Fighters went on to win the Pacific League championship and went through the Climax Series to earn a second consecutive trip to the Japan Series to once again face the Chunichi Dragons. But in a reversal of roles from last year, the Fighters took Game 1, but the Dragons took the next four games to defeat the Fighters; the last of which being a combined perfect game by Dragons pitchers Daisuke Yamai and Hitoki Iwase.
Current roster
Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Troop Manager (梨田 昌孝)
Coaches (中嶋 聡) (catcher) (田中 幸雄) (hitting) (芝草 宇宙) (bullpen) (福良 淳一) (chief/hitting) (吉井 理人) (pitching) (清水 雅治) (first base) (真喜志 康永) (third base)
Farm team Manager ( 五十嵐 信一)
Coaches (島崎 毅) (chief/pitching) (川名 慎一) (Coach) (大村 巌) (Coach) (徳田 吉成) (Coach) (関根 裕之) (pitching) (三木肇) (Coach)
Retired numbers
Honoured numbers
MLB Players
Active:
- Hideki Okajima
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox organization in the United States, currently with their AAA affiliate, the Pawtucket Red Sox. He played with the Yomiuri Giants and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league from 1994-2006...
(2007-)
- Yoshinori Tateyama
is a Japanese Major League Baseball pitcher for the Texas Rangers.As a sidearm pitcher Tateyama combines a fastball that averages 87 mph with a curveball, and he also pitches a screwball against lefties. While his strikeout totals were average, he got hitters out with his control .On November...
(2011-)
Retired:
- Yusaku Iriki
is a Japanese former baseball pitcher.-Biography:Iriki attended the Perfect Liberty High School and Asia University before joining the Honda amateur baseball team. He was drafted by the Yomiuri Giants in . In , his older brother, Satoshi, was traded to the Giants from the Kintetsu Buffaloes, and...
(2006–2007)
Mascot
- Fighty (retired): a bright pink pterodactyl whose head resembled a giant leg of ham and who sometimes rode a bicycle around the field. Fighty was retired, despite the (unsuccessful) "Save Fighty" campaign, when the Fighters moved to Hokkaidō.
- B·B (Brisky the Bear): a black bear with a ruffle of black or orange hair on his head. He first appeared in 2004, as the successor to Fighty. When B·B was first introduced, his appearance was criticized by some of the Fighters' supporters, because it was too Americanized. After changes to his face, B·B became one of the most popular mascots in both Japanese major leagues. He also won "fastest runner" among Japanese major leagues' mascots on the TV show, Trivia no izumi in 2004. On the Fighters official website, B·B has his own photo gallery and column which is known for its firm attitude towards the career of a professional mascot.
- Cubby (Cubby the Bear): a brown bear and younger brother of B·B. He appeared in 2006 as the mascot of the Fighters' minor league team, based in Kamagaya, Chiba
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
. Cubby and B·B performed for each team, but also sometimes perform together when the Fighters' professional team plays in Tokyo.
External links
Official website