Orix Buffaloes

ORIX Buffaloes
Team logo Cap insignia
League

Nippon Professional Baseball (1950–present)

Ballpark Osaka Dome (2005, 2007–present)
Year established 1936 (1936)
Pacific League pennants 12 (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1995, 1996)
Japan Series championships 4 (1975, 1976, 1977, 1996)
Former name(s)
  • Hankyu (1936–1946)
  • Hankyu Braves (1947–1988)
  • Orix Braves (1989–1990)
  • Orix BlueWave (1991–2004)
  • ORIX Buffaloes (2005–present)
Former league(s) Japanese Baseball League (1936–1949)
Former ballparks
Colors Navy, Gold, White
              
Ownership Orix
Manager Junichi Fukura

The ORIX Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ Orikkusu Bafarōzu) are a Nippon Professional Baseball team that was formed following the 2004 NPB season by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan and the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The team plays in the Pacific League and is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo.

The combined team began play in 2005 and splits their home games between Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, and the Osaka Dome, which was the home of the original Buffaloes franchise.

Franchise history

Hankyu/Orix (1936–2004)

Hankyu Braves

The Orix BlueWave was founded in 1936 under the ownership of a Japanese railway company Hanshin Kyuko Railway Company (阪神急行電鉄 Hanshin Kyuko Dentetsu, present: Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.), as Osaka Hankyu Baseball Club (大阪阪急野球協会 Ōsaka hankyū yakyū kyōkai). Later nicknamed the Hankyu Braves, it was one of the first Japanese professional baseball teams.

In the early 1950s the franchise made a dedicated effort to attract foreign talent, particularly African-American veterans of Negro League baseball,[1] including infielders John Britton and Larry Raines, and pitchers Jimmy Newberry and Rufus Gaines. These players were the first Americans other than Wally Yonamine to play Nippon Professional Baseball.

Starting in the mid-1960s, the Braves became one of the strongest teams not only in the Pacific League but in all of Japanese professional baseball. Between 1967 and 1972, the Hankyu Braves won the Pacific League pennant five times, but lost the Japan Series each time against the Yomiuri Giants. Manager Yukio Nishimoto was known as "the great manager in tragedy" because of those losses. But the Hankyu Braves won Japan Series three times in a row from 1975, against the Tokyo Giants in 1976 and 1977, led by manager Toshiharu Ueda. At that time many good players in Japanese baseball history played for the Hankyu Braves, including pitcher Hisashi Yamada and outfielder Yutaka Fukumoto.

In the 1980s, the team was still strong but lost the pennant to the Seibu Lions every year except 1984.

On October 19, 1988, Hankyu Railway sold the franchise to the lease company Orient Lease (since 1989 known as Orix Group). That was known as "the longest day of the Pacific League" because it was also the day when the Kintetsu Buffaloes played the legendary double-header for the Pacific League pennant (but they could not have won the pennant because of a tie game). The sale was a surprise, because it was much rarer in those days in Japan for the ownership of a professional baseball team to change, not to mention for a large company to sell one of its parts; Hankyu Railway was thought of as one of the big companies that would never need to do such a thing.

The sale was made with two assurances: the team name would remain "Braves", and the franchise would stay in Nishinomiya. During the first two years of new ownership, the team was known as the Orix Braves and played in Nishinomiya.

BlueWave

In 1991, the team moved to Kobe and became the Orix BlueWave. Longtime fans were shocked by these changes. However, since Nishinomiya and Kobe are close to one another, and the new home field of the team was better than the old one, most fans accepted the move, although with some nostalgia for the historic "Braves" name. The team was sometimes called Aonami or Seiha (青波) by fans and the baseball media, which means "blue wave" in Japanese.

Led by Ichiro Suzuki, in 1995 and 1996 the Orix BlueWave won the Pacific League pennant. In 1996, they also won the Japan Series.

Orix Buffaloes (2005 to present)

Following the 2004 NPB season the BlueWave merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. The team has struggled since its merger, and has finished in the top half (or A Class) of the Pacific league only once from 2005 to 2013.

In 2008, The Buffaloes finished 2nd in the Pacific League, going 75-68-1 and finishing 2 1/2 games behind the Saitama Seibu Lions, but were swept by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at home in the 1st stage of the Climax Series.

In 2013 the Buffaloes finished in 5th place with a 66-73-5.[2]

The Buffaloes signed free-agent Yuniesky Betancourt to a one-year contract for the 2014 season.[3] On July 22, 2014 he was released from the Orix Buffaloes with an injury.

Current roster

First squad Second squad

Pitchers

Catchers

  • 45 Toshio Saitō

Infielders

Outfielders


Manager

  • 78 Fukura Junichi
Pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders



Updated December 18, 2013
All NPB rosters

Baseball Hall of Famers

Elected mainly for Hankyu Braves service

Elected for service with other teams, as well as Hankyu and Orix

Elected mainly for Kintetsu Buffaloes service

Notable former players and managers

as Orix Buffaloes

as Orix BlueWave

as Kintetsu (and Osaka Kintetsu) Buffaloes

as Hankyu (and Orix) Braves

MLB players

Active:

Former:

Mascots

Buffalo Bell (left) and Buffalo Bull (right)
until 2010
  • Neppie #111, a young boy
  • Ripsea #222, a young girl
since 2011
  • Buffalo Bull #111, a male buffalo, Bell's brother
  • Buffalo Bell #222, a female buffalo, Bull's sister

References

  1. Zurui, "Negro Leaguers in Japan," BlackTokyo (September 12, 2008).
  2. http://bis.npb.or.jp/yearly/pacificleague_2013.html
  3. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10369413/yuniesky-betancourt-signs-japan-orix-bluewave
  4. Whiting, Robert (1989). You Gotta Have Wa. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 287–88. ISBN 0-679-72947-X.

External links

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