Chunichi Dragons

Chunichi Dragons
Established 1936
Team logo Cap Insignia
League affiliations
Japanese Baseball League (1936–1949) Nippon Professional Baseball (1950–present) Central League (1950–present)
Current uniform
Retired Numbers	10, 15
Colors	Blue, White
Name
Nagoya (1936–1943) Sangyo (1944) Chubu Nippon (1946) Chubu Nippon Dragons (1947) Chunichi Dragons (1947–1950) Nagoya Dragons (1951–1953) Chunichi Dragons (1954–present)
Other nicknames
Ryu (竜?, dragon)
Ballpark
Korakuen Stadium (1948) Nagoya Baseball Stadium (1949–1996) Nagoya Dome (1997–present)
League titles
Japan Series titles (2)	1954, 2007
CL Pennants (8)	1954, 1974, 1982, 1988, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011
Owner(s): Chunichi Shimbun Co.
Manager: Morimichi Takagi
General Manager:
2011 Chunichi Dragons season

The Chunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ, Chūnichi Doragonzu^?) are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu ("Middle of Japan") region of Japan. The team is in the Central League. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series.

History

The Chunichi Dragons were formed in 1936 as the Nagoya Club. They had experimented with five different names between 1936 and 1953 before settling with "Dragons" in 1954. 1954 was the same year that the Dragons won their first Japan Series championship. The Dragons had won the Central League pennant seven times until 2006, but until 2007 their last Japan Series victory was in 1954, the longest such drought in Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB). In 1974, the team won the league title for the first time in 20 years, and this victory stopped the Yomiuri Giants from winning the league for their tenth consecutive year. Another league title came in 1999, and in that year, Dragons set a record by winning 11 consecutive games at the opening of the season. In the 2004 season they reached the Japan Series, but lost to the Seibu Lions, the Pacific League Champions. Although they have had little success in the playoffs, they are still known as one of the most powerful teams in NPB.

2007 Japan Series Title

The Chunichi Dragons after winning the 2007 Japan Series Title

In early 2007, the playoff rules were changed: The top team in the league would advance automatically, while the second and third teams in the league would play a best-of-three series. The winner would face the 1st place team in a best-of-five series to see who would advance to the Japan Series finals. The Dragons took advantage of the new playoff system, and after finishing second in the season standings, swept the Hanshin Tigers in a best-of-three series, then, in a huge upset, swept the heavily favoured Yomiuri Giants in a best-of-five series to advance to the Japan Series against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. In an exact reversal of the 2006 Japan Series, Hokkaido won game 1 of the series, but the Dragons won the next four straight games, including a combined perfect game from Daisuke Yamai to star closer Hitoki Iwase in the deciding Game 5, to become the 2007 Japan Series Champions.

Current roster

Chunichi Dragons rosterview · talk · edit
First squad				Second squad
Pitchers 21 Weiyin Chen 20 Kenichi Nakata 43 Takashi Ogasawara 34 Masahiro Yamamoto 19 Kazuki Yoshimi 41 Takuya Asao 60 Junichi Kawahara 69 Masato Kobayashi 45 Nelson Payano 23 Yoshihiro Suzuki 67 Akifume Takahashi 29 Daisuke Yamai 13 Hitoki Iwase Catchers 00 Akihiro Maeda 65 Keiji Oyama 27 Motonobu Tanishige		Infielders  2 Masahiro Araki 42 Tony Blanco  6 Hirokazu Ibata 46 Tatsuro Iwasaki 31 Masahiko Morino  3 Kazuyoshi Tatsunami Outfielders  8 Ryosuke Hirata  9 Kazuki Inoue 44 Masaaki Koike 24 Hidenori Kuramoto 30 Kei Nomoto  5 Kazuhiro Wada Manager 66 Morimichi Takagi		Pitchers 54 Kazuyuki Akasaka 14 Kenta Asakura 58 Ken Higuchi 33 Masafumi Hirai 61 Yuichi Hisamoto 18 Junki Ito 28 Shinji Iwata 17 Susumu Kawai 47 Masanori Kikuchi  0 Hiroki Kongoh 68 Shoji Nagamine 70 Atsushi Nakazato 49 Maximo Nelson 64 Ryosuke Oguma 38 Shinsuke Saitoh 16 Mitsuru Satoh 50 Ryota Satoh 12 Akinobu Shimizu 35 Shohei Takashima 26 Sohma Yamauchi Catchers 52 Kouhei Oda 59 Masatoshi Ogawa 39 Masaumi Shimizu 22 Daisuke Tanaka		Infielders 25 Ryota Arai  1 Naomichi Donoue 55 Nobumasa Fukuda 37 Kyohei Iwasaki 40 Akira Nishikawa 57 Tomas de la Rosa 48 Michihisa Sawai 36 Tetsuya Tani 53 Shigeo Yanagida Outfielders 63 Takehiro Donoue  6 Atsushi Fujii 62 Shinji Ito 32 Hiroki Nakagawa 51 Issei Nakamura 56 Koji Nakamura Manager 85 Hatsuhiko Tsuji Development Players 201 Satoshi Kato (OF) 211 Takaya Kobayashi (OF) Updated 2009-09-25

Baseball Hall of Famers (incomplete list)

The following Hall of Famers played and/or managed for the Dragons, and are listed with the years they were with the club.

• Hideo Fujimoto (藤本 英雄) (1947)
• Michio Nishizawa (西澤 道夫) (1947–1950, 1954–1958, 1963–1968)
• Amachi Shunichi (天知 俊一) (1949–1958)
• Morimichi Takagi (髙木 守道) (1960–1986, 1992–1995, 2012-)
• Wally Kaname Yonamine (与那嶺 要) (1961–1962, 1963–1966, 1970–1977)
• Larry Doby (1962)
• Kazuhisa Inao (稲尾 和久) (1978–1980)
• Kazuhiro Yamauchi (山内 一弘) (1984–1986)
• Hisashi Yamada (山田 久志) (1999–2003)
• Takao Kajimoto (梶本 隆夫) (1998–1999)

Retired numbers

• 10 Tsuguhiro Hattori (服部 受弘)
• 15 Michio Nishizawa (西澤 道夫)

MLB Players

Active:

• Kosuke Fukudome (2008-)
• Kenshin Kawakami (2009-)

Retired:

• Akinori Otsuka (2003-2007)

External links

• (Japanese) Chunichi Dragons official web site