Orix Buffaloes

Orix Buffaloes
League	Pacific League
Location	Osaka, Kobe
Ballpark	Kyocera Dome Osaka and Hotto Motto Field Kobe
Year Founded	1936
Nickname(s)	Orix (オリックス), Buffaloes (バファローズ), Bs
League championships	Hankyu/Orix: 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1995, 1996 Kintetsu: 1979, 1980, 1989, 2001
Japan Series championships	Hankyu/Orix: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1996
Former name(s)	Orix BlueWave: Hankyu Professional Baseball Club (1936–1946), Hankyu Bears (1947), Hankyu Braves (1947–1988), Orix Braves (1989–1990), Orix BlueWave (1991–2004) Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes: Kintetsu Pearls (1950-1958), Kintetsu Buffalo (1959-1961), Kintetsu Buffaloes (1962-1998), Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (1999-2004)
Colors	White, yellow and dark blue
Manager	Okada Akinobu LogoDesign = "Buffaloes" written in yellow and blue
Uniforms Home Away

The Orix Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ, Orikkusu Bafarōzu^?) 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 team was formed after the 2004 NPB season by the merger of the Orix BlueWave and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. The merged team began play in the 2005 NPB season, splitting its home games between the Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, in Kobe and the Kyocera Dome Osaka, that of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, in Osaka.

Franchise history

Hankyu/Orix, 1936-2004

The 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 Hankyu Braves, it was one of the first Japanese professional baseball teams.

The Hankyu Braves were one of the strongest teams not only in the Pacific League but in all of Japan. Between 1967 and 1972, the Hankyu Braves won the Pacific League pennant five times, but lost the Japan Series each time against the Tokyo 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 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.

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 Kintetsu Buffaloes played the legendary double-header for the Pacific League pennant (but they could not have got the pennant because of a draw game). The deal had been done with two assurances: the team name would remain "Braves", and the franchise would stay in Nishinomiya. 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 BlueWave

During the first two years of new ownership, the team was known as the Orix Braves and played in Nishinomiya. In 1991, the team became the Orix BlueWave, and moved to Kobe. 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.

Famous players

Famous former Orix BlueWave players include Ichiro Suzuki (now playing for the Seattle Mariners of the American League) and Shigetoshi Hasegawa (formerly of the Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners), as well as Daryl Spencer, Troy Neel, and So Taguchi.

Other remarkable former players include: Tetsuya Yoneda (350 game winner), Takao Kajimoto, Roberto Barbon, Tokuji Nagaike, Mitsuhiro Adachi (underhand big-game pitcher who defeated the Tokyo Giants), Yutaka Fukumoto, Hisashi Yamada (Japan's winningest underhand pitcher), Hideji Kato, Yutaro Imai (once pitched a perfect game), Roberto Marcano, Yoshinori Sato, Greg 'Boomer' Wells (the first non-Japanese triple crown hitter in NPB history), Masafumi Yamamori, Nobuyuki Hoshino and Yasuo Fujii.

Kintetsu, 1950-2004

Main article: Kintetsu Buffaloes

The Kintetsu Buffalo were the first Japanese team to sign an American player. They signed former major league pitcher Glenn Mickens and catcher Ron Bottler for the 1959 season. Mickens had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953 and Bottler had been a career minor league catcher in the United States.

2005 to present

Current roster

Orix Buffaloes rosterview · talk · edit
Active roster				Inactive roster		Coaches/Other
Pitchers 42 Alfredo Figaro 16 Yoshihisa Hirano 19 Chihiro Kaneko 15 Daisuke Katō 12 Hiroshi Kisanuki 18 Mamoru Kishida 11 Kazuki Kondō 17 Ryota Katsuki 49 Shinya Nakayama 63 Yūki Nishi 61 Chan-Ho Park 40 Kazuya Takamiya 20 Hayato Terahara 48 Makoto Yoshino Cha Seung Baek		Catchers 54 Hikaru Itō 27 Takeshi Hidaka 44 Fumihiro Suzuki Infielders 52 Aarom Bardilis  1 Mitsutaka Gotō  5 Mike Hessman  6 Keisuke Kaneko 23 Hirotoshi Kitagawa  3 Seung-Yeop Lee  2 Kōji Yamasaki Outfielders  0 Makoto Moriyama  4 Shogo Akada  8 Shunta Gotō 55 Takahiro Okada(T-Okada)  9 Tomotaka Sakaguchi 36 Shinji Shimoyama 33 So Taguchi 00 Tomochika Tsuboi		Pitchers 28 Satoshi Komatsu 13 Kentaro Kuwahara 14 Shuichi Furukawa 21 Takuya Kai 35 Motoki Higa Catchers 22 Daisuke Maeda 37 Toshiya Tsuji 45 Toshio Saitō 67 Tetsuya Yokoyama Infielders 58 Yusuke Kajimoto 10 Keiji Ōbiki 31 Makoto Shiozaki Outfielders 66 Shintarō Yoshida		Manager 80 Okada Akinobu Coaches -- Takahiro Akagawa (conditioning) 87 Motoyuki Akahori (pitching) 83 Toshifumi Baba (IF defense/3rd base) 70 Eiji Kiyokawa (pitching chief) 74 Hideaki Matsuyama (OF defense/1st base) 82 Takashi Miwa (bullpen) 90 Eiji Mizuguchi (hitting) 96 Taira Sumitomo (head) 78 Osamu Yonemura (training) {{{Active}}} Active, {{{Inactive}}} Inactive 7- or 15-day disabled list † Suspended list # Personal leave Roster updated April 8, 2011 Transactions • Depth chart → All MLB rosters

Baseball Hall of Famers

Elected mainly for Hankyu Braves service

• Takao Kajimoto, P, 1954-1973 (inducted 2007)
• Yutaka Fukumoto, CF, 1969-1988 (inducted 2002)

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

• Hisashi Yamada, P, 1969-1988 (inducted 2006)
• Hiromitsu Kadota, DH, 1989-1990 (inducted 2006)
• Akira Ōgi, MGR 1988-1992†, 1994–2001, 2005 (inducted 2004)
• Toshiharu Ueda, MGR, 1974–1978, 1981-1990 (inducted 2003)
• Tetsuya Yoneda, P, 1956-1975 (inducted 2000)
• Futoshi Nakanishi, Head coach / Hitting coach, 1985-1990†, 1995-1997 (inducted 1999)

†For Kintetsu Buffaloes Elected mainly for Kintetsu Buffaloes service

• Keishi Suzuki, P, 1966-1985 (inducted 2002)
• Yukio Nishimoto, MGR 1974-1981 (inducted 1988)

Former players and managers

as Orix Buffaloes

• Akira Ogi (仰木 彬) - manager, deceased
• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) - IF
• Yoshitomo Tani (谷 佳知) - OF
• Karim García - OF
• Cliff Brumbaugh - RF
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara (清原 和博) - 1B or 3B

as Orix BlueWave

• Akira Ogi (仰木 彬) - manager
• Greg Wells, IF
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (長谷川 滋利) - P
• Hiromitsu Kadota - OF
• Dae-Sung Koo - P
• Takahito Nomura (野村 空生) - P
• Kazuhiro Sato (佐藤 和弘) - also known as "Punch" Sato (パンチ佐藤), OF
• 51 Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗, イチロー) - OF
• So Taguchi (田口 壮) - OF

as Kintetsu Buffaloes

• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) - IF
• Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄) - P
• Charlie Manuel - OF

as Hankyu (and Orix) Braves

• Roberto Barbon - IF
• Tetsuya Yoneda (米田 哲也) - P
• Yutaka Fukumoto (福本 豊) - OF
• Hisashi Yamada (山田 久志) - P
• Hideji Kato (加藤 英司) - 1B
• Animal Resry - P
• Hiromi Matsunaga (松永 浩美) - 3B
• Roberto Marcano - IF

Retired numbers

• none

MLB player

Active:

• Ichiro Suzuki (2001-)

Retired:

• Chan-Ho Park (1994-2010)
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1997–2005)
• Masao Kida (1999–2005)
• So Taguchi (2002–2009)

Mascots

until 2010

• Neppie #111, a young boy
• Ripsea #222, a young girl

2011

• Buffalo Bull #111
• Buffalo Bell #222

External links

• (Japanese) Orix Buffaloes