Chiba Lotte Marines

Chiba Lotte Marines
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Nippon Professional Baseball Pacific League (1950–present)
Location	Mihama-ku, Chiba, Chiba, Japan
Ballpark	Zozo Marine Stadium
Year founded	1949
Nickname(s)	Kamome (鴎, seagulls)
Pacific League championships	5 (1950, 1960, 1970, 1974, 2005)
Japan Series championships	4 (1950, 1974, 2005, 2010)
Former name(s)	Chiba Lotte Marines (1992–present) Lotte Orions (1969–1991) Tokyo Orions (1964–1968) Mainichi Daiei Orions (1958–1963) Mainichi Orions (1950–1957)
Former ballparks	Zozo Marine Stadium (1992–present) Kawasaki Stadium (1978–1991) Miyagi Stadium (1973–1977) Tokyo Stadium (1962–1972) Korakuen Stadium (1950–1962)
Colors	Black, White
Mascot	Mar-kun, Rine-chan, and Zu-chan
Playoff berths	11 (, , , , 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013 2015, 2016, 2020)
Retired numbers	26
Ownership
Management	Lotte Holdings
Manager	Tadahito Iguchi
Uniforms

The Chiba Lotte Marines (千葉ロッテマリーンズ, Chiba Rotte Marīnzu) is a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd.

History[]

The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural member of the Pacific League. The Marines won the inaugural Japan Series in 1950.

In 1958, the team was merged with the Daiei Unions and renamed the Daimai Orions. In 1964 they became the Tokyo Orions, and the Lotte Orions in 1969. The franchise was slow to replicate its initial success: the Orions made the Japan Series in 1960 and 1970, only to lose both years.

The team played in central Tokyo until 1972. From 1973 to 1977 the Lotte Orions played in the northern Japanese city of Sendai. In 1974, they beat the Chunichi Dragons, becoming the first Pacific League team to win the Series in ten years, as the Yomiuri Giants had claimed the prior nine titles behind the Oh–Nagashima attack.

In 1977, the Lions signed Major League Baseball player Leron Lee, who ended up playing for the team for eleven seasons, compiling a .320 career batting average and slugging 283 home runs with 912 career RBI. From his retirement to early 2018 (when surpassed by Norichika Aoki), Lee held the Japanese record for career batting average (players with more than 4,000 at bats). In 1978, Lee invited younger brother Leon Lee to play in Japan, and the brothers formed a feared cleanup for the Orions for five seasons — in 1980, Leron had 33 home runs, 90 RBI, and a batting average of .358; while Leon slugged 41 home runs and drove in 116 runs, with a batting average of .340.

In 1978 the team returned to the Tokyo area, settling in Kawasaki's Kawasaki Stadium, at one time home to the Taiyo Whales (today's Yokohama DeNA Baystars).

In 1992, the team moved to Chiba City's Chiba Marine Stadium on the eastern shore of Tokyo Bay and were renamed the Chiba Lotte Marines.

The team failed to reach the Japan Series again until 2005. The Marines started the 2005 season in first place behind American manager Bobby Valentine, but fell behind the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks as the year progressed. Under the playoff format of the time, the preliminary five-game playoff round, prior to the Japan Series, saw the teams with the best first and second half records face off. The Marines defeated the Hawks three games to two in the Pacific League championship, winning the rubber match despite entering the eighth inning trailing, 2–1.

The Marines thus qualified for the Japan Series, the first time they had reached the tournament since 1974, a 31-year drought. In a one-sided series, the Marines swept the Hanshin Tigers in four games, scoring ten runs in each of the first three games. The apparent ease with which the Marines defeated the Tigers added fuel to the ongoing debate concerning the need for a playoff system in the Central League, which was finally added in 2007 (see Climax Series). The Marines went on to defeat South Korea's Samsung Lions in the final round of the Konami Cup Championships.

In 2010, the Marines clinched third place on the last day of the season to earn a berth into the Climax Series. They went on to become the first third place team to ever win the Climax Series,^{[citation needed]} and faced off with the Chunichi Dragons in the 2010 Japan Series. The Marines defeated the Dragons in seven games, composed of four wins, two losses, and one tie, winning their second Japan Series in under ten years.

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2021)

Current roster[]

Notable former players[]

MLB players[]

Active:

• Hirokazu Sawamura (2021–)

Retired:

• Hideki Irabu (1997–2002)
• Masato Yoshii (1998–2002)
• Satoru Komiyama (2002)
• Tadahito Iguchi (2005–2008)
• Masahide Kobayashi (2008–2009)
• Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2011–2012)
• (2009–2011)
• Yasuhiko Yabuta (2008–2009)
• Shunsuke Watanabe (2014)
• Yuhei Nakaushiro (2016–2018)

Honored number[]

Fans' number Retired 2005

• 26 – This number was retired in honor of the Marines' fans in 2005. It was inspired by some teams in other sports (such as football, which retires "12" for the "12th man", or basketball, which retires "6" for the "6th man").The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles has the No. 10 retired in similar fashion. MLB's Los Angeles Angels has retired No. 26, in same fashion, for the founder Gene Autry.

Managers[]

• Statistics current through the end of the 2020 season.^[1]

Mascots[]

Mar-kun (マーくん, Maa-kun) is a main mascot character of the Marines. With his girlfriend Rine-chan (リーンちゃん, Riin-chan) and his young brother Zu-chan (ズーちゃん, Zuu-chan). he entertains spectators at team games. Their name is a separateness of the team name.

Mysterious fish (謎の魚, Nazo-no-sakana) is a new mascot character since May 2017. He is a weird fish with legs.^[2][3] He has collaborated with Hawaiian Airlines that former Marines' player Benny Agbayani works for, since 2018.^[4]

Back when the team were known as the "Lotte Orions", their mascot was a character known simply as Bubble-Boy (バブル坊や, Bable-Boya) who only appeared as a logo.

See also[]

• Lotte Giants
• Lotte Group

References[]

External links[]

• Chiba Lotte Marines official website (in Japanese)
• We Love Marines – English-language Marines fansite