Orix Buffaloes

Orix Buffaloes
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Nippon Professional Baseball Pacific League (1950–present) Japanese Baseball League (1936–1949)
Location	Nishi-ku, Osaka, Osaka, Japan
Ballpark	Kyocera Dome Osaka
Year founded	1936
Pacific League championships	12 (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1995, 1996)
Japan Series championships	4 (1975, 1976, 1977, 1996)
Former name(s)	Orix Buffaloes (2005–present) Orix BlueWave (1991–2004) Orix Braves (1989–1990) Hankyu Braves (1947–1988) Hankyu Club (1936–1946)
Former ballparks	Kyocera Dome Osaka (2005, 2007–present) Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium (1991–2004, 2006) Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium (1937–1990) (1936)
Colors	Navy, Gold, White
Mascot	Buffalo Bull and Buffalo Bell
Playoff berths	7 (, , , , , 2008, 2014)
Ownership	Yoshihiko Miyauchi
Management	Orix
Manager	Satoshi Nakajima (interim)
Uniforms

The Orix Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ, Orikkusu Bafarōzu) are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment 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 under ownership by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo.

The combined team began play in 2005. The Buffaloes split 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 professional baseball teams in Japan.

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 . These players were the first Americans other than Wally Yonamine to play Nippon Professional Baseball after World War II.

Starting in the mid-1960s, the Braves became one of the dominant 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 still went 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), in what was known as "the longest day of the Pacific League". The reason is that when the franchise sale occurred, the Kintetsu Buffaloes played the legendary "10.19" double-header for the Pacific League pennant, only to miss the pennant out because of a tie game. The sale was a surprise, at that time, it was much rarer for a Japanese professional baseball team to change owners, not to mention for a large company to sell one of its parts. In that case, Hankyu Railway was thought of as one of the big companies that would never need to do such a thing.

The sale was not without 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 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment, the BlueWave merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. The team struggled since its merger, only finishing in the top half (or A Class) of the Pacific league 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.

Current roster[]

Orix Buffaloes roster view talk
First squad				Second squad
Pitchers 11 Sachiya Yamasaki 13 Hiroya Miyagi 16 Yoshihisa Hirano 18 Yoshinobu Yamamoto 26 Atsushi Nomi 28 29 Daiki Tajima 49 52 Tyler Higgins 56 Glenn Sparkman 57 Nobuyoshi Yamada 65 66 Catchers 2 Kenya Wakatsuki 23 Torai Fushimi 33 Masato Matsui		Infielders 3 Ryoichi Adachi 4 5 24 36 53 67 Keita Nakagawa Outfielders 6 Yuma Mune 10 Adam Jones 25 34 Masataka Yoshida 38 50 99 Yutaro Sugimoto Manager 78 Satoshi Nakajima Coaches Head coach 88 Pitching 73 26 Atsushi Nomi Position player/hitting 83 Eiichi Koyano Hitting 77 Eishin Soyogi 79 Infield defense/base running 76 Outfield defense/base running 81 So Taguchi Battery 87 Bullpen 91		Pitchers 12 14 Kazumasa Yoshida 15 17 Hirotoshi Masui 19 Taisuke Yamaoka 21 22 30 35 Motoki Higa 37 39 Yuya Iida 43 45 46 47 48 54 Yuta Kuroki 58 Kazuyuki Kaneda 59 César Vargas 61 Tsubasa Sakakibara 63 68 95 98 Catchers 44 62		Infielders 0 9 31 40 42 Rangel Ravelo 64 Outfielders 1 Steven Moya 8 Shunta Gotoh 27 41 55 T-Okada 60 Manager 89 Hiroshi Kobayashi Coaches Patrol head coach Pitching 71 Mamoru Kishida 82 Yusaku Iriki Hitting 70 Yusuke Matsui 80 Infield defense/base running 85 Takayuki Takaguchi Outfield defense/base running 75 Manabu Satake Battery 74 Katsuki Yamazaki Development general 90 Development 72 Masafumi Hirai 86 Shintaro Yoshida 84 Mental Tsutomu Sakai
Development Players
001 (P) 002 (P) 003 (P) 004 (OF) 005 (C) 007 (OF) 008 (P) 011 (P) 012 (P) 013 (P) 014 (C) 016 (IF) 120 (IF) 123 (C) 124 (P) 125 (OF) 127 (OF) 128 (P) 130 (C)
Updated August 25, 2021				→ All NPB rosters

Baseball Hall of Famers[]

Elected mainly for Hankyu Braves service

• Yutaka Fukumoto, CF, 1969–1988 (inducted 2002)
• Takao Kajimoto, P, 1954–1973 (inducted 2007)
• Hisashi Yamada, P, 1969–1988 (inducted 2006)
• Tetsuya Yoneda, P, 1956–1975 (inducted 2000)

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

• Hiromitsu Kadota, DH, 1989–1990 (inducted 2006)
• Futoshi Nakanishi, Head coach / Hitting coach, 1985–1990†, 1995–1997 (inducted 1999) †For Kintetsu Buffaloes
• Akira Ōgi, MGR 1988–1992†, 1994–2001, 2005 (inducted 2004)
• Toshiharu Ueda, MGR, 1974–1978, 1981–1990 (inducted 2003)

Elected mainly for Kintetsu Buffaloes service

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

Notable former players and managers[]

as Orix Buffaloes

• Cliff Brumbaugh – RF
• Karim García – OF
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara (清原 和博) – 1B/3B
• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) – IF
• Chan Ho Park – P
• Lee Seung-Yeop – 1B
• Yoshitomo Tani (谷 佳知) – OF
• Ryan Vogelsong – P
• Masato Yoshii (吉井 理人) – P

as Orix BlueWave

• Koo Dae-sung – P
• Yasuo Fujii – OF
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (長谷川 滋利) – P – formerly of the Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners
• Troy Neel – IB
• Takahito Nomura (野村 空生) – P
• Kazuhiro Sato (佐藤 和弘) (also known as "Punch" Sato) (パンチ佐藤), OF
• Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗, イチロー) – OF – of the Seattle Mariners of MLB's American League
• So Taguchi – OF

as Kintetsu (and Osaka Kintetsu) Buffaloes

• Charlie Manuel – OF
• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) – IF
• Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄) – P
• Tuffy Rhodes – OF
• Masato Yoshii (吉井 理人) – P

as Hankyu (and Orix) Braves

• Mitsuhiro Adachi – P – underhanded big-game pitcher who defeated the Yomiuri Giants
• – IF
• – P – once pitched a perfect game
• Hideji Kato (加藤 英司) – 1B
• Brad "Animal" Lesley – P
• Bobby Marcano – IF
• Hiromi Matsunaga (松永 浩美) – 3B
• Tokuji Nagaike – OF
• Nobuyuki Hoshino – P
• Yoshinori Sato – P
• Daryl Spencer – IF
• Greg "Boomer" Wells – 1B (the first non-Japanese triple crown hitter in NPB history^[2])
• – OF

MLB players[]

Active:

• Yoshihisa Hirano (beginning 2018)
• Adam Jones (beginning 2020)

Former:

• Joey Butler (2014)
• Hideo Nomo (1990–2005, 2008)
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1997–2005)
• Masao Kida (1999–2005)
• So Taguchi (2002–2009)
• Koo Dae-Sung (2005)
• Ryan Vogelsong (2009)
• Ichiro Suzuki (2001–2019)
• Brandon Dickson (2013-2021)

Managers[]

No.	Years in office	YR	Managers	G	W	L	T	Win%	Pacific League championships	Japan Series championships	Playoff berths
1	1936	1		48	28	19	1	.596
2	1937	1	, (1st)	105	45	55	5	.445
3	1938	1		75	42	30	3	.583
4	1939	1	, (2nd)	96	58	36	2	.617
5	1940-1942	3		294	163	119	12	.578
6	1943-1947	4	(1st)	343	159	175	9	.476
7	1948-1953	6	Shinji Hamazaki	720	342	357	21	.489
8	1954-1956	3	(2nd)	436	234	194	8	.547
9	1957-1958	2	Sadayoshi Fujimoto	262	144	106	12	.576
10	1959	1	Sadayoshi Fujimoto,	134	48	82	4	.369
11	1960-1962	3		407	178	219	10	.448
12	1963-1973	11	Yukio Nishimoto	1,492	792	655	45	.547	5 times (1967,1968,1969, 1971,1972)		1 ()
13	1974-1978	5	Toshiharu Ueda (1st)	650	363	245	42	.597	4 times (1975,1976, 1977,1978)	3 times (1975,1976,1977)	3 times (,,)
14	1979-1980	2	Takao Kajimoto	260	133	111	16	.545			1 ()
15	1981-1990	10	Toshiharu Ueda (2nd)	1,300	664	572	64	.537	1 (1984)
16	1991-1993	3	Shozo Doi	390	195	183	12	.516
17	1994-2001	8	Akira Ohgi (1st)	1,070	563	481	26	.539	2 (1995,1996)	1 (1996)
18	2002	1	Hiromichi Ishige	140	50	87	3	.365
19	2003	1	Hiromichi Ishige, Leon Lee	140	48	88	4	.353
20	2004	1	Haruki Ihara	133	49	82	2	.374
21	2005	1	Akira Ohgi (2nd)	136	62	70	4	.470
22	2006	1	Katsuhiro Nakamura	136	52	81	3	.391
23	2007	1	Terry Collins	144	62	77	5	.446
24	2008	1	Terry Collins, Daijiro Oishi	144	75	68	1	.524			1 (2008)
25	2009	1	Daijiro Oishi	144	56	86	2	.394
26	2010-2012	3	Akinobu Okada	432	195	216	21	.474
27	2013-2015	3	Hiroshi Moriwaki	431	207	215	9	.491			1 (2014)
28	2016-2018	3	Junichi Fukura	429	185	235	9	.440
29	2019-2020	3	Norifumi Nishimura	263	106	143	14	.426
30	2021–present	1	Satoshi Nakajima
Totals	86 seasons		24 managers	10,754	5,298	5,087	369	.510	12 times	4 times	7 times

• Statistics current through the end of the 2020 season.^[3]

Mascots[]

1981 until 1990

• Bravey (ブレービー) #100, a large bird
• Yuta (勇太) #101, a younger bird
• Braves Boy (ブレーブス坊や), a baseball headed warrior

1991 until 2010

• Neppie (ネッピー) #111, a young boy
• Ripsea (リプシー) #222, a young girl

since 2011

• Buffalo Bull (バッファローブル) #111, a male buffalo, Bell's brother
• Buffalo Bell (バッファローベル) #222, a female buffalo, Bull's sister

References[]

External links[]

• (in Japanese) Official website