Orix Buffaloes
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The Orix Buffaloes 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 Skymark Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, in Kobe and the Kyocera Dome Osaka, that of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, in Osaka.
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[edit] Franchise history
[edit] Hankyu Professional Baseball Club, 1936-1946
In 1936, the club was formed by Hanshin Express Electric Railways as the fifth oldest in Japan.
[edit] Hankyu Braves, 1947-1988
[edit] Orix Braves, 1989-1990
[edit] Orix BlueWave, 1991-2004
[edit] Kintetsu, 1950-2004
[edit] Kintetsu Pearls, 1950-1958
[edit] Kintetsu Buffalo, 1959-1961
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.
[edit] Kintetsu Buffaloes, 1962-1998
[edit] Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, 1999-2004
[edit] 2005 to present
[edit] Current roster
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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
as Orix BlueWave
- Akira Ogi (仰木 彬) - manager
- Gregory DeWayne Boomer Wells(Greg Wells) - as known as "Boomer", 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) - as known as "Punch" Sato (パンチ佐藤), OF
- Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗, イチロー) - OF
- So Taguchi (田口 壮) - OF
as Kintestu Buffaloes
- Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) - IF
- Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄) - P
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
- Hiromi Matsunaga (松永 浩美) - 3B
- Roberto Marcano - IF
[edit] Retired numbers
- none
[edit] External links
