The are a

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

team formed as a result of the

2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment The 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment was a series of events that occurred during the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball season that changed the landscape of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In June of that season, the Osaka Kintetsu ...

by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nar ...

, Japan. The team plays in the

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

and is under ownership by Orix, a leading diversified financial services company founded in Osaka. The combined team began play in 2005. The Buffaloes split home games between Kyocera Dome Osaka, which was the home of the original Buffaloes franchise, and Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, when the

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...

take over Kyocera Dome for when they are kicked out of

Hanshin Koshien Stadium , commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball park located near Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the national high school baseball tournaments, and opened on August 1, 1924. It w ...

during the Japanese High School Baseball Championship in the month of August.

Franchise history

Hankyu/Orix (1936–2004)

Hankyu Braves

The franchise that eventually became the Orix Buffaloes was founded in 1936 under the ownership of a Japanese railway company , as . Later nicknamed the Hankyu Braves, it was one of the first professional baseball teams in Japan, and the oldest remaining team in the

. In the early 1950s, the franchise made a dedicated effort to attract foreign talent, particularly

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

veterans of

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

,Zurui
"Negro Leaguers in Japan,"
''BlackTokyo'' (September 12, 2008). including infielders John Britton and Larry Raines, and pitchers

Jimmy Newberry James Lee Newberry (June 9, 1919 – June 23, 1983), nicknamed "Schoolboy", was an American pitcher in the Negro leagues and in the Japanese Pacific League. Newberry played professionally from 1944 to 1956, playing with the Cincinnati Clowns, Bi ...

and Rufus Gaines. These players were the first Americans other than

Wally Yonamine , was a Japanese American multi-sport athlete who played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Early life Kaname Yonamine, a Nisei Japanese American, was born in Olowalu, Maui, Hawaii to parent ...

to play

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Starting in the mid-1960s, the Braves became one of the dominant teams not only in the

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 The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

. Manager

Yukio Nishimoto was a Japanese baseball player and manager. He played for the Mainichi Orions from 1950 to 1955. As a manager he won eight Pacific League pennants. However his clubs would never go on to win the Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially ...

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 was a professional Japanese baseball player, coach, and manager. He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame The is a museum which includes a library, reference rooms and . It first opened in 1959 next door to Korakuen Stadium in ...

. 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 The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera St ...

played the legendary "10.19" double-header for the Pacific League pennant, only to miss the pennant out because of the second game ending in a tie. For Kintetsu to win the pennant, they had to win both games in the doubleheader against the Lotte Orions. 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 270px, Nishinomiya City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center 270px, Hirota Shrine is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 484,368 in 218948 households and a population density ...

. 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

and became the Orix BlueWave. Orix put out a poll to decide the new name, and unsurprisingly, people voted Braves. It was said that Orix put out another poll and told fans "Braves" was not allowed. What made it worse was in that second poll, "Thunder" was the winning name, which fit the new color scheme (when Orix bought the team, they changed their colors to navy blue and gold). But, Orix went with "BlueWave". Longtime fans were shocked by these changes. One member of the Braves ouendan was reported to say that "the race was decided before the gun even went off". Another thing that did not make sense to fans was they were named BlueWave while playing in then-named Green Stadium (now Hotto Motto Field or Kobe Sports Park) in a city whose official color is green. 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 by fans and the baseball media, which means "blue wave" in Japanese. Led by

Ichiro Suzuki , also known mononymously as , is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who played professionally for 28 seasons. He played nine years of his career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), where he began hi ...

in 1995 and 1996, the Orix BlueWave won the Pacific League pennant. In 1996, they also won the

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

. In 2001, Ichiro moved to the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion ...

and lead the Mariners to a 116 win season, the most wins by an

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league b ...

team.

Orix Buffaloes (2005 to present)

Following the

, the BlueWave merged with the Osaka 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 The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary ...

, but were swept by the

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional Baseball in Japan, baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Figh ...

at home in the 1st stage of the Climax Series. After 2 seasons of finishing last in the Pacific League, they finished first in 2021, going 70-55-18. They swept the Chiba Lotte Marines in the final stage of the Climax Series to make their first Japan Series appearance since 1996. Ultimately, they were defeated by the

Tokyo Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the ...

in six games. In 2022, despite a rough start to the season, the Buffaloes finished 1st after a 5-2 win over the

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shoppin ...

on the final day of the Pacific League regular season, combined with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks losing to the Marines, 5-2, at the same time the game was happening, and also because they had 5 more wins against the Hawks during the regular season, 15-10. The Buffaloes would defeat the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the Final Stage of the 2022 Pacific League Climax Series, 4 games to 1, which set up a rematch of the previous year's Japan Series, but this time the Buffaloes would exact revenge on the Swallows, defeating them 4 games to 2.

Current roster

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 Tetsuya Yoneda ( ja, 米田哲也, born March 3, 1938) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher who spent most of his career with the Hankyu Braves in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He was so tough that he was known as Gasoline T ...

, 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 is a Japanese former professional baseball infielder, coach, and manager. He spent all of his playing career with the Nishitetsu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball, and served as player-manager of the team from 1962 to 1969. Nakanishi also man ...

, Head coach / Hitting coach, 1985–1990†, 1995–1997 (inducted 1999) †For Kintetsu Buffaloes * Akira Ōgi, MGR 1988–1992†, 1994–2001, 2005 (inducted 2004) *

, MGR, 1974–1978, 1981–1990 (inducted 2003) ''Elected mainly for Kintetsu Buffaloes service'' *

, MGR 1974–1981 (inducted 1988) * Keishi Suzuki, P, 1966–1985 (inducted 2002)

Notable former players and managers

''as Orix Buffaloes'' * * * (清原和博) – 1B/3B * * * – 1B * * * ''as Orix BlueWave'' * * * – formerly of the Anaheim Angels and

* * * * – of the

of MLB's

* ''as Kintetsu (and Osaka Kintetsu) Buffaloes'' * * * * * ''as Hankyu (and Orix) Braves'' * – underhanded big-game pitcher who defeated the

* * – once pitched a perfect game * * * * * * * * * (the first non-Japanese triple crown hitter in NPB history) *

MLB players

Active: * Mastaka Yoshida (beginning 2023) * Yoshihisa Hirano (beginning 2018) * Jacob Waguespack (beginning 2021) Former: * Adam Jones (2020–2021) * Joey Butler (2014) *

Hideo Nomo is a Japanese former baseball pitcher who played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). He achieved early success in his native country, where he played with the Kintetsu Buffaloes from to . He then exploited a l ...

(1990–1994) * Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1990–1996) * Masao Kida (1998,2000–2001) *

So Taguchi is a Japanese former outfielder. After ten seasons with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball, he played eight years in Major League Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, followed by a final ...

(1992–2001,2010–2011) * Koo Dae-Sung (2001–2004) * Ryan Vogelsong (2009) * Joey Meneses (2018–2019) *

(1992–2000) *

Brandon Dickson Brandon Lee Dickson (born November 3, 1984) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He previously played in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Orix B ...

(2013–2021)

Managers

* Statistics current through the end of the season.

Theme Song

The Buffaloes' current theme song is Sky by Japanese band Mega Stopper. The song was first used in 2005. Another version that is used is sung by the club's cheerleading squad, BsGirls.

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 hybrid of oryx and buffalo, Bell's brother :*Buffalo Bell (バッファローベル) #222, a female hybrid of oryx and buffalo, Bull's sister

References

External links

* {{Authority control Baseball teams established in 1936 Nippon Professional Baseball teams Sports teams in Kobe Sports teams in Osaka 1936 establishments in Japan