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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 shopping company Rakuten. History 2004: Origins and formation During Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB) 2004 season, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave announced that the two teams planned to merge into one for the start of the 2005 season. Both teams were in the Pacific League (PL), and a merger between the two would result in a team imbalance with the PL's opposing league, the Central League (CL). As a large number of players and personnel were expected to lose their jobs when the merger was finalized, the players conducted a two-day strike on September 18–19, 2004. With the threat of further strikes looming, team representatives agreed to ease the rules of entry for new teams into NPB and that one would be allowed to jo ...
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Nippon Professional Baseball
is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the in 1934. The first professional circuit for the sport in Japan, the Japanese Baseball League (JBL), was founded two years later and continued to play even through the final years of World War II. The organization that is today's NPB was formed when the JBL reorganized in 1950, dividing its 15 teams into two leagues, which would meet in the annual season-ending Japan Series championship play-off series of games starting that year. NPB comprises twelve teams divided equally in two leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League, a format which it has largely kept since . It has seen several waves of Expansion team, expansion and contraction, sometimes at the same time, to keep it at those number ...
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Senichi Hoshino
was a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player and manager. In 2003, he led the Hanshin Tigers to their first Central League pennant in 18 years before retiring for health reasons. In 2007, he managed the Japanese national team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In October 2010 Hoshino was hired as manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. He led the Eagles to a Pacific League pennant and Japan Series championship in 2013. Childhood Hoshino was born the third of three children in Kurashiki, Japan. His father died three months after he was born, and his mother raised him and his two sisters alone. He played baseball throughout his high school years, but was unable to advance to the Koshien baseball tournament. He entered Meiji University, and became a starter from his first year. He marked 23 total wins in the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League, including one no-hitter, but his team never won the league championship. Hoshino's reputation as a hot-headed leaderWhiting, Robert. ''Y ...
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Kyodo News
is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo. It was established in November 1945 and it distributes news to almost all newspapers, and radio and television networks in Japan. The newspapers using its news have about 50 million subscribers. K. K. Kyodo News is Kyodo News' business arm, established in 1972.Shrivastava, K. M. (2007). ''News agencies from pigeon to internet.'' Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. p. 208. . The subdivision Kyodo News International, founded in 1982, provides over 200 reports to international news media and is located in Rockefeller Center, New York City. Their online news site is in Japanese language, Japanese, Chinese language, Chinese (Simplified Chinese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Traditional), Korean language, Korean, and English language, English. The agency employs over 1,000 journalists and photographers, and maintains news exchange agreements with over 70 international media outlets. Satoshi Ishikawa is the news agency's ...
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The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan participate in the international community. In 1906, Zumoto was asked by Japanese Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi to lead the English-language newspaper '' The Seoul Press''. Zumoto closely tied the operations of the two newspapers, with subscriptions of ''The Seoul Press'' being sold in Japan by ''The Japan Times'', and vice versa for Korea. Both papers wrote critically of Korean culture and civilization, and advocated for Japan's colonial control over the peninsula in order to civilize the Koreans. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the pa ...
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Central League
The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country. Unlike the Pacific League, designated hitters are not used during Central League home games. History The Central League was founded in 1949 with eight teams: four holdovers from the previous Japanese Baseball League — the Chunichi Dragons, the Hanshin Tigers, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Shochiku Robins (formerly the Taiyō Robins) — and four new teams — the Hiroshima Carp, the Kokutetsu Swallows, the Nishi Nippon Pirates, and the Taiyō Whales. The Nishi Nippon Pirates existed for one season — they placed sixth in 1950, and the following season merged with the also Fukuoka-based Nishitetsu Clippers (a member of the Pacific League) to ...
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2005 Nippon Professional Baseball Season
In the Nippon Professional Baseball season ended with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Pacific League defeating the Hanshin Tigers of the Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ... in a four-game sweep in the Nippon Series. Format Central League * Season format ** Regular season * Regular season 1st place is the champion Pacific League * Season format ** Regular season ** Playoff 1st stage: Regular season 2nd place vs. regular season 3rd place – Best of 3 ** Playoff 2nd stage: Regular season 1st place vs. playoff 1st stage winner – Best of 5 * Playoff 2nd stage winner is the champion Japan Series * Central League champion vs. Pacific League champion – Best of 7 Standings Central League Regular season Pacific League Regular season Playoff 1st s ...
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Orix BlueWave
, styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment and retail banking, commodities funds and securities brokering. In addition to expanding its offerings, ORIX has also expanded globally, offering financial services in North America, Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa. Divisions include Japan-based ORIX Auto Leasing Corporation, which operates in other countries through subsidiaries such as ORIX Auto Leasing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. It is also known for being the majority owner of the ORIX Buffaloes baseball team in Nippon Professional Baseball. History ORIX was established April 17, 1964 as ''Orient Leasing Co., Ltd.'' The company's name was changed to ORIX Corporation in 1989. ORIX was originally a subsidiary of the trading house Nichimen (now Sojitz). Yoshihiko Miyauchi transferre ...
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Osaka 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 Stadium, and later in Kyocera Dome Osaka, Osaka Dome. Although the team won four Pacific League championships, they lost all four Japan Series in which they played. The team's batting lineup was known as ''Itemae Dasen'' (:ja:いてまえ打線, いてまえ打線). Logo design A stylized Bison, buffalo's head with angry-looking red eyes (designed by Okamoto Taro), or "Buffaloes" in red script, outlined with white. Another logo featured the "Buffaloes" in red script, while also featuring Buffie, the Buffaloes mascot. Franchise history The team was founded in 1949 and began play in 1950 in the newly organized NPB. Owned by Kinki Nippon Railway, Kinki Nippon Railway Co. (later known as Kintetsu Railway), the franchise was known as the Kinte ...
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2004 Nippon Professional Baseball Season
The Nippon Professional Baseball season ended with the Seibu Lions defeating the Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ... in the 2004 Japan Series. This season also saw the first and only players strike in Japanese professional baseball history. Players went on strike for two days in September because of the potential mergers and realignment. Format Central League * Season format ** Regular season * Regular season 1st place is the champion Pacific League * Season format ** Regular season ** Playoff 1st stage: Regular season 2nd place vs. regular season 3rd place – Best of 3 ** Playoff 2nd stage: Regular season 1st place vs. playoff 1st stage winner – Best of 5 * Playoff 2nd stage winner is the champion Japan Series * Central League champion vs. ...
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Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch (baseball), plays, with each play beginning when a player on the fielding team (baseball), fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a Baseball (ball), ball that a player on the batting team (baseball), batting team, called the Batter (baseball), batter, tries to hit with a baseball bat, bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the Base (baseball), bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "Run (baseball), runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming Base running, runners, and to prevent runners base running ...
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Kazuhisa Ishii
Kazuhisa Ishii (石井 一久 ''Ishii Kazuhisa'') (born September 9, 1973) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher and manager and general manager. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yakult Swallows and Saitama Seibu Lions and in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. Playing career Ishii was selected in the first round of the Japanese amateur draft by the Yakult Swallows. He made his debut in the Central League on June 9, at the age of 18. He was a member of the Japan Series winning team that season, a feat accomplished a total of five times during his career with the Swallows. During his ten years playing in Japan, he amassed a record of 78–46 with a 3.38 ERA and 1,277 strikeouts in 1,184 innings pitched. On September 2, , he threw a no-hitter against the Yokohama BayStars. Ishii was signed as a free agent by the Los Angeles Dodgers in after the Dodgers posted the top bid for the right to negotiate wit ...
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