Kintetsu Buffaloes
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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 ...
(NPB) team based in
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the
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 an ...
to become the team now known as the
Orix Buffaloes The 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 Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...
. The team played in Fujiidera Stadium, and later in Osaka Dome. Although the team won four Pacific League championships, they lost all four
Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...
in which they played. The team's batting lineup was known as ''Itemae Dasen'' ( いてまえ打線).


Logo design

A stylized 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 Co. (later known as Kintetsu Railway), the franchise was known as the Kintetsu Pearls from 1950 to 1958, Kintetsu Buffalo from 1959 to 1961, the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1962 to 1998, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1999 to 2004. In 1961, the Buffaloes lost 103 games that year. As of 2022, it is NPB's only 100 loss season. The Kintetsu Buffalo were among the first Japanese teams to sign American players. 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. Mickens played for five years in Japan, compiling a record of 45–53 with a 2.54 ERA. Bottler played for the Buffalo for three seasons, gradually converting from catcher to starting pitcher, where he had more success. It took 30 years for the franchise to win its first Pacific League title, in 1979, but it lost the
Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...
to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp 4-games-to-3. The Buffaloes made it back to the Japan Series in 1980, but again lost to Hiroshima by the same margin. The franchise's most notable player was pitcher Keishi Suzuki, who played for the Buffaloes from 1966 to 1985, compiling a won-loss record of 317–238, a 3.11 ERA, and 3,061 strikeouts. He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1988, the Buffaloes were so close to making the Japan Series, after tying a second game in a double-header against the Lotte Orions. In order for Kintetsu to win the pennant, they had to win both games. They would make the Japan Series the following year, but just barely, after being .001 winning percentage higher than the second place Orix Braves, but lost to the Giants in the first reverse sweep since the 1958 Japan Series. American outfielder Ralph Bryant starred for the Buffaloes from 1988 to 1995, in the process becoming one of the best left-handed power hitters in Japanese baseball history. Bryant had his best season in , where his 49 home runs led the Buffaloes to their third Pacific League championship. He won the season MVP award that year, and also tied Sadaharu Oh's career record for hitting three home runs in a game five times. Bryant also struck out countless times, and holds the top four spots on the single-season strikeout records in
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 ...
. Pitcher
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 ...
starred for the Buffaloes from 1990 to 1994 before he exercised a loophole in his contract and "retired," allowing him to sign with MLB's
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
. The subsequent wave of players moving to
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
has become a fixture of Japanese professional baseball. To combat this, MLB and NPB agreed to make the posting system, which allowed players in NPB to "post" and allowed them to move to MLB. Without Nomo, the Buffaloes struggled in pitching, with a 4.16 ERA and 4.70 FIP after Nomo's departure. In 2000, the Buffaloes signed Mexican pitcher Narciso Elvira. While he had terrible pitching, he was noted for being the only Mexican player in NPB history as of 2022 to throw a
no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...
, and only allowing 4 walks. He was cut 6 games into the Buffaloes' 2001 Pacific League championship season, and then signed with the Samsung Lions of the
KBO League The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...
and won the 2002 Korean Series with them. Tuffy Rhodes played for the Buffaloes for eight seasons from 1996 to 2003, hitting 288 home runs over that span. In the season, he hit his 55th homer to tie Sadaharu Oh's Japanese League single season home run record, set in . For the rest of the season, opposing pitchers intentionally walked Rhodes to prevent him from breaking Oh's record. Rhodes also played in tandem with Norihiro Nakamura, who also hit 46 home runs that same season. Together, they became a deadly hitting tandem, and the Buffaloes had one of the most dominant offenses in the league. Despite the efforts of Rhodes and Nakamura, the Buffaloes could still not win the Japan Series, as they lost to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 5 games in the 2001 Japan Series. The Buffaloes are the second team to make the Japan Series but never win it, the first being the short lived Shochiku Robins, who only made the Japan Series in NPB's inaugural season, losing to the Mainichi Orions (now Chiba Lotte Marines) before folding at the end of the following season and being merged with the Taiyo Whales (now Yokohama DeNA BayStars).


Sale and merger

In 2004 the team was sold to the Orix Group, the owner of the
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 an ...
baseball team. The new owner then announced that the financially challenged Buffaloes and BlueWave would be merged into one team, called the
Orix Buffaloes The 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 Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...
, before the start of the 2005 NPB season. At the time, Kintetsu Railway, the Buffaloes' owners, were in ¥1.3 trillion (or $11.2 billion today) in debt. This caused Buffaloes legend Tuffy Rhodes to sign with 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 h ...
as Kintetsu was not able to strike up the multi year deal he wanted. The proposed merger of the teams led to the biggest crisis in the traditional two-league structure in NPB and finally caused the first baseball player strike in Japan. The dispute officially ended after the two groups reached consensus on September 23, 2004. As part of the agreement, the Rakuten Golden Eagles were newly created (at a reduced "entry fee") to keep the former six-team league structure. Other agreements included the leagues adopting interleague play to help the Pacific League gain exposure by playing the more popular Central league teams. All these changes took place before the 2005 season.


Players of note


Former players


Japanese

* Toshiya Adachi (安達 俊也) * Motoyuki Akahori (赤堀 元之) * Hiromasa Arai (新井 宏昌) * Hideyuki Awano (阿波野 秀幸) * Masahiro Doi (土井 正博) * Takashi Imoto (井本 隆) * Hiroo Ishii (石井 浩郎) * Koichi Isobe (磯部 公一) * Hisashi Iwakuma (岩隈 久志) * Ken Kadokura (門倉 健) * Yoshiaki Kanemura (金村 義明) * Hideo Koike (小池 秀雄) * Tetsuya Matoyama (的山 哲也) * Eiji Mizuguchi (水口 栄二) * Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) * Masataka Nashida (梨田 昌孝) *
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 ...
(野茂 英雄) * Naoyuki Ohmura (大村 直之) * Daijiro Oishi (大石 大二郎) * Kazuyoshi Ono (小野 和義) * Koji Ota (太田 幸司) * Akinori Otsuka (大塚 晶則) * Tomotaka Sakaguchi (坂口 智隆) * Kyosuke Sasaki (佐々木 恭介) * Osamu Sasaki (佐々木 修) * Junzo Sekine (関根 潤三) * Keishi Suzuki (鈴木 啓示) * Takahisa Suzuki (鈴木 貴久) * Hiroshi Takamura (高村 祐) * Shintaro Yamasaki (山崎 慎太郎) * Masato Yoshii (吉井 理人) * Yuji Yoshioka (吉岡 雄二)


Foreign players

* Andy Abad * Kyle Abbott * Mike Andrews * Luis Aquino * Chris Arnold * Gene Bacque * Sean Bergman *
Billy Bean William Daro Bean (May 11, 1964 – August 6, 2024) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers (1987–1989), Los Angeles Dodgers (1989), and San Diego Padres ...
* Buddy Bradford * Ralph Bryant * Ozzie Canseco * Phil Clark * Alvin Davis * Dick Davis * Pat Dodson * Chris Donnels with register name "C.D" * Narciso Elvira * Chuck Essegian * Freddy García * Shawn Gilbert * Jim Gentile * David Green * Ike Hampton *
Mike Johnson James Michael Johnson (born January 30, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 56th speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member ...
* Terry Lee * Phil Leftwich * Charlie Manuel * Glenn Mickens * Bob Milacki * Don Money * Ben Oglivie * Dennis Powell * Jim Qualls * R. J. Reynolds * Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes * Bombo Rivera * Germán Rivera * Dave Roberts * Johnny Ruffin * Brian Shouse * Lee Stevens * Jim Traber * Carlos Valdez * Nigel Wilson * Bob Wolcott * Larry Wolfe


Retired numbers

* (鈴木 啓示)


Managers

* (1950-1952) * (1953-1957) * (1958) * (1959-1961) * (1962-1964) * (1965-1966) * (1967) * (1968-1970) * (1971-1973) * (1974-1981) * (1982-1983) * (1984-1987) * (1988-1992) * (1993-1995) * (1996-1999) * (2000-2004)


Mascots

The Buffaloes had 2 mascots, named Buffie and Falulu (バフィリード and ファルルリーナ). Buffie is a male buffalo and was introduced in 1997. He also appeared on the team logo. Falulu is a female buffalo. Buffie's jersey number is 100 while Falulu's is 200. They were retired in 2005 after the Buffaloes merged with the then-named Orix BlueWave (present day
Orix Buffaloes The 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 Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...
). Buffie reappeared in a Buffaloes reprint match in 2013. They also had 2 other mascots as part of the same group, named Capelot and Balbarock, with Capelot being a much more child-like character, whilst Balbarock was supposed to resemble the club's cap logo. Both were retired in 2000. All 4 were designed by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and their backstory was that they lived in a fantasy world of dreams and adventures named "Buffalo Valley", as described in the club's 1997 supporters' handbook. However, after the merger, only Buffie's copyright trademark was transferred to Orix Corporation. Before they were introduced, the team's mascot was a human character named Buffer (バッファくん), who served as the team mascot from 1976 to 1996. Logos of him usually depicted him holding a baseball bat and a ball, wearing the Buffaloes cap, raising one leg, whilst wearing Asics spiked shoes. However, a secondary logo primarily used by the team only had him holding a bat and ball. His jersey number was 100. He was designed by Yoshio Shirakawa. He was retired in 1997 following the Buffaloes' major logo and jersey overhaul, coinciding with their move to the Osaka Dome.


References


External links


History of the Kintetsu Buffaloes

The dramatic determination of championship in Pacific League
{{Japanese Professional Baseball Defunct Nippon Professional Baseball teams Baseball teams established in 1949 1949 establishments in Japan Baseball teams disestablished in 2004 2004 disestablishments in Japan