ORIX BUFFALOES

Orix Buffaloes

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For current information on this topic, see 2010 Orix Buffaloes season.

Orix Buffaloes
League	Pacific League
Location	Osaka, Kobe
Ballpark	Kyocera Dome Osaka and Skymark Stadium
Year Founded	1936
Nickname(s)	Orix (オリックス), Buffaloes (バファローズ), Bs
League championships	Hankyu/Orix: 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1995, 1996 Kintetsu: 1979, 1980, 1989, 2001
Japan Series championships	Hankyu/Orix: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1996
Former name(s)	Orix BlueWave: Hankyu Professional Baseball Club (1936–1946), Hankyu Bears (1947), Hankyu Braves (1947–1988), Orix Braves (1989–1990), Orix BlueWave (1991–2004) Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes: Kintetsu Pearls (1950-1958), Kintetsu Buffalo (1959-1961), Kintetsu Buffaloes (1962-1998), Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (1999-2004)
Colors	White, yellow and dark blue
Manager	Okada Akinobu LogoDesign = "Buffaloes" written in yellow and blue
Uniforms
Home	Away

The Orix Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ, Orikkusu Bafarōzu^?) 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.

Contents [hide] 1 Franchise history 1.1 Hankyu/Orix, 1936-2004 1.2 Kintetsu, 1950-2004 1.3 2005 to present 2 Current roster 3 Baseball Hall of Famers 3.1 Former players and managers 4 Retired numbers 5 MLB player 6 Mascots 7 External links

[edit] Franchise history

[edit] Hankyu/Orix, 1936-2004

Main article: Orix BlueWave

In 1936, the club was formed by Hanshin Kyuko Railway Company (阪神急行電鉄株式会社^?, Present: Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.) as the fifth oldest in Japan.

[edit] Kintetsu, 1950-2004

Main article: Kintetsu Buffaloes

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] 2005 to present

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[edit] Current roster

Orix Buffaloes rosterview · talk · edit
Active roster				Inactive roster		Coaches/Other
Pitchers 19 Chihiro Kaneko 15 Daisuke Katō 11 Hidetaka Kawagoe 43 Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara 14 Mamoru Kishida 65 Kazuki Kondō 17 Ryota Kozuki 63 Yūki Nishi 61 Chan-Ho Park 35 Masanobu Ōkubo 13 Akio Shimizu 20 Shōgo Yamamoto		Catchers 27 Takeshi Hidaka 44 Fumihiro Suzuki 37 Toshiya Tsuji Infielders  3 Seung-Yeop Lee 24 Mitsutaka Gotō 54 Ikki 23 Hirotoshi Kitagawa  0 Makoto Moriyama 00 Kōji Yamasaki Outfielders 25 Yūichiro Mukae  6 Naoyuki Ōmura 52 Tomotaka Sakaguchi 36 Shinji Shimoyama 33 So Taguchi Designated hitters 55 Takahiro Okada		Pitchers 16 Yoshihisa Hirano 28 Satoshi Komatsu 34 Kazuya Motoyanagi 33 Yasunari Takagi Catchers 67 Tetsuya Yokoyama Infielders 58 Masahiro Nagata 10 Keiji Ōbiki 31 Makoto Shiozaki Outfielders 53 Ryōta Aikawa 66 Shintarō Yoshida		Manager 80 Okada Akinobu Coaches -- Takahiro Akagawa (conditioning) 87 Motoyuki Akahori (pitching) 83 Toshifumi Baba (IF defense/3rd base) 70 Eiji Kiyokawa (pitching chief) 74 Hideaki Matsuyama (OF defense/1st base) 82 Takashi Miwa (bullpen) 90 Eiji Mizuguchi (hitting) 96 Taira Sumitomo (head) 78 Osamu Yonemura (training) † 15-day disabled list * Suspended list # Bereavement list Roster updated September 8, 2010 Transactions • Depth Chart → More rosters

[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
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara (清原 和博) - 1B or 3B

as Orix BlueWave

• Akira Ogi (仰木 彬) - manager
• Greg Wells, 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) - also known as "Punch" Sato (パンチ佐藤), OF
• 51 Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗, イチロー) - OF
• So Taguchi (田口 壮) - OF

as Kintetsu Buffaloes

• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) - IF
• Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄) - P
• Charlie Manuel - OF

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
• Animal Resry - P
• Hiromi Matsunaga (松永 浩美) - 3B
• Roberto Marcano - IF

[edit] Retired numbers

• none

[edit] MLB player

Active:

• Ichiro Suzuki (2001-)

Retired:

• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1997–2005)
• Masao Kida (1999–2005)
• So Taguchi (2002–2009)

[edit] Mascots

Neppie #111, a young boy Ripsea #222, a young girl

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) Orix Buffaloes