Chiba Lotte Marines
 | For current information on this topic, see 2009 Chiba Lotte Marines season. |
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The Chiba Lotte Marines (千葉ロッテマリーンズ, Chiba Rotte Marīnzu) are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League, based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region.
History
The Chiba Lotte Marines franchise began in 1950 with the birth of the Pacific League. The Marines were founded as the Mainichi Orions, and they won the inaugural Japan Series in 1950. In 1958, they were renamed the Daimai Orions; the Tokyo Orions in 1964; the Lotte Orions in 1969; and finally, since 1992, they have been the Chiba Lotte Marines. The franchise was slow to duplicate its initial success: the Orions made the Japan Series in 1960 and 1970, only to lose both years. In 1974, they beat the Chunichi Dragons, becoming the first Pacific League team to win the Series in 10 years as the Yomiuri Giants had claimed the prior nine titles behind the Oh-Nagashima attack. After that the team failed to reach the Japan Series again until 2005. They had started the 2005 season in first place, then fell behind the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks as the year progressed, but came back to beat SoftBank 3 games to 2 in the Pacific League championship. In the final game, they trailed 2-1 entering the 8th inning. After a thirty-one year absence, the team returned to the Japan Series for the first time as the Chiba Lotte Marines, after 14 seasons with that name. In a one-sided series the Marines swept the more popular Hanshin Tigers in four games, including scoring ten runs in each of the first three games. The apparent ease with which the Marines defeated the Tigers added fuel to the ongoing debate concerning the need for a playoff system in the Central League, which was finally added in 2007.[citation needed] The Marines went on to defeat South Korea's Samsung Lions in the finals of the Konami Cup Championships.
Players of note
Current manager
Current players
- 0
Tadahiro Ogino - 3 Saburo Ohmura
- 4
José Ortiz - 6 Tadahito Iguchi
- 7 Tsuyoshi Nishioka
- 8 Toshiaki Imae
- 9 Kazuya Fukuura
- 10 Shoitsu Ohmatsu
- 12 Yusuke Kawaski
- 14 Satoru Komiyama
- 16 Yasutomo Kubo
- 17 Yoshihisa Naruse
- 18 Naoyuki Shimizu
- 22 Tomoya Satozaki
- 23 Akira Otsuka
- 25 Naotaka Takehara
- 29 Shingo Ono
- 31 Shunsuke Watanabe
- 33 Tasuku Hashimoto
- 41 Hiroyuki Kobayashi
- 44 Daisuke Hayakawa
- 46
Szu-Yu Wu - 48 Koji Takagi
- 50
Benny Agbayani - 52 Hisao Heiuchi
Former players
- Kevin Beirne
- Mike Diaz
- Julio Franco
- Matt Franco
- Mel Hall
Isao Harimoto- Pete Incaviglia
- Hideki Irabu
- Masahide Kobayashi
- Leron Lee - uncle of Derrek Lee
- Lee Seung-Yeop
- Jim Lefebvre
- Darryl Motley
- Hiromitsu Ochiai (Present manager of Chunichi Dragons)
- Hiroshi Ogawa
- Dan Serafini
- Jose Fernandez
- Yasuhiko Yabuta
Julio Zuleta
Retired numbers
none
Honored number
- 26 - This number is considered the number of the fan, the '26th player' on the bench. (NPB teams have 25 players on their active roster.)
- Television personality, actor, singer-songwriter and japanese idol Kazuya Kamenashi was the honored guest to throw the first pitch at the Pacific League opening ceremony for the 2009 baseball season at a match in Chiba City featuring the Chiba Lotte Marines against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on July 19 2009.[1][2]
- The team is currently managed by Bobby Valentine.
See also
External links
- ^ (JAPANESE) ＫＡＴ－ＴＵＮ・亀梨、始球式で西岡と対決, Sankei Sports; retrieved on July 20, 2009.
- ^ (JAPANESE) [1], Tsuyoshi Nishioka's official blog; entry dated 2009-07-19; retrieved on July 22, 2009.