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Chiba Lotte Marines
千葉ロッテマリーンズ
Logo Cap insignia
Information
League	Nippon Professional Baseball Pacific League (1950–present)
Location	Mihama-ku,Chiba,Chiba, Japan
Ballpark	ZOZO Marine Stadium
Founded	November 26, 1949; 76 years ago (1949-11-26)
Nickname(s)	Kamome (鴎, seagulls)
Japan Series championships	4 (1950,1974,2005,2010)
PL pennants	5(1950,1960,1970,1974,2005)
Playoff berths	14 (1974,1977,1980,1981,2005,2007,2010,2013,2015,2016,2020,2021,2023,2024)
Former name	Lotte Orions (1969–1991) Tokyo Orions (1964–1968) Daimai Orions (1958–1963) Mainichi Orions (1950–1957)
Former ballparks	Kawasaki Stadium (1978–1991) Miyagi Stadium (1973–1977) Tokyo Stadium (1962–1972) Korakuen Stadium (1950–1962)
Colors	Black, Grey, White
Mascot	Mar-kun, Rine-chan, and Zu-chan
Retired numbers	26
Ownership	Katsumi Kawai
Management	Lotte Holdings
President	Shunsuke Kosaka
General manager	Naoki Matsumoto
Manager	Saburo Omura
Website	https://www.marines.co.jp/
Current uniforms

TheChiba Lotte Marines (千葉ロッテマリーンズ,Chiba Rotte Marīnzu) are a professionalbaseball team in thePacific League based inChiba City,Chiba Prefecture in theKantō region ofJapan and owned byLotte Holdings Co., Ltd. The Marines were a founding member of the Pacific Leaguein 1950 as the then-known Mainichi Orions when theJapanese Baseball League reorganized intoNippon Professional Baseball, where they won the inaugural1950 Japan Series. Since 1992, the Marines' homeballpark has been theZOZO Marine Stadium, located in theMihama Ward of Chiba, with seats for up to 30,118 people.

The "Marines" name originates from the name of the ballpark, also officially named theChiba Marine Stadium, because it is located at the seaside.

As of the end ofthe 2025 season, the franchise's all-time record is 4930-4928-408 (.500).^[1]

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The franchise began in 1950 as theMainichi Orions, an inaugural member of thePacific League, and were owned by theMainichi Shimbun newspaper. The Orions were named afterthe constellation of the same name.^[2] The Marines won the inauguralJapan Series in1950.

In 1958, the team was merged with theDaiei Unions and renamed theDaimai Orions, to reflect that both Daiei and Mainichi had a 50% stake in the team, with control being given toDaiei Film presidentMasaichi Nagata. In 1964 they became theTokyo Orions, and then theLotte Orions in 1969. The franchise was slow to replicate its initial success: the Orions made theJapan Series in 1960 and1970, only to lose both years.

The team played incentral Tokyo until 1972. From 1973 to 1977 theLotte Orions played in the northern Japanese city ofSendai. In1974, they beat theChunichi Dragons, becoming the first Pacific League team to win the Series in ten years, as theYomiuri Giants had claimed the prior nine titles behind theOh–Nagashima attack. After beating the Dragons, their owners, Lotte Holdings, decided to hold their victory parade in Tokyo, which surprised fans in Sendai. This eventually caused their attendance there to dwindle, going from sold-out games in 1973, to only about 2,000–3,000 attendees for their last few years in Sendai.^[3]

In 1977, the Orions signedMajor League Baseball playerLeron Lee, who ended up playing for the team for eleven seasons, compiling a .320 career batting average and slugging 283 home runs with 912 career RBI. From his retirement to early 2018 (when surpassed byNorichika Aoki), Lee held the Japanese record for career batting average (players with more than 4,000at bats). In 1978, Lee invited younger brotherLeon Lee to play in Japan, and the brothers formed a feared cleanup for the Orions for five seasons — in 1980, Leron had 33 home runs, 90 RBI, and a batting average of .358; while Leon slugged 41 home runs and drove in 116 runs, with a batting average of .340.

In 1978 the team returned to the Tokyo area, settling in theKawasaki Stadium, at one time home to theTaiyo Whales (nowYokohama DeNA Baystars).

In 1992, the team moved toChiba City'sChiba Marine Stadium on the eastern shore ofTokyo Bay. They held a fan vote for a new name for the team; the name "Dolphins" won, while another popular choice was "Pirates". However, the name "Dolphins" was thrown out because though an unrelated team named theNagoya Golden Dolphins (later known asNagoya Kinko) was long defunct, the letter "D" in broadcasts was already taken by the Dragons; while "Pirates" was disregarded because the Chiba Pirates name was used by a team ina baseball manga [ja]. Executives didn't want the team to be associated by a team that they think was supposed to be awful, supported by the fact that by then the Orions had finished their 6th consecutive losing season, finishing in 6th in three of the last four seasons, alongside the fact that they were unsure if they could even use it to begin with, due toJapanese copyright laws. "Marines" was ultimately chosen because the team believed it meant "heroes of the sea" (and because the letter "M" was available), yielding the current club nameChiba Lotte Marines.^[4]

Originally, the club used pink, blue, and white on their logo, which included a pirate ship, with a seagull below it, and a wave pattern to reflect the ocean currents off Chiba's coast. In 1995, this was changed to the logo's current design, while dropping pink and blue in favor of red, black and white (with red being dropped in 2019). The current logo's design features a baseball in the background with a seagull soaring, with the club's name around the circle.

The team failed to reach theJapan Series againuntil 2005. The Marines started the2005 season in first place behind American managerBobby Valentine, who had returned after having managed the team to a 2nd place finishin 1995 behind theOrix BlueWave, but struggles between him and general managerTatsuro Hirooka which had him leave after the lone season, but fell behind theFukuoka SoftBank Hawks as the year progressed. Under the playoff format of the time, the preliminary five-game playoff round, prior to the Japan Series, saw the teams with the best first and second half records face off. The Marines defeated the Hawks three games to two in thePacific League championship, winning the rubber match despite entering the eighth inning trailing, 2–1.

The Marines were thus qualified for theJapan Series, the first time they had reached the tournament since 1974, after 31 years. In a one-sided series, the Marines swept theHanshin Tigers in four games, 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 aplayoff system in theCentral League, which was finally added in 2007 (seeClimax Series). The Marines went on to defeat South Korea'sSamsung Lions in the final round of theKonami Cup Championships.

In 2010, the Marines clinched third place on the last day of the season to earn a berth into the Climax Series. They went on to become the first third place team to ever win the Climax Series, and faced off with theChunichi Dragons in the2010 Japan Series.^[5] The Marines defeated the Dragons in seven games, composed of four wins, two losses, and one tie, winning their second Japan Series in under ten years.

In 2013, the Marines clinched third place to clinch a berth in the Climax Series and faced theSaitama Seibu Lions in the first stage. They defeated the Lions in 3 games to move onto the final stage. They would lose to theTohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 5 games, who would go on and defeat theYomiuri Giants in 7 games to win their first (and still only) Japan Series title.

They would make it back in the playoffs in 2015. They defeated theHokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 3 games in the first round, then got swept by theFukuoka SoftBank Hawks, who received a one-game advantage for having the best record in the Pacific League.

The following season, they returned to the playoffs. They would make a much earlier exit, as they were swept by the Hawks in two games in the first stage.

It would not be until 2020 when they returned to the playoffs. TheHawks, with a one-game advantage, would sweep them again in the first stage.

They bounced back the following year by defeating theEagles in 2 games in the first stage, including a tie in the second game which allowed them to advance as they had the better record at 67-57-19, while the Eagles had a 66-62-15 record. They got swept by theOrix Buffaloes in the final stage in 3 games, however a tie in the third game and Orix having the better record at 70-55-18, allowed the Buffaloes to advance.

On April 10, 2022,Rōki Sasaki threw aperfect game,Nippon Professional Baseball's first in 28 years and the 16th in the league's history. Sasaki tied an existing record bystriking out 19 batters, and setting a new record by striking out 13 consecutive batters.^[6][7] It didn't do much to help the season, as the Marines finished in 5th place with a 69-73-1 record, andTadahito Iguchi would be let go after that season, replaced byMasato Yoshii.

The Marines would edge out the Hawks and Eagles in a close playoff race in 2023, finishing 2nd with a 70-68-5 record. They would defeat the Hawks in 3 games in the first stage, but lost in 5 games to theBuffaloes in the final stage, who also had a 1-win advantage for having the best record in Pacific League. The season would be the last forZOZO Marine Stadium public address announcerEmi Taniho [ja]. Originally, she was given a farewell ceremony on October 7, 2023, supposedly her last home game, which included many former Marines players, but she was given extended duty, as the Marines were appearing to make a run for theClimax Series. The game was also her 2,100th game announcing. Her actual last day with the team was on December 20.

Active:

• Roki Sasaki (2025–)
• Dallas Keuchel (2012–2024)

Former:

• Hirokazu Sawamura (2021–2022)

Retired:

• Hideki Irabu (1997–2002)
• Masato Yoshii (1998–2002)
• Satoru Komiyama (2002)
• Tadahito Iguchi (2005–2008)
• Masahide Kobayashi (2008–2009)
• Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2011–2012)
• Ryohei Tanaka (2009–2011)
• Yasuhiko Yabuta (2008–2009)
• Shunsuke Watanabe (2014)
• Yuhei Nakaushiro (2016–2018)

Fans' number
Retired
2005

• 26 – This number wasretired in honor of the Marines' fans in 2005. It was inspired by some teams in other sports (such as football, which retires "12" for the "12th man", or basketball, which retires "6" for the "6th man"). TheTohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles has the No. 10 retired in similar fashion.Major League Baseball'sLos Angeles Angels has retired No. 26, in same fashion, for the founderGene Autry.

• Statistics current through the end ofthe 2025 season.^[8]

The Marines'cheer dancing squad is known asM☆Splash!!. They were formed in 2004. Alongside the team's mascots Mar-kun, Rine-chan and Zu-chan, they entertain the crowd during Marines games, with 27 members.^[9]

Mar-kun (マーくん,Maa-kun) is the main mascot character of the Marines. With his girlfriend Rine-chan (リーンちゃん,Riin-chan) and his young brother Zu-chan (ズーちゃん,Zuu-chan), he entertains spectators at team games. Their names remain separate from the team name. Originally Rine-chan wore a pink sports visor cap untilthe 2022 season when she wore the same baseball cap as her boyfriend while retaining the skirt, while Zu-chan wears the cap backwards and wears an apron instead of the jersey beginning 2022, before that he wore a shirt unless all three wear their team's special home uniforms.

Mysterious fish (謎の魚,Nazo-no-sakana) was a mascot character that was introduced in May 2017. He is a weird fish with legs.^[10][11] He has collaborated withHawaiian Airlines that former Marines' playerBenny Agbayani works for since 2018.^[12] However, the person playing the mascot announced after the 2021 season that he would retire, which also meant the mascot was officially retired.^[13]

Back when the team were known as the "Lotte Orions", their mascot was a character known simply as Bubble-Boy (バブル坊や,Bable-Boya) who only appeared as a logo.

In 2005, the Marines introduced a mascot named Cool-kun ( かっこいいくん,Kakkoi-kun), a penguin who was known for his acrobatic stunts and would often challenge mascots like Doala and B.B to acrobatic stunt contests at rival games. He also would be stuck up and rude at times, but he would burst to tears or show great emotion at the right time. Despite being friends with Mar-kun, they do not get along very well. In 2016, he was retired by the team.^[14]

The Marines farm team plays in theEastern League. The team was founded as the Mainichi Glitter Orions in 1950.

• Lotte Giants
• Lotte Group

• Official website(in Japanese)
• We Love Marines – English-language Marines fansite

• Chiba Lotte Marines
• Lotte Corporation
• Sports clubs and teams in Chiba (city)
• Nippon Professional Baseball teams
• 1950 establishments in Japan
• Baseball teams established in 1950

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