| Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dissolved and merged with the Orix BlueWave in 2004 to create theOrix Buffaloes | |||||
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| Information | |||||
| League | Nippon Professional Baseball
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| Location | Nishi-ku,Osaka,Osaka,Japan | ||||
| Ballpark | Osaka Dome | ||||
| Founded | November 26, 1949; 75 years ago (1949-11-26) | ||||
| Folded | December 1, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-12-01) | ||||
| Nickname(s) | Mogyu (猛牛, raging bull) | ||||
| Japan Series championships | 0 | ||||
| Pacific League championships | 4 (1979,1980,1989,2001) | ||||
| Playoff berths | 3 (1975,1979,1980) | ||||
| Former name(s) |
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| Former ballparks |
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| Colors | Red, Black, White | ||||
| Mascot | Buffie and Falulu | ||||
| Retired numbers | |||||
| Management | Kintetsu Railway Co., Ltd. | ||||
TheOsaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (大阪近鉄バファローズ,Ōsaka Kintetsu Bafarōzu) were aNippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based inOsaka,Japan, which was in thePacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with theOrix BlueWave to become the team now known as theOrix Buffaloes. The team played inFujiidera Stadium, and later inOsaka Dome.
Although the team won four Pacific League championships, they lost all fourJapan Series in which they played. The team's batting lineup was known asItemae Dasen (いてまえ打線).
A stylizedbuffalo's head with angry-looking red eyes (designed byOkamoto Taro), or "Buffaloes" in red script, outlined with white. Another logo featured the "Buffaloes" in red script, while also featuring Buffie, the Buffaloes mascot.
The team was founded in 1949 and began play in 1950 in the newly organized NPB. Owned byKinki Nippon Railway Co. (later known asKintetsu Railway), the franchise was known as theKintetsu Pearls from 1950 to 1958,Kintetsu Buffalo from 1959 to 1961, theKintetsu Buffaloes from 1962 to 1998, and theOsaka 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 pitcherGlenn Mickens and catcherRon Bottler for the 1959 season. Mickens had played for theBrooklyn 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.[1]
It took 30 years for the franchise to win its first Pacific League title, in 1979, but it lost theJapan Series to theHiroshima 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 pitcherKeishi 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 theJapanese 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 theLotte Orions. In order for Kintetsu to win the pennant, they had to win both games.[2]
They would make the Japan Series the following year, but just barely, after being .001 winning percentage higher than the second placeOrix Braves, but lost to the Giants in the firstreverse sweep since the1958 Japan Series.
American outfielderRalph 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 in1989, where his 49 home runs led the Buffaloes to their thirdPacific League championship. He won the season MVP award that year, and also tiedSadaharu 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 inNippon Professional Baseball.
PitcherHideo Nomo starred for the Buffaloes from 1990 to 1994 before he exercised a loophole in his contract and "retired," allowing him to sign with MLB'sLos Angeles Dodgers. The subsequent wave of players moving toMajor League Baseball has become a fixture of Japanese professional baseball. To combat this, MLB and NPB agreed to make theposting 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 pitcherNarciso Elvira. While he had terrible pitching, he was noted for being the only Mexican player in NPB history as of 2022 to throw ano-hitter, and only allowing 4 walks.[3] He was cut 6 games into the Buffaloes' 2001 Pacific League championship season, and then signed with theSamsung Lions of theKBO League 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 the2001 season, he hit his 55th homer to tieSadaharu Oh's Japanese League single season home run record, set in1964. For the rest of the season, opposing pitchers intentionally walked Rhodes to prevent him from breaking Oh's record. Rhodes also played in tandem withNorihiro 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 theTokyo Yakult Swallows in 5 games in the2001 Japan Series. The Buffaloes are the second team to make the Japan Series but never win it, the first being the short livedShochiku Robins, who only made the Japan Series in NPB's inaugural season, losing to theMainichi Orions (now Chiba Lotte Marines) before folding at the end of the following season and being merged with theTaiyo Whales (now Yokohama DeNA BayStars).
In 2004 the team was sold to theOrix Group, the owner of theOrix BlueWave baseball team. The new owner then announced that the financially challenged Buffaloes and BlueWave would be merged into one team, called theOrix Buffaloes, 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 theYomiuri Giants as Kintetsu was not able to strike up the multi year deal he wanted.[4]
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, theRakuten 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.
Keishi Suzuki (鈴木 啓示)Shozo Fujita (1950-1952)Takeo Akuta (1953-1957)Hisayuki Kato (1958)Shigeru Chiba (1959-1961)Kaoru Betto (1962-1964)Yoshiyuki Iwamoto (1965-1966)Akitoshi Kodama (1967)Osamu Mihara (1968-1970)Takashi Iwamoto (1971-1973)Yukio Nishimoto (1974-1981)Seiji Sekiguchi (1982-1983)Isami Okamoto (1984-1987)Akira Ohgi (1988-1992)Keishi Suzuki (1993-1995)Kyosuke Sasaki (1996-1999)Masataka Nashida (2000-2004)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 dayOrix Buffaloes). 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 byHanna-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 toOrix Corporation.[5]
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 wearingAsics 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.[6] He was retired in 1997 following the Buffaloes' major logo and jersey overhaul, coinciding with their move to the Osaka Dome.
