Japan Samurai Bears

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Japan Samurai Bears
[[Image:\|center\|150px\|Japan Samurai Bears logo]]
Founded	2005
League	Golden Baseball League 2005
Team History	Japan Samurai Bears 2005
Ballpark	None
Based in	Traveling Team
Team Colors	black,
Owner	League Operated
Manager	Warren Cromartie
Championships	0
Division Titles	0

The Japan Samurai Bears were a Golden Baseball League based in the Arizona Division. The team, which existed for one season, played all of its game on the road in order to keep an even number of teams in the league.

The manager of the team was Warren Cromartie (aka "Cro"), a US-born citizen who had played for a number of years in the Japanese baseball league. The team was almost entirely made of players from Japan, but did include some US-born players of Japanese descent to fill out the roster.

In their only season, the Samurai Bears finished last in the Arizona division with a league worst 33-57 record. Though the team struggled, there were some bright spots for the season. They had 3 pitchers (Hideki Nagasaka, Takaaki Igarashi, and Rentaro Seki) on the Arizona Division all-star team. First baseman Yuji Nerei was a gold glove winner and lead the team in home runs and RBI, in addition to several other offensive categories.

In 2007, a documentary of the experience was released, titled "Season of the Samurai." The documentary looked at the on and off-field experiences of the team, including an in-depth look at the challenging relationship with the coach. The film was made an official selection to the Santa Barbara Film Festival.