Kintetsu Buffaloes

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The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (ja: 大阪近鉄バファローズ) was a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Osaka, Japan, which were in the Pacific League. The team was owned by Kinki Nippon Railway Co. (later: Kintetsu Corp.) and later sold to the Orix Group, the owner of the Orix BlueWave baseball team, in 2004. The new owner then announced that they would merged the two teams into one team called the Orix Buffaloes before the start of the 2004-2005 NPB season.

The team was founded in 1950 and was known by various names: the Kintetsu Pearls (1950-1958), Kintetsu Buffalo (1959-1961), Kintetsu Buffaloes (1962-1998), Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes (1999-2004), and Orix Buffaloes (2005-now).

The team plays in Osaka Dome.

Uniform colors: Red, navy blue and White

Nickname: Kintetsu (近鉄), Buffaloes (バファローズ), Mougyu (猛牛) means violent buffalo, Ushi (牛,丑) means cow.

Logo design: A stylized buffalo's head with angry-looking red eyes which is designed by Okamoto Taro; or "Buffaloes" in red script, outlined with white.

League championships won (4): 1979, 1980, 1989, 2001

Japan Series championships won (0):

[edit] Players of note

[edit] Former players

• Ralph Bryant
• Phil Clark
• Dick Davis
• Chuck Essegian
• Yoshiaki Kanemura (金村 義明)
• Hisashi Iwakuma (岩隈 久志)
• Charlie Manuel
• Don Money
• Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋)
• Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄)
• Ben Oglivie
• Koji Ota (太田 幸司)
• Akinori Otsuka (大塚 晶則)
• Tuffy Rhodes
• German Rivera
• Lee Stevens
• Keishi Suzuki (鈴木 啓示)
• Jim Traber
• Masato Yoshii (吉井 理人)
• Fukuji Saotome

[edit] Retired numbers

• 1 Keishi Suzuki

[edit] External links

• History of the Kintetsu Buffaloes
• The dramatic determination of championship in Pacific League

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