Chiba Lotte Marines

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, and owned by the Lotte conglomerate.

History

The Marines franchise began in 1950 as an inaugural member 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.

The Marines started the 2005 season in first place behind American manager Bobby Valentine, but fell behind the Fukuoka 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 the Pacific League championship, winning the rubber match despite entering the eight inning trailing 2-1.

The Marines thus qualified for the Japan Series, the first time they had reached the tournament since 1974, a 31-year drought. In a one-sided series, the Marines swept the Hanshin 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 a playoff system in the Central League, which was finally added in 2007 (see Climax Series). The Marines went on to defeat South Korea's Samsung Lions in the final round of the Konami 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 the Chunichi Dragons in the 2010 Japan Series. 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.

Players of note

Current manager

• 78 Norifumi Nishimura

Current players

•  0 Tadahiro Ogino
•  2 Makoto Imaoka
•  3 Saburo Ohmura
•  4 Takashi Ogino
•  5 Koichi Hori
•  6 Tadahito Iguchi
•  7 Tsuyoshi Nishioka
•  8 Toshiaki Imae
•  9 Kazuya Fukuura
• 10 Shoitsu Ohmatsu
• 11 Yuta Omine (changed to number 11 for 2010 season)
• 12 Yusuke Kawaski
• 13 Kentaro Hashimoto
• 15 Hiroki Ueno
• 16 Hisao Heiuchi (changed to number 16 for 2010 season)
• 17 Yoshihisa Naruse
• 19 Yuki Karakawa
• 21 Tatsuya Uchi
• 22 Tomoya Satozaki
• 23 Akira Otsuka
• 25 Naotaka Takehara
• 29 Shingo Ono
• 31 Shunsuke Watanabe
• 41 Hiroyuki Kobayashi
• 44 Hayden Penn
• 46 Hidetaka Kawagoe (joined as free agent from Orix Buffaloes for 2010 season)
• 49 Yasuhiko Yabuta (returned to Chiba as free agent for 2010 season)
• 52 Kim Tae-Kyun
• 69 Bill Murphy

Former 2007 players

• Benny Agbayani
• Bobby Valentine (former manager, 1995, 2004–2009)
• 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 (current manager of Chunichi Dragons)
• Hiroshi Ogawa
• Dan Serafini
• Jose Fernandez
• Julio Zuleta
• Satoru Komiyama (retired in 2009)
• Naoyuki Shimizu (traded to Yokohama BayStars in 2009)
• Tasuku Hashimoto (signed by Yokohama BayStars as free agent in 2009)
• Michael Parra (Batboy)

Retired numbers

none

MLB players

Active:

• Ryohei Tanaka (2009-)
• Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2011-)

Retired:

• Hideki Irabu (1997-2002)
• Satoru Komiyama (2002)
• Masahide Kobayashi (2008-2009)
• Yasuhiko Yabuta (2008-2009)

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.)

• Kazuya Kamenashi (亀梨和也, Kamenashi Kazuya^?), also known as KameKame (disambiguation) and K² (his pen name)Talk:K², Japanese idol, singer-songwriter, actor, producer, television personality, radio host and member of the group KAT-TUN, was the honored guest, having #26 on his baseball uniform, to throw the first pitch at the Pacific League opening ceremony for the 2009 baseball season at a match in Chiba City featuring the team against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on July 19, 2009.^[1][2]

See also

• Lotte Group
• Lotte Giants

References

External links

• (Japanese) Chiba Lotte Marines official web site
• (English) We Love Marines - English-language Marines fan site