Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルス, Tōhoku Rakuten Gōruden Īgurusu^?) is a baseball team founded in 2004; it played its first season in the Japanese Pacific League in 2005. It is simply called Rakuten (楽天). The team was created to fill the void left by the merger of the Orix Blue Wave and the Kintetsu Buffaloes, after the 2004 season due to financial difficulties, leaving the Pacific League with five teams, causing the biggest crisis in the traditional two-league structure in NPB and finally caused the historical-first baseball player strike in Japan. The team is based in Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. It inaugurated its first season with a 3 – 1 victory over Lotte. The team is owned by the Internet shopping company Rakuten.^[1]

The team's manager was Katsuya Nomura, the oldest manager in NPB history, but he was replaced as of the 2010 season by Marty Brown the former manager of Hiroshima. Brown was in turn replaced by Senichi Hoshino after a last place finish in 2010.

The stadium was heavily damaged by floods during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11.^[2]

Players of note

Former managers

• Yasushi Tao
• Katsuya Nomura
• Marty Brown

Former players

• Luis Lopez
• Ryan Glynn
• Eric Valent
• Cedrick Bowers
• Kevin Hodges
• Gary Rath
• Andy Tracy
• Aaron Myette
• Matt Skrmetta
• Damon Minor
• Katsunori Nomura
• Tetsuya Iida
• Takeshi Nakamura
• Tadaharu Sakai
• Hideo Koike
• Koichi Oshima
• Kevin Witt
• Adam Bass
• Toyohiko Yoshida
• Koichi Sekikawa
• Lin Ying-Chieh - P
• Domingo Guzman - P

Retired numbers

• 10 - This number is worn by both team mascots, Clutch and Clutchina, and is considered the number of the fan, the 'tenth man' on the field. It is the first retired number in NPB involving a fan, inspired by some teams in other sports which retire "12" (for the 12th man). It should be noted that there are ten starting players in the Pacific League as the league uses the designated hitter. The Chiba Lotte Marines has the #26 retired in similar fashion (MLB's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has retired #26, in similar fashion, for the original owner Gene Autry).

MLB players

Active:

Retired: Kazuo Fukumori (2008)

Records

Golden Eagles Fan Club honorary members

• Shirō Asano
• Hajimu Fujii
• Great Sasuke
• Takanori Hatakeyama
• Hiroshi Ikushima
• Junichi Inagaki
• Shūhei Mainōmi
• Hiroya Masuda
• Shingo Mimura
• Masatoshi Nakamura
• Toshiyuki Nishida
• Itsurō Ōizumi
• Kōhei Ōtomo
• Sanpei
• Hiroshi Saitō
• Eisaku Satō
• Masao Sen
• Mayo Suzukaze
• Yoshitake Tanaka
• Sukeshiro Terata
• Suzuki Udo
• Kōichi Yamadera

See also

• "The Manpower!!!" (THE マンパワー!!!^?) – the first Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded and released as a single by J-pop idol group Morning Musume.
• Let's Go Rakuten Eagles Let's Go 楽天イーグルス- the second Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group DEF.DIVA of Hello! Project.
• "Daisuki Rakuten Eagles (ダイスキ楽天イーグルス^?) – the third Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group GAM.
• "Koero! Rakuten Eagles (越えろ！楽天イーグルス^?) – the fourth Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group C-ute.

Gallery

External links

• (Japanese) Official page for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

References

1. ^ http://www.japanball.com/eagles.htm
2. ^ Japan Pro Baseball and the Earthquake and Tsunami