Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks founded in 1938
earlier names)
Nankai-gun (1938-1944) Kinki-Nippon-gun (1944-1945) Greatling (1946-1947) Nankai Hawks (1947–1988) Fukuoka Daiei Hawks (1989-2004)
league
Pacific League
Ball park (s)
Sakai Ōhama Stadium (1938) Nakamozu Stadium (1939-1947) Koshien Stadium (1948-1949) Osaka Stadium (1950–1988) Heiwadai Stadium (1989–1992) Fukuoka Dome (since 1993)
successes
Nippon Series (7): 1959 , 1964 , 1999 , 2003 , 2011 , 2014 , 2015 Pacific League winners (17): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1959, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1973, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 Japan Baseball Association League Winner (2): 1946, 1948
Website : softbankhawks.co.jp

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks ( Japanese 福岡ソフトバンクホークス , fukuoka sofutobanku hōkusu ) are a Japanese professional baseball team. You play in the Pacific League and have won the Nihon Series seven times so far . The owner is the media company SoftBank . Fukuoka is the home of the Hawks and they play their home games in the Fukuoka Dome .

history

The Hawks' placement in the Pacific League since the league was founded in 1950. Red dots mark victories in the Nippon Series .

The team is one of the oldest professional teams in Japanese baseball. As Nankai-gun ( 南海軍 ) of the railway company Nankai Tetsudō , she took part in the game operation of the professional league founded two years earlier from autumn 1938. It was initially located in the Sakai-Ōhama baseball stadium ( 堺大浜球場 , Sakai Ōhama kyūjō ) in Sakai , Osaka Prefecture , from 1939 then in the Nakamozu baseball stadium ( 中百舌鳥球場 , Nakamozu kyūjō ) also in Sakai. Regular games were played in the Koshien and the Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium . The years up to the end of the war were not very successful in terms of sport, with Nankai finishing fourth in 1941. Well-known players of the time were the pitcher ace Kanda Takeo and Tsuruoka Kazuto , homerunch champion from 1941 and later long-time manager of the team. From June 1944, Nankai-gun was called after the merger of the Nankai with the Kansai-Kyūkō railway Kinki-Nippon-gun .

In the resumption of game operations in 1946, the team participated for two years as Greatling ( グレートリング , gurētoringu ).

Famous players and managers

Katsuya Nomura (C, 1954-1977)
Hiromitsu Kadota (OF, 1970–1988)
Kazunori Yamamoto (OF, 1983–1995)
Makoto Sasaki (OF, 1984-1993)
Kōji Akiyama (OF, 1994–2002)
Hiroki Kokubo (2B, 1994-2003, 2007-)
Kimiyasu Kudō (P, 1995-1999)
Kenji Jōjima (C, 1995-2005)
Kazumi Saitō (P, 1996–)
Tadahito Iguchi (2B, 1997-2004)
Nobuhiko Matsunaka (1B, 1997–)
Munenori Kawasaki (SS, 2000–2011)
Toshiya Sugiuchi (P, 2002–2011)
Tsuyoshi Wada (P, 2003–)

Stadion

Fukuoka Dome (Yahoo Dome)

The Hawks' home stadium has been the Fukuoka Dome since 1993, with space for around 35,000 spectators. Before that, they had played in Osaka Stadium ( Ōsaka kyūjō ) since 1950 and after moving to Fukuoka from 1989 in the Heiwadai baseball stadium.

Web links

Commons : Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Official Website (Japanese)
Historical team statistics at the NPB (Japanese)