Yokohama DeNA BayStars

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The Yokohama DeNA BayStars ( Japanese 横 浜 DeNA ベ イ ス タ ー ズ , Yokohama Dī-Enu-Ē Beisutāzu ) are a professional Japanese baseball team. They play in the Central League and were among the founding teams of today's league structure from 1950 under other names. As Robins and Whales , they had played in Shimonoseki , Kyōto and Kawasaki before moving to Yokohama in 1978 . So far twice - in 1960 and 1998 - they have won the Nippon Series . Home of the BayStars is Yokohama Stadium in the Naka district .

BayStars has been owned by the e-commerce company DeNA , which holds a majority of the shares, since the end of 2011 . The manager has been the former Giants infielder Kiyoshi Nakahata since 2012 .

history

Placement of the Whales, Robins and BayStars in the Central League since 1950. Red points mark victories in the Nippon Series.

The history of the BayStars goes back to the 1930s, when the operating team of the fishing company Taiyō Gyogyō first took part in the Intercity Baseball Tournament ( 都市 対 抗 野球 大会 , toshi taikō yakyū taikai ). When the current league structure was introduced, the company converted the team into a professional team in 1950, the Taiyō Whales , based in Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture . In 1953, the Whales merged with the Shōchiku Robins , a professional team from the 1930s that had won the Central League in 1950 . The new team was called 1953 Taiyō Shōchiku Robins , 1954 Yōshō Robins with a second mainstay in Kyoto and from the 1955 season, when they moved to Kawasaki , then again Taiyō Whales . The first few years were not very successful in terms of sport: between 1950 and 1959 the team finished sixth seven times, i.e. last in the Central League .

In 1960 Mihara Osamu , who had previously led the Nishitetsu Lions to three championships in a row, became manager of the Whales: Thanks to a significant improvement in the pitchers (2.32 ERA after 3.47 in the previous year), the team finished the season first (70 wins, 56 defeats) , 4 draws) and was then able to win the Nippon Series against the Daimai Orions . Mihara stayed until 1967, but did not get more than two second places.

The results remained mixed in the 1970s (six times below the last two). 1978 the Whales moved to Yokohama in the newly built Yokohama Stadium and called themselves Yokohama Taiyō Whales from then on ; In the same year, the television stations NBS with 30% and TBS with 15% participation. Because the new stadium had higher outfield walls, the number of home runs decreased while the defensive improved somewhat; In 1978 and 1979 the Whales were able to achieve more wins than losses for the first time in seven years. But there were still no major successes: From 1980 to 1994 the Whales did not achieve a win rate of .500 again.

In late 1992, Taiyō Gyogyō changed its name to Maruha KK and the Whales were renamed Yokohama BayStars . Towards the end of the 1990s the team succeeded again in producing winning seasons , i.e. more victories than defeats, which was crowned in 1998 with the second league title and the subsequent win of the Nihon Series (4-2 against the Seibu Lions ). The stars of the BayStars at this time included the outfielders Robert Rose and Takanori Suzuki and the pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki . 2001 TBS took over the shares of Maruha. The 2000s were not very successful in terms of sport; from 2002 to 2011 the BayStars did not achieve any winning seasons . Manager of the team from 2007 to May 2009 was Akihiko Ōya , who had already coached the team in 1996 and 1997 and had been a player for the Yakult Swallows for 16 years . Since Ōya's withdrawal, coach Tomio Tashiro has been interim manager, who had played for the Whales for 19 years as an infielder. After that, the former Yakult pitcher Takao Obata took over . In the 2011 postseason, the BayStars were sold to DeNA, and since December 1, 2011, the team has been named Yokohama DeNA BayStars like most professional teams in the name of the owner.

On April 30, 2013 Tony Blanco ran a new record with 14 homers in the season. Then one wondered why it is possible to get so many home runs in one season. On June 11, 2013 it came out that the balls had been modified in order to achieve more home runs (see Japanese baseball scandal 2013 ).

Since they were founded as a professional team in 1950, the BayStars achieved a win rate of .444 up to and including 2011 (with 3,547 wins, 4,437 defeats and 263 draws).

Stadion

The Yokohama Stadium holds 30,000 spectators.

The home of the BayStars is Yokohama Stadium . It was built in 1978 and has 30,000 seats. The interior is made of artificial turf . In addition to BayStars and TBS, TV Asahi , Fuji TV and the city of Yokohama are also involved in the owner company.

Minor league team

Web links

Commons : Yokohama DeNA BayStars  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files