Orix Buffaloes

The franchise that eventually became the Orix Buffaloes was founded in 1936 under the ownership of a Japanese railway company Hanshin Kyuko Railway Company (阪神急行電鉄, Hanshin Kyuko Dentetsu, present: Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.), as Osaka Hankyu Baseball Club (大阪阪急野球協会, Ōsaka hankyū yakyū kyōkai). Later nicknamed the Hankyu Braves, it was one of the first professional baseball teams in Japan, and the oldest surviving team in the Pacific League.

In the early 1950s, the franchise made a dedicated effort to attract foreign talent, particularly African-American veterans of Negro league baseball,^[2] including infielders John Britton and Larry Raines, and pitchers Jimmy Newberry and Jonas Gaines. These players were the first Americans other than Wally Yonamine to play Nippon Professional Baseball after World War II.

Starting in the mid-1960s, the Braves became one of the dominant teams not only in the Pacific League but in all of Japanese professional baseball. Between 1967 and 1972, the Hankyu Braves won the Pacific League pennant five times but lost the Japan Series each time against the Yomiuri Giants. Manager Yukio Nishimoto was known as "the great manager in tragedy" because of those losses. But the Hankyu Braves won Japan Series three times in a row from 1975, against the Tokyo Giants in 1976 and 1977, led by manager Toshiharu Ueda. At that time, many good players in Japanese baseball history played for the Hankyu Braves, including pitcher Hisashi Yamada and outfielder Yutaka Fukumoto.

In the 1980s, the team still was a strong contender in the Pacific League, but lost the PL pennant to the Seibu Lions every year except 1984; that year, the Braves fell to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the Japan Series in seven games.

On October 19, 1988, Hankyu Railway sold the franchise to the lease company Orient Lease (since 1989 known as Orix Group), in what was known as "the longest day of the Pacific League". The reason is that when the franchise sale occurred, the Kintetsu Buffaloes played the legendary "10.19" double-header for the Pacific League pennant, only to miss the pennant out because of the second game ending in a tie. For Kintetsu to win the pennant, they had to win both games in the doubleheader against the Lotte Orions. The sale was a surprise; at that time, it was much rarer for a Japanese professional baseball team to change owners, not to mention for a large company to sell one of its parts. In that case, Hankyu Railway was thought of as one of the big companies that would never need to do such a thing. The sale was also a surprise, given that prior to Hankyu founder Ichizo Kobayashi's death in 1957, he decreed that under any circumstances, Hankyu must never sell the Braves and the Takarazuka Revue, both of which were passion projects of his. As it turned out, however, the Braves had to be sold in order for Hankyu to keep the Revue afloat.

The sale was not without two assurances: the team name would remain "Braves", and the franchise would stay in Nishinomiya. During the first two years of new ownership, the team was known as the Orix Braves and played in Nishinomiya.

In 1991, the team moved to Kobe and became the Orix BlueWave. Orix put out a poll to decide the new name, and unsurprisingly, people voted Braves. It was said that Orix put out another poll and told fans "Braves" was not allowed. What made it worse was in that second poll, "Thunder" was the winning name, which fit the new color scheme (when Orix bought the team, they changed their colors from black and red to navy blue and gold), and because the team's batting lineup was named Blue Thunder (ブルーサンダー, Burūsandā). But, Orix went with "BlueWave". Longtime fans were shocked by these changes. One member of the Braves' cheering squad (応援団 ouendan) said that "the race was decided before the gun even went off".^[3] Another thing that did not make sense to fans was they were named BlueWave while playing in then-named Green Stadium (now Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium) in a city whose official color is green. However, since Nishinomiya and Kobe are close to one another, and the new home field of the team was better than the old one, most fans accepted the move, although with some nostalgia for the historic "Braves" name. The team was sometimes called Aonami or Seiha (青波) by fans and the baseball media, which means "blue wave" in Japanese.

Led by Ichiro Suzuki in 1995 and 1996, the Orix BlueWave won the Pacific League pennant. In 1996, they also won the Japan Series. In 2001, Suzuki moved to the Seattle Mariners and led the Mariners to a 116 win season, the most wins by an American League team.

Following the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment, the BlueWave merged with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. The team struggled since its merger, only finishing in the top half (or A Class) of the Pacific league once from 2005 to 2013. In 2008, The Buffaloes finished second in the Pacific League, going 75–68–1 and finishing 2+1⁄2 games behind the Saitama Seibu Lions, but were swept by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at home in the first stage of the Climax Series. After two seasons of finishing last in the Pacific League, they finished first in 2021, going 70–55–18. They swept the Chiba Lotte Marines in the final stage of the Climax Series to make their first Japan Series appearance since 1996. Ultimately, they were defeated by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in six games. In 2022, despite a rough start to the season, the Buffaloes finished 1st after a 5–2 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on the final day of the Pacific League regular season, combined with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks losing to the Marines, 5–2, at the same time the game was happening, and also because they had 5 more wins against the Hawks during the regular season, 15–10.^[4] The Buffaloes would defeat the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the Final Stage of the 2022 Pacific League Climax Series, 4 games to 1, which set up a rematch of the previous year's Japan Series, but this time the Buffaloes would exact revenge on the Swallows, defeating them 4 games to 2. Following that campaign, Masataka Yoshida requested to be posted to MLB, and signed with the Boston Red Sox that offseason. In 2023, an 86-53-4 record yielded them their 3rd straight Pacific League pennant, alongside Yamamoto winning his 3rd consecutive Triple Crown. They swept the Chiba Lotte Marines in the final stage of the Climax Series to make their third Japan Series appearance. But, the Buffaloes were defeated by the Hanshin Tigers in seven games. Yoshinobu Yamamoto's posting to MLB proved to be too much for the Buffaloes to handle, as without their legendary ace, the Buffaloes fell to a record of 63-77-3, ending the year in 5th place. Following that season, manager Satoshi Nakajima announced he was stepping down after he failed to guide the Buffaloes to their 4th straight pennant. He was replaced with Mamoru Kishida.

Elected mainly for Hankyu Braves service

• Yutaka Fukumoto, CF, 1969–1988 (inducted 2002)
• Takao Kajimoto, P, 1954–1973 (inducted 2007)
• Hisashi Yamada, P, 1969–1988 (inducted 2006)
• Tetsuya Yoneda, P, 1956–1975 (inducted 2000)

Elected for service with other teams, as well as Hankyu and Orix

• Hiromitsu Kadota, DH, 1989–1990 (inducted 2006)
• Futoshi Nakanishi, Head coach / Hitting coach, 1985–1990†, 1995–1997 (inducted 1999) †For Kintetsu Buffaloes
• Akira Ōgi, MGR 1988–1992†, 1994–2001, 2005 (inducted 2004)
• Toshiharu Ueda, MGR, 1974–1978, 1981–1990 (inducted 2003)

Elected mainly for Kintetsu Buffaloes service

• Yukio Nishimoto, MGR 1974–1981 (inducted 1988)
• Keishi Suzuki, P, 1966–1985 (inducted 2002)

as Orix Buffaloes

•   Cliff Brumbaugh – RF
•   Karim García – OF
•   Kazuhiro Kiyohara (清原 和博) – 1B/3B
•   Chihiro Kaneko (金子 千尋) – P
•   Park Chan Ho – P
•   Lee Dae-ho – 1B
•   Hiroyuki Nakajima (中島 裕之) – IF
•   Yoshitomo Tani (谷 佳知) – OF
•   Yoshio Itoi (糸井 嘉男) – OF
•   Tomotaka Sakaguchi (坂口 智隆) – OF/IF
•   Ryan Vogelsong – P
•   Esteban Germán – IF
•   Atsushi Nomi (能見 篤史) – P
•   Adam Jones – OF
•   Ryota Ishioka (石岡 諒太) – IF, OF

as Orix BlueWave

•   Roosevelt Brown – OF
•   Doug Jennings – OF/1B (also known as D.J)
•   Koo Dae-sung – P
•   Yasuo Fujii (藤井 康雄) – IF/OF
•   Junichi Fukura (福良 淳一) – 2B
•   Shigetoshi Hasegawa (長谷川 滋利) – P – formerly of the Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners
•   Troy Neel – 1B
•   Chris Donnels – 3B
•   Mac Suzuki (マック 鈴木) – P
•   Masafumi Hirai (平井 正史) – P
•   Takahito Nomura (野村 貴仁) – P
•   Satoshi Nakajima (中嶋 聡) – C
•   Kazuhiro Sato (佐藤 和弘) (also known as "Punch" Sato) (パンチ佐藤), OF
•   Koichi Oshima (大島 公一) – 2B
•   Ichiro Suzuki (鈴木 一朗), イチロー – OF – of the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees of MLB's American League
•   So Taguchi (田口 壮) – IF, OF

as Kintetsu (and Osaka Kintetsu) Buffaloes

•   Charlie Manuel – OF
•   Norihiro Nakamura (中村 紀洋) – IF
•   Masahiro Doi (土井 正博) – OF
•   Shintaro Yamasaki (山崎 慎太郎) – P
•   Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄) – P
•   Keishi Suzuki (鈴木 啓示) – P
•   Tuffy Rhodes – OF
•   Masato Yoshii (吉井 理人) – P

as Hankyu (and Orix) Braves

•   Mitsuhiro Adachi (足立 光宏) – P – underhanded big-game pitcher who defeated the Yomiuri Giants
•   Roberto Barbon – IF
•   Yutaro Imai (今井 雄太郎) – P – once pitched a perfect game
•   Hideji Kato (加藤 英司) – 1B
•   Brad "Animal" Lesley – P
•   Bobby Marcano – IF
•   Hiromi Matsunaga (松永 浩美) – 3B
•   Tokuji Nagaike (長池 徳士) – OF
•   Kazuhiko Ishimine (石嶺 和彦) – OF
•   Yutaka Fukumoto（福本 豊）– OF – steal the most bases in NPB up to now
•   Nobuyuki Hoshino (星野 伸之) – P
•   Takao Kajimoto (梶本 隆夫) – P
•   Koji Minoda (簑田 浩二) – OF
•   Yoshinori Sato (佐藤 義則) – P
•   Hisashi Yamada (山田 久志) – P
•   Daryl Spencer – IF
•   Greg "Boomer" Wells – 1B (the first non-Japanese triple crown hitter in NPB history^[5])
•   Masafumi Yamamori (山森 雅文) – OF

Active:

• Masataka Yoshida (beginning 2023)
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto (beginning 2024)
• Marwin González (beginning 2023)

Former:

• Adam Jones (2020–2021)
• Mac Suzuki (2003–2005)
• Joey Butler (2014)
• Hideo Nomo (1990–1994)
• Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1990–1996)
• Masao Kida (1998, 2000–2001)
• So Taguchi (1992–2001, 2010–2011)
• Koo Dae-Sung (2001–2004)
• Tuffy Rhodes (2007–2009)
• Joey Meneses (2018–2019)
• Ichiro Suzuki (1992–2000)
• Park Chan Ho (2011)
• Yoshihisa Hirano (2018–2020)
• Brandon Dickson (2013–2021)
• Masato Yoshii (1997–2002)

• Statistics current through the end of the 2023 season.^[6]

The Buffaloes' current theme song is "Sky" by Japanese band Mega Stopper. The song was first used in 2005. Another version that is used is sung by the club's cheerleading squad, BsGirls.

1981 until 1990

• Bravey (ブレービー) #100, a large bird
• Yuta (勇太) #101, a younger bird
• Braves Boy (ブレーブス坊や), a baseball-headed warrior

1991 until 2010

• Neppie (ネッピー) #111, a young boy
• Ripsea (リプシー) #222, a young girl

since 2011

• Buffalo Bull (バッファローブル) #111, a male hybrid of oryx and buffalo, Bell's brother
• Buffalo Bell (バッファローベル) #222, a female hybrid of oryx and buffalo, Bull's sister

• Official website (in Japanese)