Manager Shūichi Ishimoto Year established 1936 | Ballpark Korakuen Stadium | |
League Japanese Baseball League Former name(s) Tokyo Senators (1936–1939)
Tsubasa Baseball Club (1940)
Taiyō Baseball Club (1941–1942) Ownerships Yoriyasu Arima, Nishi-Nippon Railroad | ||
The Nishitetsu Baseball Club was a team in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL). Founded in 1936 as the Tokyo Senators, the team went through a number of name changes and mergers before being dissolved before the 1944 season.
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Franchise history
The Senators were founded by a group that included politician Yoriyasu Arima.
For the 1940 season, the team was renamed the Tsubasa Baseball Club (Tsubasa meaning "wing."). (In October 1940, responding to rising hostility toward the West due to World War II, the league outlawed the use of English in Japanese baseball.)
After they merged with Nagoya Kinko following the 1940 season, the team was wholly acquired by Yoriyasu Arima. Renamed the Taiyō Baseball Club, the franchise had its best season in 1942, finishing with a winning percentage of .606, in second place in the league.
Financial instability led to the team being acquired in 1943 by Nishi-Nippon Railroad, and it being renamed the Nishitetsu Baseball Club. Despite finishing with a .513 winning percentage that year, Nishitetsu was dissolved before the 1944 season.
Nishitetsu Clippers
Nishitetsu gained a new baseball team in 1950 as the Nishitetsu Clippers joined Nippon Professional Baseball; the franchise is now known as the Saitama Seibu Lions.