The Orix-Kintetsu Merger - The Story of the 2004 NPB Realignment
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- In 2004, two teams created a collasal mess when, against all good judgement, decided to merge. Here we see the fallout.
Greed, Debt, and Opportunism, no it's not a crime drama, it's NPB in the early 2000s!
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:22 History Time
3:41 A Rocky Start
12:08 The Problem with Pacific League
15:20 The Battle Begins
24:39 The New Suitors
30:40 Outro - Sport
I just learned about this merger the other day. I actually live right down the street where the old buffalo stadium used to be. I was super surprised to learn that there used to be a giant stadium right there.
Thank you for another brilliant video. You so thoroughly fill the gaps of information that I've never been able to put my fingers on. I was Kintetsu Buffaloes fan and enjoyed regular trips out to the old Fujidera stadium watching kids like Nomo blossom. I was also lucky enjoy to watch Ichiro, still as a teenager, do his thing out at Green Stadium but when they merged a decade later, that was it for me as a Buffaloes fan. Like many other Buffaloes fans, I turned to Hanshin as a team to support that you could never imagine disappearing the same way the Buffaloes did. That said, wonderful to see the Buffaloes back in the mix in Japan Series this year.
This is amazing my man im new to baseball in general but i know nothing about npb so its amazing that ive found your chanel. Thanks
It’s so strange to me this dude only has 5100 subs. Your videos are on the same league as many who have 100 times more subs. Keep it up!
Once again you just nailed it and made a fascinating video I will be rewatching over and over again.
The Blue Wavu is the coldest uniforms in baseball history great channel providing the Yakyuu gas
Could you imagine how many heated rivalry could come out of this mess if this happened in US?
Orix and Rakuten should hate each other for obvious reasons.
And also Rakuten and Lotte for the "Gypsy Lotte" era.
It's kinda weird that Pacific didn't have that prime time level of rivalry a la Hanshin/Yomiuri of Central
Sadly that "big rivalry" was Buffaloes vs Braves/BlueWave.
I guess you could say the Buffaloes and Eagles don't like each other too much, especially with the way Isobe and Iwakuma decided they'd rather go there, but the Buffaloes have been so generally terrible that its hard for anything organic to work.
I guess you could say Lions/Hawks got heated again after like 40 years of dormancy but still, its not the same now that they missed the playoffs.
This is excellent. I'm a long time NPB and Kintetsu Buffaloes fan who has long wished to hear an intelligent gaijin voice with whom to share this exotic and wonderful version of baseball we have here. I think I've found that voice. Thank you!
At least sky is a banger song
Amazing video! I was waiting for it since Buffaloes one! Thank you
respect for shouting out Shinjo yakyuu god
I watched initially but I didn't do the stuff to feed the algorithm so I came back
God I really have a mixed feeling on Kintetsu.
It has the widest network outside of JR, connecting Osaka, the whole of Nara Prefecture, Kyoto, Nagoya and Ise-Shima region.
However the top management made really terrible commercial decisions during the economic bubble of the 1980s.
Yeah but thats the same for a lot of companies, I mean, look at Daiei for example.
Great work as always, love your content
keep the vids coming man! love 'em
keep up the good work!
Holy smoke. Why did Hankyu sell the Braves, though? Around the same time the Braves were sold, their then-Osaka PL brethren, the Nankai Hawks had fallen on hard times during the 1980s, and their most ardent support, Mr. Den Kawakatsu passed away before the start of the '88 season, and Nankai didn't want anything to do with what had by then become a money-losing albatross at that time.
But wow, I can understand why Braves fans were upset of Orix taking over the team and blowing up their whole long-established identity and starting over. I bet those feelings were somewhat muted by the mid-1990s, when the by-then Orix Blue Wave were consistenly winning.
Thanks for another awesome vid.
I read that Hankyu's board went through a shift and the new members didn't like that the team was losing money, and I've also read that Hankyu was $80 million in debt at the time and selling the team would've covered it.
In the end, the team would've eventually been sold regardless, especially now that Hanshin owns Hankyu
@@GaijinBaseball Technically it’s the opposite, Hankyu bought all of Hanshin stocks to complete the merger in 2006
Competing with Hanshin in the Kansai region was always a rough situation. Nankai was understandably the first to go out as Nankai Railways essentially only has parts of southern Osaka and Wakayama in its area. Hankyu played in Nishinomiya of all places right near Koshien, it had absolutely no way of getting out of its shadow, much like the Clippers in LA against the Lakers. The Tigers just have too much synergy with the Osakan culture. Pacific League was no where near its popularity today, and Hankyu didn't have the political and financial muscle that Seibu group had in order to artificially lift its popularity.
@@uchikoshi-TL The Lions also have the benefit of historically being really fucking good under their management, only finishing last in the PL twice since Seibu bought them and moved them to Tokorozawa (1979, 2021) which helps their popularity in the greater Tokyo market. If I had to guess they're probably the top two of most popular PL teams right now between them and the Hawks considering both are historically good teams as of late and have played or are playing in unsaturated markets (both have played in Fukuoka).
@@ringo3911 Then-owner Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once the richest man in the world, didn't joke around when it came to big projects. When Tsutsumi bought the team, he immediately tried to make them profitable by bringing in stars Katsuya Nomura and Koichi Tabuchi, and attempted to draft Egawa and have Giants legend Tetsuharu Kawakami become the CEO. ex-Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda backed him up, and while Tokorozawa is so far from Tokyo, he managed to gain fans by having a TV program promoting the Lions on TBS. Combined with a new stadium, they were up 75% in ticket sales to the year despite completely relocating. He also founded the Prince Hotel industrial league team, which served as a loop hole to get coveted players outside of the draft (prior to the 90s, UDFA existed in the NPB. Lions shocked the NPB when they announced that the Fighters and Braves 1st round picks will sign with Prince Hotel instead in 1980).
Rikuo Nemoto was such a crucial figure in the management that you praised; He created the juggernaut that was the Lions of the 80s. He made the foundation as the manager, then brought in his former colleague at Hiroshima, Tatsuro Hirooka as the new manager, and when he left, he told Tsutsumi that Hirooka's replacement should be someone who knows the team well enough, and can take the team to the next level (versus a popular manager), which ended up being Masaaki Mori.
You brought up Fukuoka as the point, but Hawks, while being a storied franchise, was struggling mightily as they never finished above 4th since 1978. Nemoto would join the ailing Daiei Hawks in 1993 as GM and manager, and would bring in Sadaharu Oh, and later Kenji Johjima (who had already decided to attend Komazawa Uni.) as well as Hiromichi Ishige (who was rumored to become Lions manager that season) and Lions ace Kimiyasu Kudo in free agency. He set up the franchise for success, but passed away 3 months before the Hawks won their first pennant since moving to Fukuoka.
You could say that intro was... pretty good
loved the video
I'll give Orix some credit,during the summer, when they introduce Alternate uniforms, Orix some times has Buffaloes and BlueWave throwbacks depending on where they play.
Awesome video!
Points in the vid according to me
1. JON BOIS
1A. I’m a weeb so when I see Osaka I think of Azumanga Daioh, oof.
2. Ah yes Victor Starfin
3. That was all the thoughts.
Good vid.
I love the old Kintetsu Buffaloes logo.
What Orix did was downright scummy. It ranks right up there with how Jeffrey Loria managed the Montreal Expos. I will ask you though Mr Gaijin Baseball, has the fan base for the Orix Buffaloes grown/recovered since the merger debacle? Or is it still the same as it was in the late 2000s?
From what I seen, before Masataka Yoshida, Kyocera Dome is pretty much empty or filled with visiting team fans, especially if Hanshin Tigers the visitors.
After Yoshida, I think there's a slight increase of interest among Osakan about the Buffaloes. But my friend still said that Kyocera Dome tickets are pretty cheap, and yet the Dome still 3/4 empty in weekdays
Some in Osaka have come around on the team, Kobe too, but they were good this year so we'll see how sustainable that is.
There was one dude sitting right behind Home Plate in a full Kintetsu uniform in either Game 1 or Game 2 of the Japan Series this year, so there's that
@@GaijinBaseball I see. BTW thank you for the great videos. Love learning about the history of NPB.
@@derkaiserzen Yup, the Tigers remains as Osaka’s 1st choice when it comes to “Name the team that represents you, Tigers or Buffaloes?”…
@@derkaiserzenit also doesn't help that Kyocera Dome is the Tigers home during the Spring and Summer High School baseball tournaments.
Before the Buffaloes current golden age, I called them “NPB’s Gong Show.”
Update this vid asap. BUFFALOES WON THE JAPAN SERIES
Sir that's a Bluewave title
You pronounced Livedoor wrong literally every time you said it, but other than that minor irritation this was actually quite insightful, especially since Koshien is right at the end of my street and the mall that replaced Nishinomiya Stadium is only a couple stops away.
And I thought the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder swap was bad. This was a M-E-S-S.
At least the Thunder didn’t force the NBA Player’s Association to go to strike and threaten legal action (not that I think it was good of the Seattle management to screw over their fan base so badly).
Haha Orix losing their best 3 players, IMMEDIATELY after the merger. Sweet, sweet justice
D.J.