The are a semi-professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

team in the

Baseball Challenge League The Route Inn BCL, formerly known as the , is an independent minor baseball league in Japan. The league's abbreviated designation is "." League structure The Baseball Challenge League has three divisions, East, Middle, and West, with four teams ...

of Japan. The team was established as part of the expansion of the league, and began play in the 2008 season. Their home is

Gunma Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 Square kilometre, km2 (2,456 Square mile, sq mi). Gunma P ...

Franchise history

The Diamond Pegasus were Jōshin'etsu Division winners from 2008–2010; they won the Baseball Challenge League championship in 2009. Long-time

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

outfielder Takayuki Shimizu played for Gunma in 2010. Venezuelan left-hander Robert Zarate pitched for Gunma in 2010 before signing with

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railwa ...

. Long-time NPB reliever Soichi Fujita pitched for Gunma in 2012, as did French players Frédéric Hanvi and Felix Brown. The 2014 Diamond Pegasus roster had a strong Venezuelan flavor: Long-time

slugger

Alex Ramírez Alexander Ramón Ramírez Quiñónez (born 3 October 1974) is a Venezuelan-born Japanese former professional baseball outfielder who had a long career in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He is the first foreign-born player to record 2 ...

played for the team as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

, hitting .305 with 7 home runs and 38 RBI in 45 games. Fellow countrymen and also former NPB players Levi Romero and Robert Zarate (who returned to the team after three seasons with Hanshin) were also on the 2014 squad.Gen
"BC League: Gunma agrees to terms with former NPB players Romero and Zarate,"
Yakyabaka.com (April 26, 2014). Following the 2014 season, Ramírez retired from playing and was named the Gunma Pegasus' Senior Director. Zarate was scouted by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

, and in 2015 joined their organization.

Roster

Updated as of July 25, 2021. Pitchers: *Sonoda Akira (21) *Ryoma Anzai (25) *Masateru Aosaki (18) *Kohei Fukasawa (20) *Ryuki Iguchi (41) *Yu Miyashita (31) *Yuki Mori (11) *Yusei Nishihama (15) *Kyodai Ogino (17) *Daiki Tashiro (21) *Toyoji Yoshioka (19) Catchers: *Takanari Hayami (99) *Katsuhito Tomatsu (51) Infielders: *Shota Kaneko (24) *Ryo Kikuchi (33) *Hironami Nakamichi (1) *Seishin Takahashi (35) *Shota Yuasa (6) Oufielders: *Yusuke Arima (52) *Kanuma Hiiragi (34) *Yusuke Inoguchi (28) *Yohei Kudo (7) *Koichi Okumura (55) *Kei Shimada (5) *Tatsuya Takayama (8) Trainees: *P Ryoma Higashino (13) *P Yonder Ramirez (-) *P Kojuro Shioda (12) *P Naoya Takahashi (14) *P Hiroto Yasuda (16) *C Tomoya Ibaraki (27) *C Kobe Kota (62) *C Yoshio Suzuki (2) *C Atsushi Watanabe (32) *IF Yuya Mitsui (23)

References

External links

Gunma Diamond Pegasus Official Site
(in Japanese) Baseball teams in Japan Baseball teams established in 2008 2008 establishments in Japan Sports teams in Gunma Prefecture {{japan-baseball-team-stub