The Nishitetsu Baseball Club was a team in the

Japanese Baseball League was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball. The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league c ...

(JBL). Founded in 1936 as the Tokyo Senators, the team went through a number of name changes and mergers before being dissolved after the 1943 season. The team's undisputed star for most of its history was

two-way player In sports that require a player to play on offense and defense (such as basketball and ice hockey), a two-way player refers to a player who excels at both. In sports where a player typically specializes on offense or defense (like American footb ...

Jirō Noguchi (January 6, 1920 – May 21, 2007) was a Japanese baseball pitcher and outfielder/infielder who played 13 seasons in the Japanese Baseball League and then Nippon Professional Baseball, from 1939 to 1952. A two-way player who really excelled at pi ...

, who excelled as a pitcher. Other notable players for the franchise included Chujiro Endo, Yutaka Ishii, Sadao Kondoh, Toshio Kurosawa, and Jirō's brother

Akira Noguchi (August 6, 1917 – October 5, 1996) was a Japanese baseball pitcher, infielder, catcher, and manager who played 15 total seasons in the Japanese Baseball League and then Nippon Professional Baseball, during the period 1936 to 1955. The rare ...

Franchise history

Tokyo Senators (1936–1939)

The Senators were founded by a group that included politician Yoriyasu Arima. Saburo Yokozawa managed the team in 1936–1937. In the fall 1936 campaign, rookie pitcher

went 15-13 with a 2.65 earned run average, following that with a combined 34–22 record in 1937, with a 2.21 ERA. (The 1936 and 1937 JBL seasons were split into spring and fall half-seasons.) Noguchi's 1937 totals led the league in games pitched and innings;Garland, Gary
"Akira Noguchi,"
BR Bullpen. Retrieved Aug. 22, 2020. he started nearly 70% of his team's games, and his 34 wins represented 68% of the Senators combined victories for the full season. Akira Noguchi left the team after the 1937 season, but he was replaced in 1939 as the team's ace by his brother

. Jirō's rookie season was remarkable: a workhorse, he went 33–19 with a 2.04 earned run average, setting a rookie record for victories."Jiro Noguchi,"
BR Bullpen. Retrieved July 26, 2020. He led the league in innings pitched, most games pitched, complete games (a remarkable 38), and hits and home runs allowed. He pitched in 72% of the team's games and had 67% of their total victories. When not pitching, he often played outfield or first base (although he only hit .251).

Tsubasa (1940)

For the 1940 season, the team was renamed the Tsubasa Baseball Club"Tokyo Senators,"
BR Bullpen. Retrieved August 21, 2020. (''Tsubasa'' meaning "wing"). (In October 1940, responding to rising hostility toward the West due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the league outlawed the use of English in Japanese baseball.)"Kurowashi,"
Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed Mar. 7, 2015. In 1940, Jirō Noguchi put together another remarkable season, going 30–11 with a league-leading 0.93 earned run average. He also hit .260. He had nearly 60% of the team's total number of victories for the season.

Taiyō (1941–1942)

Following the 1940 season, the team was wholly acquired by Yoriyasu Arima; the failing

Nagoya Kinko Nagoya Kinko (long name: Nagoya Kinnosachihiko)"Nagoya Kinko"
Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed Mar ...

was also merged with Tsubasa and for 1941 the new team was renamed the Taiyō Baseball Club. Jirō Noguchi went 25–12 with a league-leading 0.88 ERA in 1941, becoming the only pitcher in Japanese professional baseball history to have two consecutive sub-1 ERA seasons. The franchise had its best season in 1942, finishing with 60 victories and a winning percentage of .606, good for second place in the league behind the

Tokyo Kyojin 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 ...

. Jirō Noguchi won two-thirds of his team's victories, a league-leading 40 (he also lost 17 games), to go with a 1.19 ERA, and a still-league-record 19 shutouts as well as 264 strikeouts. That year Noguchi pitched all 28 innings of a tie game against

Nagoya Club The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

that featured Nagoya's

Michio Nishizawa was a prominent Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball player who excelled as both a pitcher and a position player. Playing with the Chunichi Dragons franchise for most of his career, Nishizawa became one of Japan's most beloved athletes. His nu ...

also pitching the entire game."Noguchi, Jiro,"
The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum website. Retrieved Aug. 23, 2020. The team's manager in 1942–1943 was Shuichi Ishimoto.

Nishitetsu (1943)

Financial instability led to the team being acquired in 1943 by

Nishi-Nippon Railroad The , also called or NNR, is one of Japan's "Big 16" private railroad companies. With headquarters in Fukuoka, it operates local and highway buses, supermarkets, real estate and travel agencies, as well as railways in Fukuoka Prefecture ...

, and it being renamed the Nishitetsu Baseball Club. Despite finishing with a .513 winning percentage that year (with Jirō Noguchi winning 25 games), the team was dissolved before the 1944 season.

Legacy

In 1946, former team manager (and later

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

umpire) Saburo Yokozawa revived the Tokyo Senators team name. Although the team name was changed after one season, the franchise still exists as the

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional Baseball in Japan, baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Figh ...

. Nishitetsu gained a new baseball team in 1950 as the

Nishitetsu Clippers The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, w ...

joined

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 ...

; the franchise is now known as the

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway ...

Team season-by-season records

References

{{reflist Defunct baseball teams in Japan Baseball teams established in 1936 Baseball teams disestablished in 1944 1936 establishments in Japan 1944 disestablishments in Japan