The or Nishinippon Pirates were a former

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 ...

team and a founding member of the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

in 1950. The team was owned by the

Nishinippon Shimbun The is a Japanese language daily newspaper published by the . As of 2022, it had a circulation of about 467,000 (total of morning and evening editions). It is headquartered in Fukuoka, which accounts for the bulk of its circulation, and is also ...

and played their home games in

Heiwadai Stadium was a ballpark located in the Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. From 1950 to 1978, it served as the home ballpark of the Nishitetsu Lions, a team in Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB) Pacific League. It also briefly served as the home stadi ...

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

. After only one season in which they fell victim to the first

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

in professional Japanese baseball history, had financial and managerial problems, and finished in sixth place, the Pirates merged with the other

-based

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

to form the

Nishitetsu 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, wh ...

in the Pacific League.

History

During the Japanese Baseball League's (JBL) 1949–50 offseason, the

-based

and Nishitetsu Railroad, newspaper and railroad companies, respectively, planned to jointly create a professional baseball team. The plan broke down, however, when the JBL decided to reorganize and split into the Central League, Central (CL) and Pacific Leagues (PL) before the 1950 Nippon Professional Baseball season, 1950 season. After the split, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the newspaper company that owned the CL's Yomiuri Giants, persuaded Nishinippon to form their own Central League team and the Nishi Nippon Pirates were formed on September 19, 1949, with the newly-built

in Fukuoka acting as the team's home field. Nishitetsu went ahead and also created its own team, the

, in the Pacific League in November. On June 28, 1950, in a game against the Giants, the Pirates were on the losing side of Hideo Fujimoto's

, the first in professional Japanese baseball history. Because of ownership's inexperience in operating a sports team, management was unstable and they soon faced financial difficulties. By August, players' salaries began getting delayed soon went unpaid. Nishitetsu, realizing that Shimbun's management of the team was failing, proposed a merger and officially agreed to it in September. The team finished the season sixth out of eighth in the Central League. However, because of the large talent discrepancy between the top and bottom teams, the Pirates' record was and they finished 48 games behind the first-place Shochiku Robins. After the season, the team fought a proposal by Yomiuri to merge the Taiyo Whales and the Hiroshima Carp and dissolve the Pirates to create a six-team Central League. At a meeting of CL team representatives on January 10, 1951, the league realignment proposal was postponed. A week later, the Pirates announced former Giants' manager (baseball), manager Osamu Mihara as the team's next manager. The initial aim of the teams' merger plan was to play in the Central League, where they could continue to play against the popular Giants. However, this plan was complicated when the team hired Mihara and also tried to acquire Giants' hitter Noboru Aota, as the Giants and other CL teams found the attempt problematic. With the relationship with the other Central League teams in trouble, it was instead announced on January 30 that the Pirates' merger with the Clippers would result in the formation of a Pacific League team, the

. Mihara would go on to manage the Lions starting with the 1951 Nippon Professional Baseball season, 1951 season. After the merger, the Giants argued that the Central League had the rights to Nishi Nippon's players and Yuko Minamimura and Saburo Hirai would both play for Yomiuri the following season.

Roster

In the one season that the Pirates existed, the team utilized 27 players and was managed by Player-coach, player-manager Toshio Kojima (baseball), Toshio Kojima. No Pirates players or personnel received any awards that season, nor were any ever voted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

References

{{Reflist Defunct Nippon Professional Baseball teams Baseball teams established in 1950