Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
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The , often shortened as the , are a
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 tea ...
team based in
Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...
,
Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...
, Japan. It has played in
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 ...
's
Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...
since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping company
Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...
.


History


2004: Origins and formation

During
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 ...
's (NPB) 2004 season, the
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stadiu ...
and the
Orix BlueWave , styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment an ...
announced that the two teams planned to merge into one for the start of the 2005 season. Both teams were in the
Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...
(PL), and a merger between the two would result in a team imbalance with the PL's opposing league, 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 ...
(CL). As a large number of players and personnel were expected to lose their jobs when the merger was finalized, the players conducted a two-day strike on September 18–19, 2004. With the threat of further strikes looming, team representatives agreed to ease the rules of entry for new teams into NPB and that one would be allowed to join the following season. To fill the void left by the merger, internet services companies
Livedoor was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known a ...
and
Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...
submitted applications to form teams to be based in
Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...
,
Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...
. NPB selected Rakuten to create a Sendai-based PL team. The team would play its home games in
Miyagi Baseball Stadium , officially Miyagi Baseball Stadium, is a baseball stadium located in Miyaginohara Sports Park in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The 30,508-seat ballpark is owned by the prefecture and operated by Rakuten, which has used it as the home field ...
, which was being renovated by Rakuten. Marty Kuehnert and
Yasushi Tao is a Japanese retired Nippon Professional Baseball player. He was raised in Osaka. After playing, Tao managed the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It ...
were hired as
general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
and
manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...
, respectively, of their newly named "Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles" baseball club. The name is derived from the Japanese
golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...
, a large, endangered, predatory bird found in the mountains of
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
's
Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...
. Instead of allowing the Eagles to draft players from all 11 NPB teams in an
expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion ...
, the team had to construct their roster from the 107 players left over from the dissolved Kintetsu and original Orix teams during a special
dispersal draft A dispersal draft is a process in professional sports for assigning players to a new team when their current team ceases to exist or is merged with another team. Like most other sports drafts, most dispersal drafts are conducted in North America. ...
. Furthermore, Orix was allowed to select 25 players that would be protected from the distribution process before the draft, thus giving them preferential signing rights. Included in these selections were all
free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
s and foreign players. Rakuten was only then allowed to select 20 unprotected players, not including any first- or second-year players. After that, the first- and second-year players were unprotected and Orix and Rakuten alternating selecting 20 more players for the last round of the draft. The league's decision to employ an unequal dispersal draft to build the Eagles roster was blamed for the team's struggles to come. In the draft, Rakuten was able to pick up former Buffaloes outfielder
Koichi Isobe is 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 t ...
as he was left unprotected by Orix because he refused to play for their newly formed team. Similarly, the Eagles were able to acquire Buffaloes' star pitcher
Hisashi Iwakuma is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000 to 2004, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2011, and Yomiuri Giants in 2019, and all of ...
. Despite also voicing that he had no intention of playing for the merged team, Orix still protected him. After, negotiations took place between Iwakuma and Orix that eventually resulted in Orix trading him to the Eagles.


2005–2009: Debut and the road to the Climax Series

Just over a month into their first season, the Eagles removed Kuehnert as general manager and demoted the head and batting coaches following a 6–22 start. The team finished 51.5  games out of first place and was the first NPB team in 40 years to lose over 90 games in a single season. As a result, ten players were released, and Tao was dismissed despite being signed to a three-year contract. In an otherwise disastrous season, one highlight was team's home debut. Only five months after being awarded a franchise and without a preseason game as a dry run, Rakuten ran and operated the game smoothly in front of a packed, partially-renovated Miyagi Stadium. It was also was estimated that the economic impact of the team in the Tōhoku region was $300 million in the first year. Rakuten planned to spend more than ¥1 billion on enhancing player training and about ¥3 billion on the continuing remodel of the ballpark. The stadium's off-season renovations expanded its seating capacity and added amenities. Mikitani looked to experience to lead the Eagles in its second season when he replaced first-time manager Tao with
Hall of Famer 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 fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...
and veteran manager
Katsuya Nomura was a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) catcher and manager. During his over 26-season playing career mostly spent with the Nankai Hawks (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), he became one of NPB's greatest offensive catchers. He was award ...
, signing him to a three-year contract. The team improved slightly over its first season, and
third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...
José Fernández went on to receive the Eagles' first
Best Nine Award The Best Nine Award is awarded annually to the best player at each position in both the Central League and Pacific League of Japanese professional baseball as determined by a pool of journalists. History While the Best Nine Award was first present ...
in his first season with the team. However, the 2006 season also brought the Eagles' their first
no-hit In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...
loss, and they still finished last in the Pacific League. At the end of the season, Rakuten drafted pitcher
Masahiro Tanaka is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). From 2007 through 2013, he played for the Eagles in NPB. Tanaka was posted by the Eagles after the 2013 season to be s ...
in the first round of the 2006 amateur high school draft. The Eagles' first real signs of improvement came during the 2007 season, the team's third.
Takeshi Yamasaki is a retired Japanese professional baseball player. During his 24 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, he played for the Chunichi Dragons, the Orix BlueWave, and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Career Yamasaki was selected at the number 2 ...
led the league in home runs through May and was named the PL MVP for the month of May, the team's first. He went on to be selected by fans to the Pacific League All-Star team for the 2007 All-Star Series, receiving the most votes of any player overall. With one of the All-Star games being played at the Eagles' home stadium that year, fans also voted in seven other Rakuten players, including rookie pitcher Tanaka. Rakuten finished the season with a losing record, however, for the first time they did not finish the season in last, instead finishing in fourth. At the end of the season, Yamasaki led the league in both home runs and
runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...
(RBIs) and Tanaka was awarded the PL
Rookie of the Year Award A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...
. The team finished fifth next season, however, Iwakuma finished with the best
earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...
(ERA) and most wins in the league after struck by injuries the previous few years. At season's end, he was presented with his and the team's first PL Most Valuable Player (MVP) and
Eiji Sawamura Award The , commonly known as the Sawamura Award, is an honor bestowed upon the top starting pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball each year. The award was originally established by Japanese magazine "Nekkyū" in 1947 to honor the career of Eiji Sawa ...
s. In the 2008–09 offseason, the Eagles extended Nomura's contract to keep him on as manager for one more year. Rakuten secured second place in the Pacific League the next season and advanced to the
Climax Series The is the current annual playoff system implemented by Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). It determines which team from the Central League (CL) and from the Pacific League (PL) will advance to compete for the championship in the Japan ...
for the first time. A pair of
complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...
wins at home both by Iwakuma and Tanaka in the First Stage allowed the Eagles to advance but the team lost to the
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional 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 Fighters also host a ...
in four games in the Second Stage, ending their season.


2010–2013: From disaster to championship

Rakuten hired American Marty Brown to succeed Nomura as manager. Even though Brown was signed to a two-year contract, he was let go a year later after the Eagles finished the 2010 season in last place. The club looked to
Senichi Hoshino was a Nippon Professional Baseball player and manager. In 2003, he led the Hanshin Tigers to their first Central League pennant in 18 years before retiring for health reasons. In 2007, he managed the Japan national baseball team, Japanese natio ...
next to turn the team around.
Kazuo Matsui is a Japanese retired professional baseball player who played as a shortstop and is the current manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions. He is a switch-hitter. Matsui signed with the New York Mets on December 17, 2003, becoming the first Japanese i ...
and
Akinori Iwamura is a former Japanese baseball infielder, who currently is a manager for the Fukushima Red Hopes in Japan's Baseball Challenge League. He made his Major League debut with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2007. He earned the nickname Aki while in M ...
, both returning from playing stints in
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), ...
(MLB), were also added to the roster, and
Teppei Tsuchiya Teppei Tsuchiya (土谷 鉄平, born December 27, 1982, in Ōita, Ōita) is a Japanese professional baseball infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard a ...
was named as the team's first ever
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. On March 11, 2011, two weeks before the first game of the season, the Tōhoku region was struck by the largest earthquake in the country's history. The quake and the subsequent
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
devastated the region, including the Eagles' home city of Sendai. With the season opener postponed until April 12, the team continued to train in the
Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...
because of the aftermath in Sendai. In addition to Rakuten holding fund-raising events, all 12 teams played charity games to help raise money for earthquake relief. They hosted their first "home" game at
Koshien Stadium , commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball park located near Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the High school baseball in Japan, national high school baseball tourn ...
while restoration work to Miyagi Stadium continued. Baseball returned to Sendai on April 12, when the Eagles played their first game at their home field. Furthermore, the final game of the 2011 All-Star Series was switched from
Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of th ...
to Miyagi Stadium, the second time the Eagles hosted the event since 2007. Rakuten finished the 2011 season in fifth and again missed the playoffs. However, in addition to winning a Golden Glove and a Best Nine award, Tanaka was also named PL MVP of the month three times over the course of the season, a first for the Pacific League. After the season, Hisashi Iwakuma left the club to play in MLB. Rakuten went deep into the 2012 season as a playoff contender that year, but ultimately missed advancing to the Climax Series by one game and finished fourth. Before the start of the 2013 season, the Eagles signed former MLB players
Casey McGehee Casey Michael McGehee (born October 12, 1982) is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played in NPB for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Yomiuri Giants, and also played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, ...
and
Andruw Jones Andruw Rudolf Jones (; born April 23, 1977) is a Curaçaoan former baseball outfielder and designated hitter who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Atlanta Braves. Jones also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers ...
. The Eagles finished April in fifth place, however, the next two months saw Tanaka winning consecutive PL MVP of the month awards, helping the club to finish June in second. The team took sole possession of first place in the Pacific League in early July and never relinquished it, winning the Eagles' their first PL pennant. Over the remaining three months of the season, Tanaka continued to win games and finished the season with 24 wins and no losses. He was awarded a record-setting five consecutive monthly MVPs from May to September. As league champions, the Eagles advanced directly to the Final Stage of the Climax Series Final where they defeated the
Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...
to advance to their first
Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...
. Rakuten defeated the
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 ...
at home in the final game of a seven-game series to win the franchise's first and only Japan Series championship. Starting pitcher
Manabu Mima Manabu Mima (, born September 19, 1986) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB). He played for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Career Mima attended Fujishiro High Scho ...
was named the Japan Series MVP after the series, and at the end of the season, Tanaka was presented with the PL MVP and Eiji Sawamura Awards, Norimoto was named the PL Rookie of the Year, and Senichi Hoshino was given the
Matsutaro Shoriki Award Matsutaro Shoriki Award is named in honor of Matsutarō Shōriki, the owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun, whose achievements earned him the label of the real parent of present day Japanese professional baseball. The prize was founded in 1977. It is pres ...
. After the increased ticket demand during the 2013 season, an expansion project that increased Miyagi Stadium's maximum seating capacity above 28,000 was completed the next year.


2014–2020: Post-Tanaka struggles

Following the championship-winning season, Masahiro Tanaka left the Eagles via the
posting system The is a baseball player transfer system that operates between Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite the drafting of the United States – Japanese Player Contract Agreement, unveiled in 1967 to regulate ...
to play for the
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
, netting the team a $20 million transfer fee in return. Likewise, McGehee also left for MLB, and the team struggled in the years following their departures, finishing last the next season. This disappointing finish prompted manager Senichi Hoshino to resign despite ownership wanting him to return for a fifth season. Rakuten promoted their farm team manager
Hiromoto Okubo Hiromoto Okubo (大久保 博元, born February 1, 1967) is a former Nippon Professional Baseball catcher. After playing, he turned to managing and coaching. In 2015, Hiromoto was promoted from Rakuten's farm team manager to Tohoku Rakuten Golden ...
to manager. At the end of July, hitting coach
Tomio Tashiro is a Japanese 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 r ...
abruptly resigned and it was brought to light that owner Hiroshi Mikitani had often been interfering in on-the-field decisions, such as dictating the batting order. After Tashiro's resignation, Mikitani began conferring with field personnel before making any decisions, however the team again finished in last and Okubo resigned at the end of the season. The turmoil brought about by Mikitani taking the lead on baseball operations after Hoshino's unexpected resignation forced Rakuten to reevaluate how the team was managed and organized. It was decided that Hoshino, who had been retained as an Eagles vice chairman, would have full authority over baseball operations, similar to the role of an MLB
general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
. In preparation for the 2016 season, Miyagi Stadium underwent its last major renovation during the offseason, increasing its capacity to over 30,000 people. The team, hoping to avoid a third consecutive last-place finish, hired veteran PL manager Masataka Nashida and signed free agent
Toshiaki Imae is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Imae won the Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor ...
, a two-time Japan Series MVP. During the season, Rakuten formed a training team to help further develop talent by playing against university, corporate, club, and independent teams. The Eagles avoided finishing the season in last, however they placed fifth and again missed the playoffs. The 2017 Eagles, however, found themselves battling 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, wh ...
near the end of the season for second place. Ultimately, the team secured a First Stage, Climax Series berth against the Lions with a third-place finish. After losing the first game of the three-game series, Rakuten won the final two to defeat Seibu and advance to the Final Stage. Against the
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...
, the Eagles took the first two games of the series but were eliminated after the Hawks won the next three.


2018–present: Ishii as general manager and Tanaka returns

Hoshino died in January 2018. Following the death, Rakuten erected a memorial flower stand in front of the newly named Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi. Mikitani then announced that Hoshino's uniform number 77 would be retired permanently just before the start of the season. The Eagles struggled immediately that season, falling to 20 games under .500 by mid-June. Taking responsibility for the team's poor performance, Nashida resigned as manager that month and head coach Yosuke Hiraishi acted as interim manager for the remainder of the season. The Eagles went on to finish the season in last, however before it was over Rakuten formally created a general manager (GM) position in Hoshino's absence. Former NPB and MLB pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii was hired in the role to help coordinate the efforts of the front office and field management. Hiraishi was kept on as full-time manager for the 2019 season and led the Eagles to a third-place finish and a postseason berth. However, the team was defeated by the Hawks in the First Stage. After the loss, another managerial change was made and Hajime Miki was promoted from farm team manager. The Eagles failed to make the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and Ishii sent Miki back to manage the farm team after only one season. To replace him, Ishii appointed himself as manager starting with the 2021 season. Meanwhile, the conclusion of MLB's 2020 season marked the end of Masahiro Tanaka's seven-year contract with the Yankees. Instead of signing with another MLB team, Tanaka chose to return to play in Japan and signed a two-year contract with Rakuten. The next season, a third-place finish secured the Eagles a place in the 2021 PL Climax Series, however a loss and a tie against the Marines ensured that Rakuten would not advance to the Final Stage.


Roster


Former players

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Retired numbers

*10 – This number is worn by both team mascots, ''Clutch'' and ''Clutchina'', and is considered the number of the fan, the 'tenth man' on the field. It is the first retired number in NPB involving a fan, inspired by some teams in other sports (such as football, which retires "12" for the "12th man", or basketball, which retires "6" for the "6th man"). There are ten starting players in the Pacific League as the league uses the
designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...
. The
Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...
has the No. 26 retired in similar fashion (MLB's
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...
has retired No. 26, in similar fashion, for the original owner
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
). * 77 -
Senichi Hoshino was a Nippon Professional Baseball player and manager. In 2003, he led the Hanshin Tigers to their first Central League pennant in 18 years before retiring for health reasons. In 2007, he managed the Japan national baseball team, Japanese natio ...


MLB players

Former: *
Masahiro Tanaka is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). From 2007 through 2013, he played for the Eagles in NPB. Tanaka was posted by the Eagles after the 2013 season to be s ...
(2014–2020) Retired: *
Kazuo Fukumori is a former Japanese right-handed relief pitcher. Biography Fukumori was unable to advance to the National High School Baseball Championship during his high school years, losing in the prefectural final for three consecutive years. He was drafte ...
(2008) *
Hisashi Iwakuma is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000 to 2004, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2011, and Yomiuri Giants in 2019, and all of ...
(2012–2017)


Honors and records


Honors

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...
Championship (1):
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...


Former managers


Records


Team identity


Logos and uniforms

The Eagles' team color is
crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...
red, the corporate color of its parent company, Rakuten. Yellow was added as an accent color to represent a golden eagle. The team's logo applies a golden eagle motif to the word "Eagles", which has wings added to its left and right sides. The word "Rakuten" sits at atop in a smaller, simpler font. The winged "E" from this logo also serves as the team's cap insignia. The club's home and away
uniforms A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, ...
both include the same crimson
caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...
bearing this insignia. Starting with the 2020 season, '47 supplies the caps for the team. Their glossy helmets mimic the cap design and are created using a traditional Miyagi Prefecture
lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...
technique called ''tamamushi-nuri''. The supplier of Rakuten's uniforms has changed several times. At the start of the 2011 season,
Descente is a Japanese sports clothing and accessories company, first formed in 1935, when Takeo Ishimoto started the company in Osaka as Ishimoto Shoten. The company logo depicts 3 basic skiing techniques - traverse, schuss and side-slip. Descente own ...
provided all of the team's uniforms and apparel. Then, from 2014 to 2019, the team had a contract with
Majestic Athletic Majestic Athletic is an American textile company headquartered in Easton, Pennsylvania, with manufacturing facilities in Easton, Pennsylvania. Majestic currently designs, manufactures and markets licensed casual wear, such as t-shirts, hoodies, p ...
, the then-supplier of MLB. Since the start of the 2020 season,
Mizuno Corporation () is a Japanese sports equipment and sportswear company, founded in Osaka in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. Today, Mizuno is a global corporation which makes a wide variety of sports equipment and sportswear for badminton, baseball, boxing, cyclin ...
has supplied the uniforms and apparel for the Eagles. The Eagles' uniforms bear the logos of various sponsors on the jersey, pants, cap, and helmet.


Home and visitor uniforms

The Eagles home uniforms are all white. The pants are white with crimson piping from beltline to cuff on each side and have not changed since being introduced. For the team's inaugural season, the front of the white, button-down jersey displayed the team's logo along with the player's number in crimson outlined in yellow. The raglan lines on the shoulders and sides featured crimson piping, and the back displayed the player's name and number in the same style as the front number. The right sleeve displayed Rakuten's corporate logo. The jersey underwent a small design change for the 2011 season when the fonts for the player's name and numbers were simplified to match the font on the visitor jersey. Then, after the Tōhoku earthquake, a patch reading was added to the left sleeve as a symbol of support. This patch has been featured on every home and visitor uniform since it was first added. Before the 2018 season, the home jersey design was again tweaked. All of the yellow was changed to gold, including the chest logo, its first change. Additionally, the raglan and side piping was removed in favor of crimson and gold stripes around the collar and sleeves and the font of the player's name and numbers was again modified. The club's current home jersey debuted before the 2020 season and is very similar to its previous iteration, albeit with the crimson and gold collar stripes removed. The team's visitor uniform has undergone more drastic changes since the first design. The same pants worn with the home jerseys are utilized for the visitor uniforms, however the button-down jersey is crimson red and bears the name of the team's owner "Rakuten" on the chest. In the garment's first iteration, the white Rakuten logo was wholly original and incorporated a yellow
drop shadow In graphic design and computer graphics, a drop shadow is a visual effect consisting of a drawing element which looks like the shadow of an object, giving the impression that the object is raised above the objects behind it. The drop shadow is of ...
to give it a 3D effect. White piping along the raglan lines on the shoulders and sides was added and the player's number in white appeared on the front. The back displayed the player's name and number, again in white. As with the home jerseys, the right sleeve displayed Rakuten's corporate logo. Its first design change came one year before the home jersey's when the chest logo was changed in 2009. All yellow was removed leaving the logo completely white, and the font was changed to bring it in line with Rakuten's corporate branding. Additionally, the font of the name and numbers was simplified. The font used for the name and numbers was again modified for the 2014 season. The next change to the visitor jersey occurred in 2018, the same time as the home design change. Again keeping with the changes to the corporate logo, a white line was added under "Rakuten" on the chest. The raglan and side piping was also removed in favor of white stripes around the collar and sleeves. The Eagles' current visitor jersey again debuted alongside the home jersey. Similarly, the stripes around the collar were removed, however a gold stripe was added to the white stripes around the sleeves. Gold outlines were also added to the back name and number and the front chest number was removed for the first time.


Third and special uniforms

Throughout the team's history, there have also been several alternate and limited-time uniform designs. A third alternate uniform was introduced in 2006 for home games during
interleague play Interleague play in Major League Baseball refers to regular-season baseball games played between an American League (AL) team and a National League (NL) team. Interleague play was first introduced during the 1997 Major League Baseball season. Pri ...
. These were primarily white with crimson sides and shoulders outlined by yellow piping along the raglan lines. The left side of the chest featured the cap emblem, while the right featured the player's number in crimson outlined in yellow. It was redesigned for the 2010 and 2011 seasons and worn at several games played in the Tōhoku region before being discontinued. The chest displayed the words "Tohoku" and "Rakuten" in crimson, with the "E" logo moved instead to the sleeve and the player's chest number removed altogether. The yellow piping was removed in favor of yellow and white stripes around the sleeve cuff. Other than the third alternate uniform, the Eagles have also worn many limited, seasonal uniforms throughout their history that often have unique designs, colors, and sleeve patches. Starting with the 2007 season, players wore special uniforms during a limited, home-game stretch dubbed "Fan Club Day". From 2007 to 2009, each season's uniform was selected from a pool of fan-submitted designs and were variants of their white, home jersey. After skipping the 2010 season, the event returned in 2011, however the design contest was no longer employed. In an effort to fill the stands with color for the event, the jersey was changed to crimson, a color traditionally used only for road games, for 2012 and 2013. In 2014, these jerseys were rebranded as the "Fans'" uniform and were worn for home games played throughout the Tōhoku region. To reflect this, the Eagles' chest logo was removed from the crimson jersey and instead replaced with the word "Tohoku". A patch was also added to the sleeve that season to commemorate the team's 2013 Japan Series win. This general design continued to be utilized for Fans' Days through the 2018 season. For the 2019 season, Rakuten's fifteenth, the Fans' uniform was changed and again borrowed the home jersey design, however in grey instead of white. The next year, the same design was kept but the base color was changed to black, and it would be worn again in 2021 after the COVID pandemic limited fan attendance in 2020. In addition to the various Fans' uniform iterations, the Eagles have worn several themed seasonal uniforms throughout its history. The first was introduced in 2011 to celebrate the team's seventh season, a
lucky number In number theory, a lucky number is a natural number in a set which is generated by a certain "sieve". This sieve is similar to the Sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes, but it eliminates numbers based on their position in the remain ...
in Japan. The design, dubbed the "Eagle Rainbow", was drastically different from the team's previous uniforms. The jersey was the team's only v-neck pullover and was white and crimson with seven different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The chest bore the word "Eagles" in a simple dark blue font with a logo illustration of an eagle underneath. The cap emblem was also changed to feature the same "E" as on the chest. The uniforms were worn during four interleague games that season, and the player-worn jerseys were auctioned off to raise money for earthquake relief. The team has worn a special summer uniform every season since, and next season Rakuten unveiled the "Eagle Star" uniform, which added crimson, full-body pinstripes to the home design. The "Tohoku Green" theme was introduced in 2013 and variations of the same uniform was used for three seasons. To bring attention to the conservation of Tōhoku's forests, the jerseys were green and displayed "Tohoku" across the chest. Full-body crimson pinstripes were brought back in 2016, this time extending to the cap as well. These "Eagle Summer" uniforms also displayed "Rakuten" on the chest. The next two seasons featured black jerseys and caps. The first, "Black Eagles" in 2017, was a black version of the home uniforms. The following year, the "Tōhoku Pride" uniform was a black version of that year's Fans' uniform. The current special uniform theme is "Tohoku Blue", a companion to the green theme. First introduced in 2019, the jersey design was similar to the previous year's, however it was blue to represent the sky. The colors were modified for the following season when it changed to white with blue pinstripes. As with the Fans' uniform, 2020's Tohoku Blue uniforms are returning for 2021.


Mascots

At the time of team's inception, Rakuten created a pair of male and female golden eagle mascots. Named Clutch and Clutchena respectively, the names were chosen from suggestions from the public and are derived from the clutch of an eagle's claw as well as the baseball concept of a
clutch hitter A clutch hitter is a baseball player who is seemingly adept at getting a hit in high-pressure situations, i.e. Clutch_(sports), in the clutch. This usually refers to getting a hit (particularly a home run) when the player's team is trailing late in ...
. Clutch wears a jersey bearing the number 10, an Eagles retired number that represents the fans. A third mascot, a
harpy eagle The harpy eagle (''Harpia harpyja'') is a neotropical species of eagle. It is also called the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle. It is the ...
named Switch, was unveiled in 2016. The Eagles have also periodically featured an unofficial, mischievous mascot named Mr. Carrasco. The character, based on a black crow, is masked and rides a motorcycle. For Black Eagles Day in 2017, Rakuten added a mascot character called Kurowashi-san. Unlike the other costumed mascots, Kurowashi-san appeared as a normal man with a black eagle on his head.


See also

* – the first Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded and released as a single by
J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...
idol group
Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...
. * – the fourth Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by
J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...
idol group
Cute Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept ...
. *
Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in J2 League. The team is located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club'', Vegalta joined the J-League in 1999 after p ...


External links


Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles official website


References

{{Authority control Nippon Professional Baseball teams Baseball teams established in 2004 2004 establishments in Japan Rakuten