The Yakult Swallows of Japan's Central League are changing their name to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Interestingly enough, the Swallows play their games in Tokyo.
Yakult is the name of a Japanese yogurt company. Yakult is the Esperanto word for "yogurt". Those little drinks are pretty good and you can pick them up in Japanese markets. Mmmm....Yogurt cultures....
The Orix Blue Wave and Kintetsu Buffaloes merged into the Orix Buffaloes.
The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks became the Softbank Fukuoka Hawks.
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles took the empty slot in the Pacific League.
The Fukuoka Dome became the Yahoo Dome. Orix's old stadium in Kobe was called Yahoo! BB Stadium and then became Skymark Stadium.
And the Seibu Dome, which was already named after the ENORMOUS company that owned became the Invoice Dome. Which sounds about as appealing as going to Receipt Stadium.
Japanese teams are named not by location but by corporate owner, thus the Nippon Ham Fighters are not Ham Fighters from Nippon, but the Fighters owned by Nippon Ham. See also Hideki Matsui (and Roy White's) old team (and the Japanese equivalent of the Yankees), the Yomiuri Giants, who play in Tokyo, but are owned by the Yomiuri Group.
Some of the Japanese teams are adding locations in with their corporate names in an attempt to boost attendance and help with marketing. It's only met with mixed results.
The Yomiuri Giants, despite having an off year, are really Japan's team. The Swallows, who have some of Japan's best fans are looking to be "Tokyo's Team" despite the fact that there are two teams that play in the city and three in nearby cities.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.
Are you sure?
The Orix Blue Wave and Kintetsu Buffaloes merged into the Orix Buffaloes.
The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks became the Softbank Fukuoka Hawks.
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles took the empty slot in the Pacific League.
The Fukuoka Dome became the Yahoo Dome. Orix's old stadium in Kobe was called Yahoo! BB Stadium and then became Skymark Stadium.
And the Seibu Dome, which was already named after the ENORMOUS company that owned became the Invoice Dome. Which sounds about as appealing as going to Receipt Stadium.
The Yomiuri Giants, despite having an off year, are really Japan's team. The Swallows, who have some of Japan's best fans are looking to be "Tokyo's Team" despite the fact that there are two teams that play in the city and three in nearby cities.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.