Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | |||||
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北海道日本ハムファイターズ | |||||
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League | Nippon Professional Baseball (Pacific League) | ||||
Ballpark | Sapporo Dome | ||||
Year founded | 1946 | ||||
Pacific League pennants | 7 (1962, 1981, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016) | ||||
Japan Series championships | 3 (1962, 2006, 2016) | ||||
Asia Series championships | 1 (2006) | ||||
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Former league(s) | Japanese Baseball League | ||||
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Colors | Teal, Gold, Black |
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Retired numbers | 100 | ||||
Ownership | Nippon Ham | ||||
Manager | Hideki Kuriyama | ||||
Media | Fuji Television | ||||
Website | www |
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The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (北海道日本ハムファイターズ Hokkaidō Nippon-Hamu Faitāzu?) are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at the Sapporo Dome. The Fighters also host a select number of regional home games in cities across Hokkaidō, including Hakodate, Asahikawa, Kushiro, and Obihiro. The team's name comes from its parent organization, Nippon Ham, a major Japanese food processing company.
Founded in 1946, the Fighters called Tokyo home for 58 years, as co-tenants of the Tokyo Dome with the Central League's Yomiuri Giants near the end of their tenure in the capital city. The franchise has won three Japan Series titles, in 1962, 2006, and, most recently, 2016.
In 1946, Saburo Yokozawa, manager of the Tokyo Senators in 1936–1937, looked to revive the franchise and soon founded the new Senators. He assembled a team of ready and able players like Hiroshi Oshita, Shigeya Iijima and Giichiro Shiraki, but as a newly formed team the Senators faced strict fiscal management and resorted to using hand-me-down uniforms from the Hankyu Railway's pre-war team (who would eventually become the modern-day Orix Buffaloes). Former Japanese statesman Kinkazu Saionji, grandson of the influential Kinmochi Saionji, became the team's owner, and Noboru Oride, borrowing heavily from a Ginza cabaret proprietor, became the team's sponsor. Eventually, trapped by a lack of funds, Yokozawa was forced to resign as the team's manager.