The ORIX Buffaloes (オリックス・バファローズ, Orikkusu Bafarōzu) are a Nippon Professional Baseball team that was formed following the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan and the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The team plays in the Pacific League and is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo.

The combined team began play in 2005 and splits their home games between Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, and the Osaka Dome, which was the home of the original Buffaloes franchise.

The Orix BlueWave was founded in 1936 under the ownership of a Japanese railway company Hanshin Kyuko Railway Company (阪神急行電鉄, Hanshin Kyuko Dentetsu, present: Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc.), as Osaka Hankyu Baseball Club (大阪阪急野球協会, Ōsaka hankyū yakyū kyōkai). Later nicknamed the Hankyu Braves, it was one of the first Japanese professional baseball teams.

In the early 1950s the franchise made a dedicated effort to attract foreign talent, particularly African-American veterans of Negro League baseball, including infielders John Britton and Larry Raines, and pitchers Jimmy Newberry and Rufus Gaines. These players were the first Americans other than Wally Yonamine to play Nippon Professional Baseball after World War II.

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