Shochiku Robins

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Shochiku Robins

The Shochiku Robins were a Japanese baseball team in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). They started in 1936 in Tokyo as Dai Tokyo, owned by the Tokyo daily newspaper Kokumin Shimbun. In 1937 they were renamed the Lion Baseball Club after being bought by Komajiro Tamura and sponsored by Lion Toothpaste. They signed one of the first African-American players in Japan, Jimmy Bonner, in 1936.

In 1941 the team moved to Osaka and became the Asahi Baseball Club, sponsored by Asahi Shimbun. In 1946 they were called the Pacific Baseball Club (popularly Taihei). From 1947 to 1949 they were the Taiyo Robins. After World War II, English nicknames returned and they became the Taiyo Robins again.

In 1950, when Japan's top leagues reorganized into Nippon Professional Baseball, the Robins joined the Central League. A portion of the team was sold to Shochiku Corporation and the club became the Shochiku Robins. That year they had a strong season, winning 98 games and finishing first in their division, led by Makoto Kozuru, who hit 51 home runs and drove in 163 runs, and pitcher Juzo Sanada (later known as Shigeo Sanada), who won 39 games. They played in the first Japan Series, but lost to the Mainichi Orions.

In 1952 the team performed poorly, and in January 1953 the Robins were merged with the Taiyo Whales to form the Taiyo Shochiku Robins. That franchise is today the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.