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Hiroshima Toyo Carp

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The Hiroshima Toyo Carp ( 広島東洋カープ , Hiroshima Tōyō Kāpu ) is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima , Japan . They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball . The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by Hajime Matsuda ( 松田元 , Matsuda Hajime ) , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda . Mazda is the largest single shareholder (34.2%), which is less than the portion owned by the Matsuda family (about 60%). Because of that, Mazda is not considered the owner firm. However, the company connection is highlighted in the club name; until 1984, Mazda's official name was Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. ( 東洋工業株式会社 , Tōyō Kōgyō Kabushiki Gaisha ) . The Carp are the only one of the 28 Asian professional baseball teams to be majority privately owned. As the Carp was founded only four years after the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and had risen to the Central League champion along with the reconstruction of Hiroshima, the team is often referred to as "the symbol of the post-war reconstruction of Hiroshima".

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52-482: Currently, the team has the longest Japan Series championship drought , as they are the only team to not win the series in the 21st century. The Nippon Professional Baseball league was planned to be split into two separate leagues in 1949, and Hiroshima prefecture decided to establish a professional baseball team as part of the reconstruction process after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The team joined

104-796: A .402 on base percentage in 1973; after a slow start for the Cincinnati Reds, he was traded to the California Angels, for whom he batted .328 with an on base percentage of .418. He hit .263 with 13 homers and 127 RBIs in his career. In 1976, after leaving Major League Baseball, he played for Japan's Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 1976, batting .307 (8th in the Japan Central League ) with a slugging percentage of .501 and 20 home runs. After his career, ended he went on to live in Palm Harbor, Florida . As of 2016 , he

156-543: A championship on January 22, 1967. After the game, however, he and teammate Jim Weaver hid under the bed in Scheinblum's hotel room while bullets flew and the Nicaraguan National Guard killed between dozens and hundreds of anti-government demonstrators near the hotel room. In 1968 he played again for Portland, and hit .304 (9th in the league) with a .479 slugging percentage and 75 RBIs (7th in

208-522: A major loss for the Carp, losing star player Seiya Suzuki after getting posted to the Chicago Cubs . Despite the setback, Hiroshima began the season 8-4 in their first 12 games. Despite the strong start, they missed out on the playoffs again, going 66-74-3. Takahiro Arai is the new Carp manager for the 2023 season. Ryoma Nishikawa moved to Orix Buffaloes by FA and replaced by Hidaka Atsumi joined

260-570: A memorable series of seasons with Lutz's replacement Takeshi Koba . The Hankyu Braves would "sweep" them in 6 games, due to there being 2 ties in games 1 and 4. The Carp team became a powerhouse in 1978, hitting over 200 home runs in one season for the first time in Japanese baseball history. Koji Yamamoto , Sachio Kinugasa , Jim Lyttle and Adrian Garrett formed the powerful Akaheru (meaning "Red Helmet") lineup, which won two consecutive pennants and Japan Series from 1979 to 1980, both against

312-512: A result. The team's financial plight only worsened in the following years, and the team could only issue one uniform per player in 1953. Nevertheless, the team continued to play each season. The team moved to the newly constructed Hiroshima Municipal Stadium in central Hiroshima in July 1957. Finally, in 1960, they ended the season above the .500 mark. In 1968, the Toyo Kogyo company became

364-548: A row and often going scoreless for the entire season. The egregious exchange game. The Carp had been struggling in the exchange games for some time now. The winning percentage in the series has rarely finished above 50%. However, this season, except for the Softbank Hawks They all went 2-1, And on June 7, in a game against the Chiba Lotte Marines.Osela Daichi became the 90th pitcher in history and

416-523: A starting lineup. The ragtag team ended up in last place from 1950 to 1951. The team's lack of funding became an even more serious problem in 1951, and it was proposed by NPB that the team be disbanded, or merge with the Taiyo Whales team, which was based in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi at the time. Hiroshima citizens strongly protested against disbanding the team, and raised the money needed to keep

468-544: Is still continuing in Japan.heat was also a concern. Just as one thought, the golden pitching staff collapsed. Combined with the Carp's poor hitting, the result was They lost 20 games during the month and dropped from the top to 4th place.The 20 losses in a month was the worst for the team and tied for the worst in the league. They had fallen so far that they missed the Climax Series. Yusuke Nomura's retirement game

520-623: Is the overall winner and is declared the Japan Series Champion ( 日本一 , Nippon Ichi , number one in Japan) each year. The Japan Series uses a 2–3–3-3 format, with the latter four games in theory if additional games are needed following tiebreakers. The home team for games 1, 2 and eventually 6 and 7, alternates between the two leagues with the Pacific League having the advantage on the years ending with an odd number and

572-744: The American Association Most Valuable Player Award after hitting a league-leading and Triple-A -record .388. In 1972 he was named to the American League All-Star team, and batted .300. He played for the Cleveland Indians , Washington Senators , Kansas City Royals , Cincinnati Reds , California Angels , and St. Louis Cardinals . He also played two seasons in Japan for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp . Scheinblum

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624-721: The Central League in December 1949 as the Hiroshima Carp . They were named the Carp after the koi fish that climbed the rapids of Hiroshima Castle , which signifies Hiroshima's rebirth after the above said bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2. The team's first home field was a prefecture-funded stadium, and the team's lack of sponsorship made it extremely difficult to recruit players. Manager Hideichi Ishimoto had to personally scout players just to form

676-468: The Denver Bears in 1971, he won the American Association Most Valuable Player Award after he hit a league-leading and Triple-A -record .388 with a league-leading .490 on-base percentage , 83 runs (third in the league), .725 slugging percentage (leading the league), 145 hits (third in the league), 31 doubles (tied for the league lead), 10 triples (leading the league), 25 home runs (second in

728-512: The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in five games. The Carp finished the 2019 campaign in fourth place, missing the playoffs by a half game and ending the team's run of three consecutive Central League Pennants. In 2020, the Carp finished 5th and once again missed the playoffs for a second consecutive year. The Carp would finish in 4th place in the 2021 campaign, losing a playoff spot by just 2 games. The 2022 season would begin with

780-784: The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks , and one each by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles . The streak was broken in 2021, with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows beating the Orix Buffaloes . Kazuhisa Inao , as an exception, won the Fighting Spirit Award (in 1956) while playing for the victorious Nishitetsu Lions . Since 2018, there is a limit of 12 innings in the seven regulation games, with games being called tie games if tied after that time. From 1987 to 2020,

832-776: The Japan Championship Series , プロ野球日本選手権シリーズ Puro Yakyū Nippon Senshuken Shiriizu ), also the Nippon Series , is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball , the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning clubs of the league's two circuits, the Central League and the Pacific League , and is played in October or November. The first team to win four games

884-677: The Kintetsu Buffaloes . As of 2023, they remain the last Central League team to win back-to-back Japan Series rings. A strong pitching staff led to another Japan Series win in 1984 against the Braves. Koba retired in 1985, but the team still won the pennant the following year, losing to the Seibu Lions in 8 games. As of 2024, they are the last team to make it to the Japan Series without a single foreigner, including foreigners on

936-637: The Munich massacre in September of that year, Scheinblum wore a black armband in memory of the slain Israeli athletes. He later said, "I wore the emblematic black band ... not only because they were Jewish athletes, but because they were human beings". Scheinblum was traded along with Roger Nelson to the Cincinnati Reds for Hal McRae and Wayne Simpson on December 1, 1972. He batted .307 with

988-501: The Orix Buffaloes and Tokyo Yakult Swallows playing to a 3–3 draw after 12 innings, lasting 5 hours and 3 minutes. Even though the Central League is historically more victorious, in recent years, the Pacific League has been catching up in titles. Currently, the Central League has 38 titles, while the Pacific League has 37 titles. The Pacific League won eight consecutive Japan Series championships from 2013 to 2020, with six by

1040-724: The Pawtucket Indians and hit .263. He made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1967, and hit .318, as during the rest of the season he played for the Portland Beavers and hit .291 with 77 runs (5th in the league), 25 doubles (7th in the league), and 16 home runs (8th in the league). During the 1966–67 offseason, Scheinblum played in the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League and led his team to

1092-584: The Seibu Lions defeated the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 1986. In the event that Game 8 does not decide the series, the next game would be played at the stadium that hosted Games 3 through 5 after a day of rest, and games will continue until one team wins four games. Every current team in the NPB has won the Japan Series at least once. The team with the most championships is the Yomiuri Giants , who have won

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1144-557: The 102nd in the NPB. no-hit, no-run game. The team's winning percentage in the interleague games this year was more than 50%. Thanks to this, they finished the first half of the season in first place. From the second half of the season after the All-Star Game, the bats began to return and the home run count returned throughout the NPB. However, Carp still had few home runs. Sept. Many day games were scheduled to make up for games cancelled due to rain. The lingering summer heat

1196-622: The C.W. Post records in career triples (12) and batting average (.395). He was inducted in the college's sports Hall of Fame in 2005. In 1964 he played for the Burlington Indians and hit .309 (9th in the Carolina League ), in 1965 he played for the Salinas Indians and hit .318 (9th in the league) with a .460 slugging percentage (8th in the league) and had 21 doubles (9th in the league), and in 1965 he played for

1248-683: The Carp in 2015 following a stint in Major League Baseball , retired. The Carp again finished with the Central League's best record in 2017, but were upset by the BayStars in a rematch of the previous year's Climax Series Final. In 2018, the Carp captured another Central League Pennant and swept the Yomiuri Giants in the Climax Series Final. However, they once again came up short in the Japan Series, falling to

1300-411: The Carp. Red became the new team color in 1973, and the team's uniforms were redesigned. The current team uniform still resembles the 1973 design. The team logo was also changed from a letter "H" to a red wishbone-"C" in imitation of the Cincinnati Reds logo. The letter H logo still is used as the club's flag logo insignia. The team hired its first non-Japanese manager, Joe Lutz , in 1975, becoming

1352-445: The Central League on the years ending with an even number. Designated hitters are used if the team from the Pacific League hosts the game. There is a 40-man postseason roster limit, and the rule on drawn games is changed to 12 innings, since 2018. If the series is tied after the seventh game, a Game 8 will be held with the same team hosting Games 6 and 7 hosting this game. Only once a Game 8 has been played in Japan Series history, where

1404-566: The Fighting Spirit Award, given to the most impactful player on the losing team. As stated above, the FSA was only given to a player on the winning team once; Kazuhisa Inao won it in 1956, despite being on the winning side, the Nishitetsu Lions. Richie Scheinblum Richard Alan Scheinblum (November 5, 1942 – May 10, 2021), nicknamed " Shane ", was an American professional Major League Baseball (MLB) player. In 1971, he won

1456-645: The Hiroshima Carp are descendants of the uniforms worn by the University of Chicago 's varsity baseball team, which toured Japan in 1912 playing against major university teams. One team they played was Chuo University who copied the uniforms including the distinctive "C" logo. Alumni of the Chuo University team helped in founding the Hiroshima Carp. Pitchers Japan Series The Japan Series ( 日本シリーズ Nippon Shiriizu , officially

1508-446: The Japan Series twenty-two times. In 2004, the Pacific League instituted a three-team stepladder playoff format to determine the league champion , while the Central League champion had a long wait before the Japan Series. During this time, the Pacific League won four consecutive Series from 2003 to 2006. Starting with the 2007 postseason, both leagues adopted the Climax Series to determine their champions. The Climax Series involves

1560-836: The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. The franchise currently known as the Chiba Lotte Marines had a Japan Series record of 1–0 as the Mainichi Orions, 0–1 as the Daimai Orions, and 1–1 as the Lotte Orions. The franchise currently known as the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters had a Japan Series record of 1–0 as the Toei Flyers. The franchise has a Japan Series record of 1–0 as Yokohama Baystars and a Japan Series record of 1–0 as

1612-893: The Saitama Seibu Lions had a Japan Series record of 3–2 as the Nishitetsu Lions. The franchise currently known as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks had a Japan Series record of 2–8 as the Nankai Hawks, and 2–1 as the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. The franchise currently known as the Orix Buffaloes had a Japan Series record of 3–7 as the Hankyu Braves, and 1–1 as the Orix BlueWave. It took its current name in 2005 after merging with

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1664-675: The Taiyō Whales. The Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes were merged with the Orix BlueWave in 2005 to form the Orix Buffaloes. The Shochiku Robins were merged with the Taiyō Whales in 1953, eventually becoming the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Two individual awards are given out at the conclusion of the Japan Series: the Most Valuable Player Award , given to the most impactful player on the winning team; and

1716-538: The back of ace Ryōhei Hasegawa , but ended with a .316 winning percentage, saving itself from being disbanded. The Shochiku Robins ended the season in last place with a .288 winning percentage, and was merged with the Taiyo Whales . While the Robins "merged" with the Whales, since technically the Robins were jettisoned from NPB and folded, this left most of their star players as free agents; Hiroshima signed most of them as

1768-414: The draft and in official news outlets. The team ended the season above 3rd place for the first time the year corporate sponsorship started, but fell back into last place from 1972 to 1974. The Hiroshima Carp were also the last Japanese team to have a non-Japanese player on its roster (excluding Japanese-Americans). Zoilo Versalles , the 1965 American League MVP , was the first non-Japanese player to play for

1820-576: The family moved to Englewood, New Jersey , when he was 10 years old. He attended Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, where he played basketball and soccer, in addition to baseball. He was a 1964 graduate of C.W. Post College , now known as LIU Post, with a degree in Business Administration. There, he was a three-sport athlete, competing in baseball, basketball, and track and field. In baseball he batted .415 in 1964, and set

1872-420: The first Japanese professional team to hire a foreign manager. Lutz ordered the team's cap to be changed to red to symbolize a never-ending fighting spirit, and he hired Gail Hopkins and Richie Scheinblum . A month into the season, Lutz and the Carp parted ways as he decided to quit since he felt umpires were calling games against the Carp. However, the team won its first ever league championship in 1975 to begin

1924-633: The innings limit is abolished starting in extra games (Game 8, et al) if necessary. Since 2021, extra games are played to 12 innings as normal. Starting in the 13th inning of extra games, the World Baseball Softball Confederation two-runner tiebreaker with runners at first and second base, similar to the Japanese High School Baseball Championship (Koshien), will be implemented. Historically: The franchise currently known as

1976-646: The league), and 108 RBIs . Scheinblum played outfield in the major leagues from 1965 to 1974. He was a switch-hitter . His best year was 1972, when he hit .300 (sixth in the American League ) with an on-base percentage of .383 (fifth in the league), 8 homers, and 66 RBIs for the Royals. He was named to the American League All-Star team, and was the Royals' Player of the Month in August. Following

2028-517: The league), but in 55 at bats batted .218 for Cleveland, followed by .186 in limited action the following year. In 1970 he batted .337 (5th in the league)/.424 (leading the league)/.576 (second in the league to Cesar Cedeno ) for the Class AAA Wichita Aeros , leading the league in runs scored (79), hits (155), and RBIs (84), and second in the league in doubles (32), home runs (24), walks (72), and sacrifice flies (6). Playing for

2080-538: The manager in 2006, becoming the team's first non-Japanese manager in 31 years (since Joe Lutz ). The team set a new record in April, 2006, scoring only 2 runs for the first 9 games of the season. Through still not finishing above third, the team concentrated on developing potential young players. In 2008, even though they were expected to finish last place as both the ace Hiroki Kuroda and slugger Takahiro Arai were gone by free agency , their chance of entering of playoffs

2132-583: The postseason roster. (The Orix Buffaloes would make it to the Japan Series in 2022 without a foreign batter, with the only foreigner on their postseason roster being pitcher Jacob Waguespack , although Central League wouldn't see the Climax Series for another 22 years.) The year after that, Kinugasa would break Lou Gehrig 's consecutive games played streak, and would hold on to it until Cal Ripken Jr would break Gehrig's record, then his own in 1996. Star player Koji Yamamoto became manager in 1989, and

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2184-532: The regular season with NPB's best record and defeating the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in the Climax Series Final to advance to their first Japan Series since 1991, where they faced the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters . The Carp won the first two games of the series at home, but the Fighters would win the next four games en route to the championship. After the season Hiroki Kuroda , who had returned to

2236-426: The team through donations. The Central League had seven teams in 1952, making it complicated to form a coherent schedule for each team. Therefore, it was decided that any team that ended the season with a winning percentage below .300 would be disbanded or merged with another team. This agreement may have targeted the Carp, since the team had been in last place every season. The team won only 37 games in 1952, mostly on

2288-648: The team won yet another pennant in 1991. However, the team fell into last place in 1993, and Yamamoto resigned from his position. The Carp would endure a lengthy period without success after their 1991 pennant. One of the major reasons for the team's fall after that 1991 pennant was the lack of financial support it received from its sponsors. The team never signed any free agents , and was often forced to let go of star players because they could no longer pay their salaries (recent examples include Tomoaki Kanemoto , Akira Etoh , Andy Sheets , Nate Minchey , John Bale , Greg LaRocca and Takahiro Arai ). Marty Brown became

2340-433: The team's chief sponsor, and the company name was inserted to become the Hiroshima Toyo Carp . The company was renamed Mazda Motor Corporation in 1984 after the Matsuda family sold their stakes in the company to Ford , but kept their 60% stake in the team, which they hold onto to this very day. The Toyo name remains memorialized in the name of the baseball team, although the team is rarely mentioned by its full name; only in

2392-425: The team. The team acquired infielders Davidson and McBroom as assistant foreign players that year. The Carp were underdogs in the early going and were predicted to finish in last place, but in the end, the Carp won 74 games and lost 65 games, finishing second to the third-place DeNA BayStars with only one loss. They finished in second place with only one loss. In the first stage of the Climax Series , they beat

2444-471: The third-place DeNA Bay Stars in three straight games, but lost three straight games to the top-ranked Hanshin in the final stage and missed the Nippon Series . 2024 season. The team's record for consecutive games without allowing a goal in the opening nine games of a season is broken. This year, however, all the teams were in a slump. The pitching was high and the hitting was low, making it difficult for pitches to fly. Although home runs would come later in

2496-432: The top three finishers in each league, though the format gives a significant advantage to the team with the best record in each league. On November 6, 2010, the Chunichi Dragons and Chiba Lotte Marines played the longest game in Japan Series history. It lasted fifteen innings and resulted in a 2–2 draw, with the game lasting 5 hours and 43 minutes. Only Game 2 of the 2022 Japan Series on October 23, 2022, came close, with

2548-408: The year. The Carp had an unusual lack of home runs. Instead, the pitchers entered a golden age. Pitchers with defensive ratios in the 3-point range were able to keep their numbers in the 0-point range one after another,The relay team also maintained a sense of stability. They struggled mightily against the bottom-ranked Chunichi Dragons in both 2022 and 2023, sometimes dropping all three games in

2600-419: Was Jewish, and was born in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, New York City to Fred and Lee (born in Ukraine; died in 1949) Scheinblum, and grew up in Fort Apache in the South Bronx in New York City. He was very proud that he was one of only (as he recalled it) six Jewish major leaguers at the time, along with Art Shamsky , Mike Epstein , Steve Stone , Ron Blomberg , and Ken Holtzman . His father remarried and

2652-416: Was held in the last official game of the season, The entire schedule ended with a win. The Carp finished 4th with 68 wins and 70 losses. The second year of Arai's regime had been a complete disaster. The number of home runs was 52, 44 fewer than the previous season. The former uniforms of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp are similar to the Major League Baseball team the Cincinnati Reds . The original uniforms of

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2704-406: Was not eliminated until the very end of the season (when only 3 games remained), and they finished fourth, closely behind the Chunichi Dragons . Beginning with the 2009 season, the team's home has been the New Hiroshima Municipal Stadium , also known as Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium, in the Minami (South) Ward of Hiroshima. After years of futility, the Carp finally regained success in 2016, finishing

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