The Padres Paradise Series was a three-game Major League Baseball regular season series between the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii , on April 19 and 20, 1997. These were the first regular-season major league games played in Hawaii. The Padres were the home team for all three games. The Cardinals won the opening two games (a twi-night doubleheader ) on April 19, winning the first 1–0 and the second 2–1. The Padres won the third game on April 20 by a score of 8–2. Reported attendances were 37,382 (games 1 & 2) and 40,050 (game 3).
23-525: The Padres front office saw the series as a test run for future exhibition games in Hawaii. The Padres had played an exhibition series at Aloha Stadium in 1975 against Japan's Seibu Lions . The Padres arrived in Hawaii with an 8–5 record. The three-game series began a stretch in which they lost 10 of 11 and dropped below .500 for the rest of the season. The Padres first asked the Houston Astros to move
46-515: A 55–70–18 record. Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders Manager Coaches Catchers Outfielders Manager Coaches Team announced Kazuhisa Inao 's No.24 was the first retired number of the Lions on May 1, 2012. Retired From MLB: The Lions farm team plays in the Eastern League . The year of the team's founding is unknown. They first played in
69-636: A golf course and resort developer in 1973. The Lions, still smarting from the after-effects of the Black Mist Scandal, finished no higher than third throughout the 1970s. At the end of the 1976 season, the Fukuoka Baseball Corporation announced that the team's new sponsor was Crown Gas Lighter . With this, the team's name for the upcoming season was changed to the Crown Lighter Lions . On October 25, 1978,
92-540: A series from San Diego to Honolulu, but the Astros declined. The Padres then turned to the Cardinals. Infielders Coaches Infielders Coaches The Sunday game was nationally televised on ESPN 's Sunday Night Baseball . The series was composed of three Padres regular season home games relocated from San Diego. The first game was held on Saturday, April 19, 1997, at 4:09 p.m. HST . The second game
115-545: Is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway , which in turn is owned by the Seibu Holdings . The team experienced a recent period of financial difficulty, but the situation brightened when the team received a record ¥ 6 billion (about $ 51.11 million) posting fee from the Boston Red Sox for the right to negotiate a contract with Daisuke Matsuzaka . Between 1978 and 2008, the team logo and mascot were based on
138-858: The Chikuhō Electric Railroad . In addition, in 1943 the company owned the Nishitetsu Baseball Club , a team in the Japanese Baseball League . From 1950 to 1972, the company owned the Lions (in 1950, known as the Clippers), a Pacific League baseball team. The company introduced nimoca , a smart card ticketing system, in May 2008. Nishi-Nippon Railroad operates four railway lines: Major local bus routes extend to Kitakyushu and serve other municipalities in
161-675: The Nishi-Nippon Pirates , which belonged to the Central League and managed by a local newspaper company the Nishinippon Shimbun . The new club was to form the Nishitetsu Lions . Thus the Lions name was adopted and has been retained up to today as the name of the franchise. The Nishitetsu Lions called Heiwadai Stadium home for their entire existence. They were one of the most dominant teams in
184-522: The SoftBank Group ) and moved to the Lions' former stadium, Heiwadai Stadium . The Lions finished in last place in 1979 (something the team would not do again until 2021 ), and finished in fourth place in 1980 and 1981 . However, the following seasons would mark the beginning of a period of sustained success for the team under new manager Tatsuro Hirooka and with star players such as Osamu Higashio and Kōichi Tabuchi . Tatsuro Hirooka told
207-749: The Kansai Farm League in 1952 and joined the Eastern League in 1979. Nishi-Nippon Railroad The Nishi-Nippon Railroad Company, Ltd. ( 西日本鉄道株式会社 , Nishinippon Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha ) , also called Nishitetsu ( 西鉄 ) or NNR , TYO : 9031 is one of Japan's "Big 16" private railroad companies. With headquarters in Fukuoka , it operates local and highway buses, supermarkets, real estate and travel agencies, as well as railways in Fukuoka Prefecture . It also owns
230-830: The Lions made the Pacific League Climax Series 1st stage 5 times, (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017) but lost to the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2010 and 2013, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2017, and to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in 2011 and 2012. They made the Final Stage twice in back to back years in 2018 and 2019, but lost to the Hawks on both occasions. In 2020, the team finished in 3rd place, but
253-727: The Pacific League during the 1950s, winning four pennants, including three straight Japan Series against the Yomiuri Giants behind famed manager Osamu Mihara ; their last championship in Fukuoka came in 1958; after which Mihara left for the Taiyo Whales and led them to a Japan Series championship over the Daimai Orions in 1960. The team struggled through the following decade and did not witness much success on
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#1732780623361276-578: The Tigers also breaking tradition by becoming the first Central League club to use the designated hitter during the Japan Series, prior to the NPB requiring its use during the Japan Series in Pacific League stadiums in 1990 (with it eventually being also used in interleague play when it was introduced in 2005). Following the 1986 season, the club replaced Hirooka with Masaaki Mori , who was able to sustain
299-605: The adult version of Kimba the White Lion , a classic Japanese anime and manga series by Osamu Tezuka . In 2004, former Seibu Lions player Kazuo Matsui became the first Japanese infielder to play in Major League Baseball . In 1950, the team became a founding member of the Pacific League . It was then owned by a private railroad company Nishi-Nippon Railroad , well known as "Nishitetsu", which
322-482: The field. In 1969 and 1970, the team was caught up in the infamous Black Mist game-fixing scandal , which resulted in four Lions pitchers being banned from NPB for life, as well as other players receiving lesser punishments. These losses decimated the team which the team would not recover from for the rest of their time in Fukuoka, which finished the 1970 season in last place. After a third straight last-place finish, and with Nishi-Nippon not wanting to do with anything to
345-540: The players that meat and other animal foods increase athletes' susceptibility to injury, and decrease their ability to perform. He required all players to take up a strictly vegetarian diet . The club won consecutive Japan Series in 1982 and 1983 , and went to the Japan Series again in 1985 , but lost to the Hanshin Tigers , who won their first Japan Series title. That Japan Series was also notable for
368-475: The prefecture name "Saitama" to their team name in 2008. They were Pacific League Champions that year and went on to win the Japan Series . The team logo and uniforms were further modified for the 2009 season , with the team trading in their traditional light-blue colour scheme for a dark blue design similar to that employed during the Nishitetsu Lions era in the 1950s and 1960s. Between 2010 and 2019,
391-411: The services of skilled players such as Hiromichi Ishige , Romeo Calhoun , Hatsuhiko Tsuji and catcher Tsutomu Ito . Among the pitchers employed by the Lions in this period was "The Oriental Express" Taigen Kaku , Kimiyasu Kudoh , Hisanobu Watanabe , and relievers Yoshitaka Katori and Tetsuya Shiozaki . In order to reinforce the affiliation between the team and their home region, the Lions added
414-732: The team due to the Black Mist Scandal, in November 1972, the franchise was sold to the Fukuoka Baseball Corporation , a shell company within Nishi-Nippon Railroad . Following the sale, the team was renamed the Taiheiyo Club Lions . Nishi-Nippon Railroad, founded by Nagayoshi Nakamura , then owner of Lotte Corporation and the Orions , sold the team's sponsorship rights to Taiheiyo Club ,
437-680: The team was sold to Kokudo Keikaku (later Kokudo), and then merged into Prince Hotels. Following the sale of the Crown Lighter Lions and their merging into Prince Hotels, the team was renamed the Seibu Lions and relocated to a new ballpark northward in Tokorozawa, Saitama , west of the Tokyo area. Fukuoka would be left without an NPB team until 1989 , when the erstwhile Nankai Hawks were bought by Daiei (they are now owned by
460-548: The team's prolonged success. Mori won eight league championships, between 1986 and 1988 and 1990–1994, and six Japan Series championships in his nine-year managing career, winning the Japan Series in 1986 , 1987 , 1988 , 1990 , 1991 , and 1992 . The team gained the moniker "Invincible Seibu" during the 1980s and 1990s due to their sustained domination of the league. The Lions had a powerful lineup in this period, loaded with sluggers such as Koji Akiyama , Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Orestes Destrade . Their defense also benefited from
483-479: Was based in Fukuoka in Kyushu , the western area of Japan (Nishi-Nippon). The Clippers name was chosen as Nishitetsu was in charge of Pan American Airlines ' Japanese operations (back then, Pan Am's jets were known as "Clippers" due to them being aeronautical Boeing 314 Clipper ). The team finished sixth that year, and at the end of the season, Nishitetsu was merged with another professional baseball club in Fukuoka,
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#1732780623361506-493: Was held on Saturday, April 19, 1997, at 7:17 p.m. HST. The third game was held on Sunday, April 20, 1997, at 2:05 p.m. HST. Seibu Lions The Saitama Seibu Lions ( 埼玉西武ライオンズ , Saitama Seibu Raionzu ) are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa , Saitama Prefecture . Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka , Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu . The team
529-525: Was unable to make the playoffs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pacific League removed the First Stage of the playoffs; only the top 2 teams in Pacific League made the playoffs, while Central League removed it entirely, instead opting to send the regular season champion ( Yomiuri Giants ) straight to the Japan Series . In 2021, the Lions finished in 6th and last place for the first time since 1979 with
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