Whales (Taiyo 1950-52, 1955-57, Yokohama
Taiyo 1978-1992)
In 1942, when the Japanese Baseball
Association
was divided into the Central league
and Pacific
league, Taiyo Gyogyo (Maruha at present)
origiated the Maruha Taiyo team on
November
22.
At that time, Taiyo Gyogyo had very
strong
amateur team which formed the nucleus
of
their professional baseball team and
joined
the Central league.
The nickname, Whales, was selected
immediately
because Taiyo Gyogyo was in the business
of whale fishing. Magazine articles
from
that time report the owner as saying
if they
could catch two or three whales more,
it
would be a piece of cake for them to
hire
twenty to thirty star players. In fact,
they
had more powerful players than other
teams.
The team was called Robins only between 1953
and 1954 because they were combined with
Shyochiku Robins. This nickname was used
until 1992 with name changes of the team
from Taiyo to Yokohama Taiyo as their home
stadium had been changed to Yokohama.
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