Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
Established 2005
Team logo Cap Insignia
League affiliations
Nippon Professional Baseball (2005–present) Pacific League (2005–present)
Current uniform
Retired Numbers	10
Colors	Red, Gold, White
Name
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (2005–present)
Other nicknames
Washi (鷲?, eagles)
Ballpark
Hotto Motto Field Kobe (temporary replacement) (2011-present) Miyagi Baseball Stadium (2005–present)
League titles
Japan Series titles (0)
PL Pennants (0)
Owner(s): Rakuten Inc.
Manager: Senichi Hoshino
General Manager:
2011 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles season

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルス, Tōhoku Rakuten Gōruden Īgurusu) is a baseball team founded in 2004; it played its first season in the Japanese Pacific League in 2005. It is simply called Rakuten (楽天). The team was created to fill the void left by the merger of the Orix Blue Wave and the Kintetsu Buffaloes, after the 2004 season due to financial difficulties, leaving the Pacific League with five teams, causing the biggest crisis in the traditional two-league structure in NPB and finally caused the historical-first baseball player strike in Japan. The team is based in Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. It inaugurated its first season with a 3 – 1 victory over Lotte. The team is owned by the Internet shopping company Rakuten.

The team's manager was Katsuya Nomura, the oldest manager in NPB history, but he was replaced as of the 2010 season by Marty Brown the former manager of Hiroshima. Brown was in turn replaced by Senichi Hoshino after a last place finish in 2010.

The stadium was heavily damaged by floods during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Players of note

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles roster
First squad				Second squad
Pitchers 14 Kenta Satake 15 Hiromichi Fujiwara 18 Masahiro Tanaka 20 Kohei Hasebe 21 Hisashi Iwakuma 26 Kanehisa Arime 30 Satoshi Nagai 41 Koji Aoyama 51 Tsuyoshi Kawagishi 57 Shinichiro Koyama 64 Keiichi Yabu Catchers 31 Akihito Fujii 37 Motohiro Shima 44 Jin Nakatani		Infielders  0 Kensuke Uchimura  2 Naoto Watanabe  4 Yosuke Takasu  5 Fernando Seguignol  7 Takeshi Yamasaki 12 Daisuke Kusano 32 Makoto Kosaka Outfielders 00 Masato Nakamura  3 Todd Linden  9 Ryuji Miyade 23 Ryo Hijirisawa 46 Teppei Tsuchiya 61 Kenshi Kawaguchi 64 Toshiya Nakashima Manager 77 Senichi Hoshino		Pitchers 13 Ryohei Isaka 16 Hiroki Yamamura 17 Darrell Rasner 28 Hiroshi Katayama 34 Koki Watanabe 43 Ryuhei Terada 45 Takashi Kawai 47 Shingo Matsuzaki 49 Yusuke Inoue 53 Takashi Ishida 54 Hisashi Kitani 58 Wataru Karashima 59 Yasunori Kikuchi 60 Satoru Ishikawa 62 Kazuo Fukumori 65 Akira Matsumoto 99 Kim Byung-Hyun Catchers 39 Suguru Ino 48 Tadashi Ishimine 52 Hiroaki Yamamoto 67 Ginji Akaminai		Infielders  1 Tatsuya Shiokawa 27 Hisashi Kawata 35 Shoji Ohiro 56 Taishi Nakagawa 66 Wataru Nishimura 68 Shintaro Masuda 98 Jobu Morita Outfielders 25 Fuminori Yokogawa 33 Yosuke Hiraishi 38 Yusuke Kusuki 63 Akihisa Makida Updated December 2, 2009

Former managers

• Yasushi Tao
• Katsuya Nomura
• Marty Brown

Former players

• Luis Lopez
• Ryan Glynn
• Eric Valent
• Cedrick Bowers
• Kevin Hodges
• Gary Rath
• Andy Tracy
• Aaron Myette
• Matt Skrmetta
• Damon Minor
• Katsunori Nomura
• Tetsuya Iida
• Takeshi Nakamura
• Tadaharu Sakai
• Hideo Koike
• Koichi Oshima
• Kevin Witt
• Adam Bass
• Toyohiko Yoshida
• Koichi Sekikawa
• Lin Ying-Chieh - P
• Domingo Guzman - P

Retired numbers

• 10 - This number is worn by both team mascots, Clutch and Clutchina, and is considered the number of the fan, the 'tenth man' on the field. It is the first retired number in NPB involving a fan, inspired by some teams in other sports which retire "12" (for the 12th man). It should be noted that there are ten starting players in the Pacific League as the league uses the designated hitter. The Chiba Lotte Marines has the #26 retired in similar fashion (MLB's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has retired #26, in similar fashion, for the original owner Gene Autry).

MLB players

Active:

Retired: Kazuo Fukumori (2008)

Records

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
Year	Manager	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.	GB	BA	ERA	Place
2005	Yasushi Tao	136	38	97	1	.281	51.5	.255	5.67	6
2006	Katsuya Nomura	136	47	85	4	.356	33.0	.258	4.30	6
2007	Katsuya Nomura	144	67	75	2	.472	13.5	.262	4.31	4
2008	Katsuya Nomura	144	65	76	3	.461	11.5	.272	3.89	5
2009	Katsuya Nomura	144	77	66	1	.538	5.5	.267	4.01	2
2010	Marty Brown	144	62	79	3	.440	15.0	.265	3.98	6
2011	Senichi Hoshino	144	66	71	7	.482	22.5	.245	2.85	5
Total	--	992	422	549	21	--	--	--	--	--

Golden Eagles Fan Club honorary members

• Shirō Asano
• Hajimu Fujii
• Great Sasuke
• Takanori Hatakeyama
• Hiroshi Ikushima
• Junichi Inagaki
• Shūhei Mainōmi
• Hiroya Masuda
• Shingo Mimura
• Masatoshi Nakamura
• Toshiyuki Nishida
• Itsurō Ōizumi
• Kōhei Ōtomo
• Sanpei
• Hiroshi Saitō
• Eisaku Satō
• Masao Sen
• Mayo Suzukaze
• Yoshitake Tanaka
• Sukeshiro Terata
• Suzuki Udo
• Kōichi Yamadera

See also

• "The Manpower!!!" (THE マンパワー!!!) – the first Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded and released as a single by J-pop idol group Morning Musume.
• Let's Go Rakuten Eagles Let's Go 楽天イーグルス- the second Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group DEF.DIVA of Hello! Project.
• "Daisuki Rakuten Eagles (ダイスキ楽天イーグルス) – the third Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group GAM.
• "Koero! Rakuten Eagles (越えろ！楽天イーグルス) – the fourth Golden Eagles' official cheer song, recorded by J-pop idol group C-ute.

Gallery

• 

  Miyagi Baseball Stadium

External links

• (Japanese) Official page for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles