Thursday, March 10, 2016

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles is a Japanese professional baseball team in the Pacific League.

The Eagles was established in 2004 when two teams (Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix Blue wave) in the Pacific League were combined.

Their home stadium is Rakuten Kobo Stadium Miyagi which located in Sendai city (Miyagi prefecture).

Sendai is in Tohoku (Northeast) region where the great disaster by earthquake and tsunami happened in 2011. 
The horrible disaster affected baseball world too. All Eagles players were safe because they were not in Sendai when it happened. They could go back to their home stadium 27 days after. 
The Miyagi stadium was damaged and all teams put off the opening day until April 12 that year.


※Picture from excite news 


The Eagles has kept encouraging people in Tohoku region with their play and charity events after the disaster. 
And finally in 2013, they won the league title and became the national champion! 
This winning cheered a lot of sufferers and symbolized hope for recovery from the disaster.


※Picture from Sponichi Annex


Masahiro Tanaka, a player of the Eagles at that time, did a great job and helped the team win both the league and national titles this year.
He won 24 games in a row as a starting pitcher. He didn’t lose any games during the season!

He went to the mound on the 9th inning as a relief pitcher in the last game of Japan series even though after pitching the whole game the day before.

That was because everyone believed that he was the player who led the team to the champion.


Masahiro TANAKA
※Picture from Sponichi Annex

He left for New York Yankees in 2014 with large contract money! 

And now he keeps attracting many fans.


http://www.4860.jp/special/tanakamasahiro/
                         ↑↑ His model's items! ↑↑





I will introduce two more remarkable players this season.

Rui Okoe is a rookie outfielder who became famous last year in the Koshien games.

This blog already introduced him before. ↓↓

He hoped to become a professional player and was picked in the first round by Rakuten Eagles.

He is good at hitting, running, and fielding. He is a five-tool player!
Now he is training in the first team camp. He might be able to stay in the first team when the games open.


Fans are looking forward to watching his play.




Rui OKOE
※Picture from Daily Sports






http://www.4860.jp/special/wilson_woodbat/



Another player is a southpaw pitcher, Yuki Matsui.

He was also famous when he was a high school player. 5 teams picked him in the first round and the Eagles got him!

He started his career as a starting pitcher, but shifted to a closer in the second year.
 This change was successful and he got 33 saves in 2015 season. He also pitched at Premier 12 last year.

He pitched one inning in the pre-season game a few days ago. It was a good start for him.


His target for this season is 40 saves.


Yuki MATSUI
※Picture from Nikkan Sports 


We have his model’s glove. Please check it out. 


Mizuno Pro Swallow Sports limited Hard ball Glove for Pitchers  1AJGH81300-YMSW 

http://www.4860.jp/item/504083/



http://www.4860.jp/special/mizunopro/

http://www.4860.jp/special/mizunowear1/



It has been 5 years since the disaster happened on March 11, 2011. 

Some people are still missing, living in temporary housings, and suffering from the memory of that day.


But people go forward! 

I believe that the baseball and baseball players can be the role of encouraging people.





No comments:

Post a Comment