Team Logo.
The Saitama Seibu Lions, (also known as the Urawa Seibu Lions), are a team in Nippon Professional Baseball. Their old logo and mascot came from the classic anime Kimba the White Lion. Their franchise has been league champions 13 times, most recently in 2008.
"Invincible Seibu" era (1982-1992)[]
This era of the Lions was what they are quite known well for. In 1979, they finished in last place, something the Lions would not do again until 2021. in 1980 and 1981, they finished in 4th place. 1982, however, would mark the beginning of what was dubbed the "Invincible Seibu" era with new manager Tatsuro Hirooka and star players like Osamu Higashio and Koichi Tabuchi. Hirooka's strategy was that he told the players that since meat and other "animal foods" increased an athlete's sustanability to injury, he wanted them to take a strictly vegetarian diet. This also nicknamed them "The Goat Team" by the Nippon-Ham Fighters, who were unironically owned by Nippon-Ham, a meat packing company. This strategy worked, as the Lions won the Japan Series in 1982 and 1983 under him. They would return in 1985, but lost to the Hanshin Tigers in their first and still only Japan Series title. He was replaced in 1986 by Maasaki Mori, who kept the team's success by winning the Japan Series 6 times from 1986-1988 and 1990-1992. They had a powerful lineup loaded with offense players like Koji Akiyama, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, and Cuban player Orestes Destrade. Notable players on the defensive end was pitchers Hiromichi Ishige, Romeo Calhoun, Hatsuhiko Tsuiji, and catcher Tsutomu Ito. Among these pitchers was a lineup called "The Orient Express" composed of Taiwanese player Kuo Tai-yuan, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Hisanobu Watanabe, and relief pitchers Yoshitaka Katori and Tetsuya Shiozaki.
Trivia[]
- The team serves as a Nippon Professional Baseball affiliate of the Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers.