NPB Notes - Chunichi Dragons

Founded: 1936 as Nagoya Club. The team was known as Sangyo in 1943 and Chubu Nihon in 1946 before becoming the Chunichi Dragons in 1947. From 1950-53 the team was known as the Nagoya Dragons before switching back to Chunichi from 1954 on.
Owner: Chunichi Shimbun newspaper. Bungo Shirai is chairman of the board and Junnosuke Nishikawa is team president.
Home base: Nagoya Dome in Nagoya, about an hour and 40 minutes southwest of Tokyo by bullet train. Chunichi is the region in which Nagoya is located.
Titles: 6 Central League titles, 1 Japan Series title (1954)

The Dragons have had their ups and downs over a long history with not quite as many mediocre seasons as successful ones, so it's been mostly ups although not in terms of championships. The team's lone title came in 1954 as Shigeru Sugishita had a Sawamura-winning season of 32-12 with a 1.39 ERA and 273 K in 395 IP and won the Japan Series and CL MVPs. Sugishita finished his career with 211 wins for the Dragons and a 2.23 ERA overall. The team didn't win another CL title until 1974 then won two league titles in the '80s ('82 and '88) before undergoing another drought until 1999. The most recent league title came in 2004 when the Dragons lost to the Lions in 7 games in the Japan Series. Despite the occasional championship series appearances, the team has been frustrated in the Japan Series overall. Of all the NPB teams to win the Japan Series, the Dragons are entrenched in the longest drought between championships followed by 8 years by the Nippon Ham Fighters.

The team is probably best known in America for the old LA Dodger-like unis, which have since changed to block letters on the front and a San Diego-like CD logo, and the predictable '92 comedy movie "Mr. Baseball," which featured Tom Selleck traveling overseas to play in Japan for Chunichi. As you can imagine if you haven't seen it, the movie has a lot to do with the culture shock of playing in a different league with different priorities.

Two changes in recent years have injected some rejuvenation into the franchise as the Dragons moved into the Nagoya Dome in 1997 and, since making adjustments in the team's strengths, have won two league titles in the friendly confines. Pictured at top is the celebration of the team's 2004 pennant-clincher with then first-year team manager Hiromitsu Ochiai getting the usual treatment for such an accomplishment. Ochiai is the second change to liven up things in Nagoya as he followed up his league title with a 79-66-1 record in 2005 to finish second in the CL, 10 games behind Hanshin. Ochiai is a former NPB standout who won PL triple crowns with Lotte in 1982, '85 and '86 and won 5 batting titles, 5 home run titles and 5 RBI titles in his career, including HR and RBI titles for the Dragons in 1990 and '91. He also holds the PL single-season RBI record with 146 in 1985.

Besides Ochiai's two great seasons, Chunichi has had a handful of other standouts at the plate. LF/1B Shinichi Eto won two batting titles for the Dragons in 1964 and 1965, 1B Kenichi Yazawa duplicated the feat in '76 and '80 (the latter in a Comeback of the Year situation after an Achilles tendon injury) and American import Alonzo Powell won three straight batting titles (the first foreign player to do so) for the Dragons from 1994 to '96. Current star hitters for Chunichi are headlined by OF Kosuke Fukudome, who helped lead Japan to the WBC title and won the 2002 CL batting title en route to being named to the Best Nine for the first time. He hit .313 and slugged .604 in 2003 before a finger injury helped limit him to a .277 BA and .569 SLG in 2004 as he was forced out of the Japan Series in a crucial misfortune for the Dragons. He came back to hit .328 and slug .590 in 2005 while winning his 3rd Gold Glove. He has also had OBPs in the .400s in 2003 and '05 and is only 29 years old, so he's in his prime. Through 4/27 he is hitting .319/.395/.667 in '06 for Chunichi with 7 HR and 13 RBI to lead the team in those two categories. Former American journeyman OF Alex Ochoa is in his 4th year for Chunichi and has hit .286 with 60 homers over 3 seasons. Ochoa is hitting .314/.360/.557 thus far in '06 with 4 HR and 10 RBI. Another American masher joined Chunichi in 2005 as two-time CL home run champ 1B Tyrone Woods came over from Yokohama. He hit .306 with 38 HR and 103 RBI for the Dragons in '05 and has started slowly in '06, hitting .246/.372/.446 with 4 HR and co-leading with 13 RBI. He does lead the team with 13 BB. Veteran OF Kazuki Inoue is doing well in '06 after hitting .302 with 10 HR in 2005. In 9 games played, he's hitting .353/.389/.471 for the Dragons thus far.

Pitching has been somewhat similar for Chunichi throughout its history as from time to time certain pitchers have stood out for the Dragons. Hiroshi Gondo won 65 games combined in '61 and '62 for Chunichi but nearly 800 IP in those two years took their toll and he was done by the age of 30 in 1968. He won the '61 Sawamura and was also ROY that season. He retired with a lifetime WHIP of 1.10 and ERA of 2.69. P Tatsuo Komatsu won two victory titles in the '80s for the Dragons along with K and ERA titles for the '85 pitching triple crown and Sawamura. He won 102 and saved 73 games for Chunichi over a 15-plus year career. P Masahiro Yamamoto was possibly the pitcher of the '90s for Chunichi with three victory titles and an ERA title in '93 (2.05). He won the Sawamura in '94 when he went 19-8. At age 41 he is still pitching for the Dragons this season and has a career WHIP of 1.21. Through 15 IP this season he has a 6.46 ERA and batters are hitting .303 off him, so his age is showing somewhat. 101 Ks this season would give him 2,000 for his career and he entered the season with 180 wins. The most recent pitching standout for Chunichi has been Kenshin Kawakami, who won the CL MVP and victory title in 2004 with a 17-7 record and 3.32 ERA. At age 30 in '05 he followed up his MVP season with an 11-8 record and 3.74 ERA. He is back on his game so far in '06 as he entered play Friday with a 3-0 record and 1.62 ERA and team-leading 35 K in 39 IP. P Kenichi Nakata is following up an 8-3, 3.63 ERA rookie year from '05 with a 2-0, 2.11 ERA season thus far in '06 as batters are only hitting .171 off him through his first few starts. Dominican import Luis Martinez was 8-4 with a 3.38 ERA in '05 for Chunichi and is following it up with a 3.38 ERA thus far this year, too. RP Hitoki Iwase has proven to be a standout NPB closer for the Dragons as he was Fireman of the Year in '05 with 46 saves and a 1.88 ERA. American Eddie Gaillard was also a Fireman of the Year for the Dragons in '00 and '02 before moving on to Yokohama. The 31-year-old Iwase has 7 saves but a 4.66 ERA thus far in '06, although batters are only hitting .216 off him. The Dragons, through Friday, are 11-7-1 and 4 games back of Yomiuri in the CL race. They're wrapping up April with a 3-game set at the Giants and already dropped the first game of the series today.

Japan Baseball Daily (excellent reference site)
JapanBall's Chunichi page
Fukudome on BR
Mr. Baseball on IMDB