The End of the Buffaloes
If you’re interested in purchasing an Orix Buffaloes jersey, you might want to get it now.
The Buffaloes’ parent company, Orix, has announced that this will be the last season for the Buffaloes name. No word yet on what the new team name will be, but Orix wants to keep the unfortunate “B’s” abbreviation that has become part of the team’s logo. According to Nikkan Sports there is a low chance of Orix restoring team’s previous name, the Blue Wave.
The Orix Buffaloes name originated with the 2004 merger of the Orix Blue Wave, and the Kintetsu Buffaloes. Orix originally bought into the baseball business in 1989, when the company took over the Hankyu Braves. The Orix team was briefly known as the Orix Braves before adopting the Blue Wave name. The old Kintetsu franchise was known as the Pearls back in the 50’s, and then switched to the Buffalo for a few seasons before correcting their English in 1962, adopting the still-active Buffaloes name. Gary Garland has the full histories of all the NPB team names on his site.
I always liked the Blue Wave name, and was sorry to see it go. Any suggestions on what the new name should be?
17/03/2010 at 11:35 pm Permalink
The Kintetsu Buffaloes unis, especially the helmet, was awesome. Orix Buffaloes? Blah.
17/03/2010 at 11:39 pm Permalink
I thought this logo was nice and mean looking: http://image.space.rakuten.co.jp/lg01/11/0000017411/70/img86d95e4bzik6zj.jpeg
I didn’t really care for the Expos knock-offs though.
18/03/2010 at 1:35 am Permalink
How about the orix bulls? In this case, they would retain the ‘B’ sign but could re-design the logo to include horns sticking out from the ‘B’ logo. So, the idea of a bull as an alternative name wouldn’t dramatically change the face of the team, while simotamously satisfying the team’s plans to retain the ‘b’ logo.
18/03/2010 at 3:17 am Permalink
Good idea, David. But what word could they use for the little “s” after the “B” for “Bull”? Hmm…
18/03/2010 at 4:57 am Permalink
The “Buffalo” name came from Giants Hall Of Famer Shigeru Chiba whose nickname was “Formidable Buffalo”. Kintetsu changed the name from the Pearls to the Buffalo when he became manager in 1959.
So does Akinobu Okada have a nickname?
18/03/2010 at 5:30 am Permalink
I wouldn’t mind to see them go back to the Hankyu uniforms that Yamada Hisashi and Fukumoto Yutaka used to wear. Ditto for Lotte, their 70s unis were awesome too.
I kinda like that they’re following the PL trend and plan to add “Osaka” to the team name. They were the last team using only their sponsor company name in the league.
It will be interesting to follow the naming process. Let’s see what creative monikers does the public come up with, once they do a formal call for submissions.
19/03/2010 at 2:22 am Permalink
Just in case you don’t know, the old Kintetsu Buffalo logo was designed by TarÅ Okamoto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar%C5%8D_Okamoto