New teams/different names?
Team histories is one thing that I've been wanting to do for the history section here, but haven't yet found the time. Sorry.
A quick run down of the two teams' history, though, can be found in these two tables:
+-----------+---------------+
| Years | Team |
+-----------+---------------+
| 1936-1946 | Hankyu |
| 1947-1988 | Hankyu Braves |
| 1989-1990 | Orix Braves |
| 1991- | Orix BlueWave |
+-----------+---------------+
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
| Years | Team | Became |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
| 1936-1936 | Dai-Tokyo | L |
| 1937-1940 | Lion | As |
| 1941-1945 | Asahi | Pa |
| 1946-1946 | Pacific | TR1 |
| 1947-1947 | Taiyo Robins | TR |
| 1948-1949 | Taiyo Robins | SR |
| 1950-1952 | Shochiku Robins | TSR |
| 1950-1952 | Taiyo Whales | TSR |
| 1953-1954 | Taiyo-Shochiku Robins | TW |
| 1955-1977 | Taiyo Whales | YTW |
| 1978-1992 | Yokohama Taiyo Whales | YBS |
| 1992- | Yokohama BayStars | |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
Note that Yokohama is made up of the merger of Shochiku Robins and Taiyo Whales, the Taiyo Whales being a new team in 1950. The kanji for "Taiyo" in the two "Taiyo Robins" and "Taiyo Whales" are all three different (太陽, 大陽, and 大洋 respectively - if your system supports Kanji).
Hope this helps clear some things up until I find the time to present all of this in a better format.
[westbaystars: That's the one! Thanks.]
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A number of things are very disconcerting, however. For one, Orix is painfully bad - ha ha. But more puzzling is that in my history books from the mid 1980s and '90s, there is no mention of the BlueWave. The BayStars seem to be new to me as well.
All of this may just be a result of my poor reading, but even so, I would appreciate a condensed history on the establishment of the Japanese teams and any changes the franchises may have experienced. Such an explanation would be greatly appreciated and clear up some of my confusion.
Benjamin Watanabe