18 Facts About Nippon Ham Fighters

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido.

Nippon Ham Fighters assembled a team of ready and able players like Hiroshi Oshita, Shigeya Iijima and Giichiro Shiraki, but as a newly formed team the Senators faced strict fiscal management and resorted to using hand-me-down uniforms from the Hankyu Railway's pre-war team .

The "Nippon Ham Fighters" nickname was born from a public appeal by the team's management.

One novel aspect of the Nippon Ham Fighters was that they attracted armies of grade-school boys to sit in the outfield stands on weekend games under a "Young Boys' Fan Club" promotion, starting the first organized fan club in Japanese professional baseball.

Yukihiro Nishizaki particularly stood out, recording 15 wins and an ERA under three in each of his first two years, racking up seven double-digit win seasons over the course of his eleven-year stay with the Nippon Ham Fighters and gaining a considerable following from female fans due to his easy-going demeanor.

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From 1988 until the move to Hokkaido, the Nippon Ham Fighters played their home games in Tokyo Dome, the stadium that replaced their longtime home Korakuen.

Tokyo's Nippon Ham Fighters fans voiced their opposition to the proposed relocation, but it was eventually announced that the team would indeed call the Sapporo Dome its new home beginning in 2004.

American manager Trey Hillman led the team to success in his second year on the job, and at the end of the season, the Fighters were in a fierce race with the Chiba Lotte Marines for the final spot in the new P L playoff system.

At one point, Nippon Ham was second-to-last in the Pacific League, but recently has been able to turn it around.

Nippon Ham Fighters was selected as an NPB all-star five times and was named Pacific League MVP in 2016.

Behind Ohtani, the Nippon Ham Fighters returned to the Japan Series in 2016, facing the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

In 2017, the Nippon Ham Fighters drafted Kotaro Kiyomiya, a child prodigy entering the draft with high expectations and a number 1 overall pick.

The Nippon Ham Fighters got his contract negotiation rights after winning a lottery in the draft between 6 other NPB teams.

In October 2021, the Nippon Ham Fighters replaced longtime manager Hideki Kuriyama, who went to become manager of Samurai Japan, with former player Tsuyoshi Shinjo.

Nippon Ham Fighters is best known for winning his first Japan Series title in his last game before retirement.

The idea of a new ballpark for the Fighters began in early 2016 when Nippon-Ham wanted a new ballpark because their current stadium, the Sapporo Dome, was owned by the city of Sapporo themselves and charged the team about ¥16 million a game to play there, which is ¥1.

Fox Dance is a tradition of the Nippon Ham Fighters to do during the middle of innings, in which they encouraged fans, alongside cheerleaders, to dance similarly to the moves of a fox, set to the iconic Ylvis song The Fox, which began in May 2022.

Nippon Ham Fighters's had planned to propose this dance, but waited until it was right for her to do so, which came at the hiring of Tsuyoshi Shinjo.