Chiba Lotte Marines

Year Founded:  1950

Home Stadium: Zozo Marine Stadium (1992-present)

Previous Stadiums: Korakuen (1950-62), Tokyo Stadium (1962-72), Miyagi Stadium (1973-77), Kawasaki Stadium (1978-91)

Previously Known As: Mainichi Orions (1950-1957), Mainichi Daiei (Daimai) Orions (1958-1963), Tokyo Orions (1964-1968), Lotte Orions (1969-1991)

Championships Won: 4 – 1950, 1974, 2005, 2010

All-Time Record vs Hanshin: 28-34-6 (0-2-1 in 2023)

Playoffs vs Hanshin: 2005 Nippon Series (4-0 Win)

Major Players in Common with Hanshin: Tadashi Wakabayashi (Hanshin/Osaka 1936-49, Orions 1950-53); Kaoru Betto (Osaka 1948-49, Mainichi 1950-57); Masaaki Koyama (Osaka/Hanshin 1953-63, Orions 1964-72); Mike Solomko (Hanshin 1960-63, Orions 1964-65); George Altman (Orions 1968-74, Hanshin 1975); Hideki Irabu (Chiba 1988-96, Hanshin 2003-04); Makoto Imaoka (Hanshin 1997-2009, Chiba 2010-12), Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Chiba 2003-10, Hanshin 2013-18); Yasutomo Kubo (Chiba 2005-08, Hanshin 2009-13); Craig Brazell (Hanshin 2009-12, Chiba 2013-14); Jason Standridge (Hanshin 2010-13, Chiba 2016-17); Takashi Toritani (Hanshin 2004-19, Chiba 2020-21)

Current Uniforms:

Away –   Home – 

Top 5 Players in Team History:

Choji Murata (1968-90), Pitcher – Franchise leader in basically every career pitching stat including games played, innings, wins, strikeouts. Hall of Famer.

Michiyo Aritoh (1969-86), Third Baseman – Franchise leader in career hits, home runs, RBI, second in walks.  Only Lotte player with 2000 career hits. 1969 Rookie of the Year, 10-time Best Nine, 13-time All Star, 4-time Golden Glove.

Hiromitsu Ochiai (1979-86), Infielder – Started Hall of Fame career with Lotte Orions, won Triple Crown twice (85-86), HR title three times, batting title five times, MVP twice with Orions.

Leron Lee (1977-87), Outfielder – Best foreign player in Orions/Marines history.  NPB leader in career batting average, second in franchise career HRs, third in RBIs, fourth in hits.

Kazuya Fukuura (1997-2019), 1B/DH – All time leader in games played, walks, 2nd in hits & RBI.

Most Famous Manager: Bobby Valentine (1995, 2004-2009).  Only one NPB championship (2005) but transformed the image of the franchise completely.

Current Manager: Masato Yoshii (since 2023)

Current Top Hitter: Gregory Polanco (32, DH): .242/.312/.450, 26 HR, 75 RBI, Best Nine in 2023

Current Top Pitcher: Roki Sasaki (22, RHP): 91 IP, 7 W, 4 L, 1.78 ERA, 135 K in 2023

Brief History:

The Mainichi Orions came into existence with the birth of the Pacific League in 1950, and the new franchise stormed its way to both the Pacific League and NPB crowns in that first year, defeating the Shochiku Robins 4-2 in the Nippon Series.  A merger with the Daiei Unions came in 1958, with the team changing its name to Mainichi Daiei (Daimai) Orions.

Further success did not come for many more years as the Orions faced a postseason drought until 1960, when a second Pacific League championship led to a Nippon Series sweep loss at the hands of the Taiyo Whales (now Yokohama DeNA BayStars). The Orions moved from the crowded Korakuen Stadium (shared with two other teams) to the new Tokyo Stadium, playing their first game there in 1962 against the Nankai Hawks.  The Orions were rechristened as the Tokyo Orions in 1964, but the years in Tokyo Stadium with that moniker were marked by futility, as the team never rose above third in the Pacific.

The Tokyo Orions became the Lotte Orions in 1968, and success soon returned. The Orions won their third PL championship in 1970, but lost to the Yomiuri Giants 4-1 in the Nippon Series. The Orions were sold to the Lotte group in 1971, and due to a dispute with the owner of Tokyo Stadium (the team wanted to buy the stadium outright but were rebuffed), they relocated to Sendai for the 1973-77 seasons. 1974 brought a second Nippon Series title to the Orions as manager Masaichi Kaneda’s team defeated the Chunichi Dragons 4-2 in the championship. Interestingly, because Miyagi Stadium was too small by to host Nippon Series games by NPB standards, the Lotte home games needed to be held at their old home, Korakuen Stadium.  

The next decade featured a move from Sendai to Kawasaki in 1978, as well as teams with loads of talent (such as Hall of Famers Choji Murata and Hiromitsu Ochiai, meikyukai member Michiyo Aritoh, and one of the best foreign hitters in NPB history, Leron Lee, along with his brother Leon). But even with all this talent, the Orions could never get past Hankyu or Seibu to win the Pacific League. Ochiai left as a free agent after the second of back-to-back Triple Crown seasons in 1985 in 1986, and the Orions entered a deep tailspin.

The Orions moved to the brand-new Chiba Marine Stadium in 1992 and changed the team name to Chiba Lotte Marines.  An infusion of younger talent, such as Norifumi Nishimura, Hideki Irabu, Koichi Hori, and Satoru Komiyama, did little to change the season results as Lotte finished either 5th or 6th every year between 1987 and 1994.  In 1995 former MLB manager Bobby Valentine took the helm, and for the first time in ages, Lotte was actually relevant, finishing second behind Ichiro’s Orix BlueWave in the PL. Bobby was not retained for the next season, and the Marines slipped back into the B-Class rhythm, never finishing with a winning record for the next 10 years.  The nadir came in 1998 as Lotte lost an NPB-record 18 straight games. These were not good times.

The turnaround came in 2004 with the return of Bobby V to Makuhari. In his first year back, Lotte finished with a .500 record for the first time since 1995, and in 2005, the Marines recorded perhaps the greatest season in team history, winning the Pacific League, the new Interleague Series, and ultimately the first Nippon Series in 31 years with a 4-0 win over Hanshin (sorry, guys!).  Beyond the championship itself, the effect of this victory on Lotte culture was tremendous. Many fans spoke of the special bond that Bobby V helped forge between the team and the fans, and that after so many years of futility, they believed their team could be a winner.

Lotte returned to the postseason in 2007, losing a heartbreaker of a Climax Series to the Nippon Ham Fighters. Battles with the front office led to Bobby V’s departure after the 2009 season. Former Orions star Norifumi Nishimura took over as manager and led the “gekokujo” (underdog) 2010 Marines to their fourth NPB title. They were the first team to win the Nippon Series after finishing the regular season in third place. The series against Chunichi went the full seven games and featured a 15-inning slugfest tie in Game 6, followed by a 12th-inning instant-classic Game 7.

Tsutomu Itoh replaced Nishimura for the 2013 season. In his five years of leadership, Lotte returned to the Climax Series three times, winning the first-round series in 2013 and 2015, but dropping the final stage to the eventual champions (Rakuten Eagles and Softbank Hawks, respectively).  Unfortunately, 2017 was the worst season in team history as Lotte threatened NPB records for futility before settling instead for team lows. NPB legend Tadahito Iguchi assumed the managerial spot in 2018, but in five seasons, failed to lead the team to the pennant. Under manager Masato Yoshii, the team has plenty of young talent on the roster (Hisanori Yasuda, Kyota Fujiwara, Roki Sasaki, etc.) to aim for a Pacific League pennant for years to come.  

About the Author:

Steve Novosel is a long-term resident of Chiba prefecture and a fan of Chiba Lotte for 10+ years. He can usually be found at the stadium whenever Lotte is playing, yelling about Lotte at , and writing about Lotte for the past 9 years at

CL: Chunichi Dragons / Hiroshima Toyo Carp / Tokyo Yakult Swallows / Yokohama DeNA BayStars / Yomiuri Giants

PL: Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks / Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters / Orix Buffaloes / Saitama Seibu Lions / Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

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