Subject: [karp] The Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team

From: "Gregory M. Lebovitz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:01:30 -0800

Ironically, the Nippon Baseball League's local team here in Hiroshima 
is the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Ok, so they misspelled they use a "C" 
instead of a "K", but close enough for us. Here's the key info:

Hiroshima (Japanese character)

[]

HiroshimaCarp.png

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Toyo_Carp>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Toyo_Carp 

 From Japanball.com:
Only five years after Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb, the 
city got it's own baseball team, a source of pride and a symbol of 
the city's determination to rebuild.  But it took a lot longer for 
the Carp, who were established in 1950, to win their first pennant.

In their first 25 seasons, the Carp never finished higher than third 
place. But in 1975, Hiroshima turned things around.  With Koji 
Yamamoto (536 career home runs) and Sachio Kinugasa (2215 consecutive 
games) leading the team's offense, the Carp surged to first place, 
capturing their first Central League title.  Though they lost the 
1975 Japan Series, Hiroshima has six pennants.

Inviting immediate comparison to the Cincinnati Reds, the Carp wear 
crimson and white jerseys and share an identical cap with their 
Midwest counterpart.

Partly owned by the City of Hiroshima and Toyo, a car manufacturing 
company, the Carp may be one of the poorest ball clubs in 
Japan.  Because the team reportedly has a low salary benchmark above 
which it refuses to go, the Carp tend to rarely negotiate with free 
agents or sign high-priced foreign players.

Unable or unwilling to purchase any high-profile players, the Carp 
have invested their meager funds in developing younger players and in 
setting up a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.  Not 
surprisingly, many of the team's foreign players come from Latin America.

Bored with pitchers' duels?  Enjoy watching a lot of action and home 
runs?  If so, the Hiroshima Carp are your team.  Hiroshima's sluggers 
take advantage of their home ballpark's shallow outfield walls.

Hiroshima Municipal Stadium (capacity 32,000) is located across the 
street from the city's most famous landmark, the A-Bomb Dome, which 
is visible just beyond the park's third base bleachers.

The smallest ballpark in Japan, it offers seats that are close to the 
action, a natural grass outfield, bullpens down the foul lines and a 
new high-tech scoreboard.  The shallow outfield fences make this the 
best park for fans seeking to catch a home run ball.  This is a cozy 
old-fashioned ballpark for you to enjoy...but bring your own food, 
there's not much to select from at the park.

Why the team picked a Philadelphia Phillie Phanatic-clone instead of 
a carp for a mascot remains a mystery.  But fans don't seem to care. 
Filling Hiroshima Stadium, Carp fans come in one flavor: rabid. 
Possibly the most energetic in Japan, Hiroshima's cheering section 
repeats one hypnotic cheer for all their players.  It's fun to watch 
and even more fun to join.

Even if you can't see a Carp game in Hiroshima, their fans almost 
always fill the left-field bleachers at all the Tokyo and Osaka 
Central League ballparks.

Acknowledgment: Dan Latham

Hiroshima Toyo Carp Baseball Jersey
Hiroshima Toyo Carp Baseball Jersey
Emacs!

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Gregory M. Lebovitz
Juniper Networks
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