Yamato Baseball Club

The Yamato Baseball Club was a Japanese baseball team in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL). Based in Tokyo, the franchise was founded as the Korakuen Eagles before the 1937 season and was dissolved before the 1944 season.

Yamato Baseball Club
Information
League	Japanese Baseball League
Ballpark	Korakuen Stadium
Year established	1937
Year folded	1944
Former name(s)	Korakuen Eagles (1937–1939) Kurowashi (1940–1941)
Colors	Light blue and yellow
Ownership	Dai-Nippon Beer (1939–1941) Yamato Ironworks (1942–1943)
Manager	Shigeo Mori (1938–1939)[1] Kazutaka Terauchi (1940–1942) Hisanori Karita (1942–1943) Toshio Kojima (1943)[2]

Harris McGalliard and Tadashi Kameda of the Eagles in 1937 or 1938.

Franchise history

Korakuen Eagles

In 1937, catcher Harris McGalliard (better known as Bucky Harris), won the JBL Most Valuable Player Award[3] with a batting average of .285 and 25 RBI (in 39 games).

Kurowashi

The team was owned by Ryutaro Takahashi of Dai-Nippon Beer from 1939 to 1941. For the 1940 and 1941 seasons, the team changed its name to Kurowashi (Black Eagles in Japanese; in October 1940, responding to rising hostility toward the West due to World War II, the league outlawed the use of English words in Japanese baseball).[4]

Tadashi Kameda pitched two no-hitters for Kurowashi, on March 18, 1940, against the Lion Baseball Club, and on April 14, 1941, against the Osaka Tigers.[5]

Yamato

Kenkichi Saeki, president of Yamato Ironworks, purchased the team in 1942. As a result, the team changed its name to the Yamato Baseball Club.[4]

Dissolution

During its nine seasons of existence (including split fall and spring campaigns in 1937–1938), the franchise only had two winning campaigns and never finished higher than third in the JBL standings. (They usually finished in the second division.) As a result, the team was dissolved before the 1944 season (along with another JBL team, the Nishitetsu Baseball Club).

Team statistics

Year	Team name	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties	Win/Loss Percentage	Standings	Games behind
1937	Eagles	105	12	44	0	.214	8/8	30
			28	19	2	.596	3/8	10.5
1938		75	18	15	2	.545	4/9	10
			15	20	5	.429	7/9	13
1939		96	29	65	2	.309	9/9	38
1940	Kurowashi	104	46	54	4	.460	6/8	28
1941		85	28	56	1	.333	7/8	34
1942	Yamato	105	27	68	10	.284	8/8	43.5
1943		84	35	43	6	.449	6/8	17.5
Overall record		654	238	384	34	.388

References

1. "Eagles," BR Bullpen. Retrieved Aug. 22, 2020.
2. "Yamato," BR Bullpen. Retrieved Aug. 22, 2020.
3. Johnson, Daniel E. (2006). Japanese Baseball: A Statistical Handbook. McFarland. p. 18. ISBN 978-0786428410.
4. "Kurowashi," Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed Mar. 7, 2015.
5. Lammers, Dirk."Kameda tosses first of 2 JBL no-nos, 79 years ago today," NoNoHitters.com. Retrieved Aug. 22, 2020.