Following the 1949 season, the eight team Japanese Baseball League transformed into Nippon Professional Baseball with 15 teams split between the Central (8 teams) and Pacific (7 teams) Leagues. Two of the new teams would play in Fukuoka - the Nishi Nippon Pirates of the Central League and the Nishitetsu Clippers of the Pacific League. Neither team was particularly successful and after the season the two teams merged to form the Nishitetsu Lions who would replace the Clippers in the Pacific League. (I've been a bit confused on one point with this - it appears to me that Nishi Nippon and Nishitetsu are actually the same company so it would appear that one company had owned two teams in 1950.) Following the 1972 season, Nishitetsu sold the team to the Fukuoka Baseball Company who essentially sold the naming rights for the team to a golf resort so the team became known as the Taiheiyo Club Lions. Before the 1977 season, the naming rights were sold to the lighter manufacturer Crown Gas Lighter and the team became the Crown Lighter Lions. After 1978, however, the Fukuoka Baseball Company sold the team to the Seibu corporation who moved them to a new stadium in Tokorozawa, Saitama and renamed the team the Seibu Lions. In 2008 the team added the prefecture name to the team name and the team became the Saitama Seibu Lions.
I'm going to include the Nishi Nippon Pirates uniforms here since they were only around for one year.
As before I am using The History Of Uniform and Professional Baseball Uniforms Encyclopedia 1936-2013 as my primary sources as well as Yakyu Baka's Uniform posts. (I may not have previously pointed out that HOU was published in 2005 so obviously it is no help for the post-2005 uniforms.)
1950 Nishitetsu Clippers Home
1950 Nishitetsu Clippers Away
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| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #076 |
1950 Nishi Nippon Pirates (2 different)
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| 1950 JBR 87A |
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| 2011 BBM Lions Classic #03 |
1951-52 Home (2 different)
1951-52 Away (2 different)
1952-54 Home
1952-54 Away
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| 2009 BBM Lions Memorial #10 |
1954-59 Home
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| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #027 |
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| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #032 |
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #14 |
1960-61 Home
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| 2009 BBM Lions Memorial #03 |
1960-61 Away
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| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #102 |
1962-65 Home
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| 1964 Morinaga Standup |
1962-65 Away
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| 2009 BBM Lions Memorial #06 |
1966-68 Home
1966-68 Away
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| ~1966 Mel Bailey Postcard |
1968-69 Home
1968-69 Away
1970 Home
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| 2011 BBM Hometown Heroes #055 |
1970 Away
1971-72 Home
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| 2006 BBM Draft Stories #014 |
1971-72 Away
1973-75 Home
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #84 |
1973-75 Away
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| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #122 |
1973-74 Home
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #83 |
1973-74 Away
1976 Home (2 different)
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| 1975/76 Calbee #703 |
1976 Away (2 different)
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| 1975/76 Calbee #911 |
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| 1975/76 Calbee #978 |
1977-78 Home
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| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #124 |
1977-78 Away
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| 1978 Yamakatsu JY6 |
1979 Home
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| 1979 Calbee "July Best" #11 |
1979 Away
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #22 |
1980-00 Home
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| 1995 BBM #66 |
1980-95 Away
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| 1991 BBM #219 |
1996-01 Away
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| 1997 BBM #125 |
2001-03 Home
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| 2002 BBM 1st Version #261 |
2002-03 Away
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| 2014 BBM Brilliant Teenagers #126 |
2002-03 "3rd"
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| 2003 BBM 1st Version #BN12 |
2002-08 Away
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| 2002 BBM 2nd Version #700 |
2004-08 Home
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| 2005 BBM 1st Version #7 |
2007 Alternate
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| 2008 BBM 1st Version #484 |
2007 Lions Classic
2008 Alternate
2008 Lions Classic
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| 2008 BBM Lions Classic #16 |
2009-14 Home
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| 2010 BBM 1st Version #327 |
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| 2010 BBM 1st Version #562 |
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| 2009 BBM 1st Version #011 |
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| 2009 BBM 1st Version #012 |
2009 Lions Classic
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| 2009 BBM Lions Classic #17 |
2010 Lions Classic
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| 2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #86 |
2011 Lions Classic
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| 2011 BBM Lions Classic #11 |
2011 Alternate
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| 2012 BBM Lions #L85 |
2012 Alternate (2 different)
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| 2012 Lions "Victory" #49 |
2012 Lions Classic
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| 2012 Calbee #158 |
2013 Lions Classic
2013-14 Saitama
2014 Jungle Taisei
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| 2015 Calbee #ES05 |
2014 Lions Classic
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| 2014 BBM Impact Of Lions Blue #08 |
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| 2015 BBM 1st Version #126 |
2015- Away
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| 2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories #127 |
2015 Alternate Yellow
Notes:
I'm not sure why there would be uniforms with "Lions" on them dated 1950 when I didn't think the name change came until 1951 but there's obviously something going on that I don't fully understand.
There's a bunch of discrepancies between PBUE and HOU. The biggest one is that PBUE lists two uniforms in the 1951-52 time frame that HOU does not. For the most part I've gone with the PBUE listings.
If I didn't have the card with that 2011 Alternate that Hiroyuki Nakajima's wearing, I wouldn't know it existed - somehow both PBUE and YakyuBaka missed it.
There's a lot of subtle differences between uniforms. The 1979 uniforms appear to only differ from the 1980 ones in that the later ones had belts. And I'm not sure there's a difference between the Saitama alternate jerseys from 2013-14 and the away jerseys worn from 2015 on.
I'm not positive that the two "training" uniforms from 2009 are really uniforms only worn in training camp. But the only cards I've seen that include those uniforms are cards of new Lions players in the 2009 1st Version set - photos that had to have been taken during 2009 spring training.
UPDATE 6/29/16 - Added card illustrating 2002-03 Away uniform (2014 BBM Brilliant Teenagers Hiroyuki Nakajima)
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