Thursday, April 21, 2016

More Memories Of Uniforms - Lions Edition

I thought I'd knock out another one of these while I wait for my 1st Version set to get delivered...

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

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #076

1950 Nishi Nippon Pirates (2 different)

1950 JBR 87A
1950-51 Home

2011 BBM Lions Classic #03
1950 Away

1951-52 Home (2 different)

1951-52 Away (2 different)

1952-54 Home

1952-54 Away

2009 BBM Lions Memorial #10

1954-59 Home

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #027
1954-57 Away

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #032
1958-59 Away

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #14

1960-61 Home

2009 BBM Lions Memorial #03

1960-61 Away
2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #102

1962-65 Home

1964 Morinaga Standup

1962-65 Away

2009 BBM Lions Memorial #06

1966-68 Home

1966-68 Away

~1966 Mel Bailey Postcard

1968-69 Home

1968-69 Away

1970 Home

2011 BBM Hometown Heroes #055

1970 Away

1971-72 Home

2006 BBM Draft Stories #014

1971-72 Away

1973-75 Home

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #84

1973-75 Away

2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #122

1973-74 Home

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #83

1973-74 Away

1976 Home (2 different)

1975/76 Calbee #703


1976 Away (2 different)

1975/76 Calbee #911
1975/76 Calbee #978

1977-78 Home

2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #124

1977-78 Away

1978 Yamakatsu JY6

1979 Home

1979 Calbee "July Best" #11

1979 Away

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #22

1980-00 Home

1995 BBM #66

1980-95 Away

1991 BBM #219

1996-01 Away

1997 BBM #125

2001-03 Home

2002 BBM 1st Version #261

2002-03 Away

2014 BBM Brilliant Teenagers #126

2002-03 "3rd"

2003 BBM 1st Version #BN12

2002-08 Away

2002 BBM 2nd Version #700

2004-08 Home

2005 BBM 1st Version #7

2007 Alternate

2008 BBM 1st Version #484

2007 Lions Classic

2008 Alternate

2008 Lions Classic

2008 BBM Lions Classic #16

2009-14 Home

2010 BBM 1st Version #327
2009-14 Away

2010 BBM 1st Version #562
2009 Training Home

2009 BBM 1st Version #011
2009 Training Away

2009 BBM 1st Version #012

2009 Lions Classic

2009 BBM Lions Classic #17

2010 Lions Classic

2010 BBM Lions 60th Anniversary #86

2011 Lions Classic

2011 BBM Lions Classic #11

2011 Alternate

2012 BBM Lions #L85

2012 Alternate (2 different)

2012 Lions "Victory" #49

2012 Lions Classic

2012 Calbee #158

2013 Lions Classic

2013-14 Saitama

2014 Jungle Taisei

2015 Calbee #ES05

2014 Lions Classic

2014 BBM Impact Of Lions Blue #08
2015- Home

2015 BBM 1st Version #126

2015- Away

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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