Card Of The Week March 20

I wanted to highlight a little of Sendai's baseball history this week and mention that the Lotte Orions played there in the mid-1970's, including their Nippon Series winning 1974 season. I was surprised, however, to discover that they did not play their home games in the Series in Sendai, but rather at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo. I suppose this was due to Korakuan seating more people than Miyagi Stadium but that still has to suck. And it's not like Korakuen hadn't just hosted the Series the previous nine years.

On the other hand, the Orions clinched the Series by winning Game Six in Nagoya anyway, so it wasn't like they would have been home anyway. They did complete their sweep of the Hankyu Braves in the Pacific League playoffs at home in Sendai. (The Pacific League played a split season from 1973-82, where the first half winner would play the second half winner in a best of 5 series.) The winning pitcher in the deciding game for both the Pacific League Championship and the Nippon Series was Choji Murata. Here's his 1990 Lotte card (#56):