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Monday, September 19, 2016

Hiroshima Carp !! A moving story



What is Hiroshima Carp ?

Hiroshima Carp might not be so famous in the world.

But I think the team is very passionate, and recovered from many difficulties. And now, Carp is very popular among the Japanese people.

So, I would like to explain about the great points of Hiroshima Carp.


First of all, Hiroshima Carp is one of the professional baseball teams in Japan.

The team has the proficient history.

The team was born in 1950 just after the atomic bomb.

Just after the atomic bomb, Hiroshima city lost everything.

Of course, the citizens in Hiroshima were at a loss to live. 

They lost their house, family, money, friends and so on.

But some of the people in Hiroshima proposed that they established the professional baseball team in Hiroshima to make the citizens full of vigor. 

They thought that there was nothing other than the professional baseball to make them full of energy.

At that time, there were some strong teams in Japan like Yomiuri Giants, Hanshin Tigers. These teams had much funds to run the company and their teams very well.

On the other hand, Hiroshima citizens didn’t have enough money to establish the team. That’s why they came to a deadlock, but one of them came up with a good idea, the idea was to collect money from the people in Hiroshima city to make team. 

Then, they prepared the huge barrel in front of the Hiroshima station, and passerby put money into the barrel. That’s how they could collect the money to establish the team, but it was not abundant. 

However, the idea was said to be successful.

They managed to make the team, and they named the team ‘Carp’. The reason why the team was named Carp is said to be that carp is very strong fish, Hiroshima city recovered from the tragedy of atomic bomb. Of course, the city was very strong like Carp.

But it always faced many problems, especially in terms of budget.
In addition, the team was very weak, Hiroshima was always at the 5th or 6th place in the central league. (The League consists of 6 teams.)

In order to be the top of the league, they practiced, trained very much. The training of the team was said to be hardest in Japan at that time.

In spite of hard training, every year the team was said to be not necessary in the Central League.

But, the team had the chance to become the champion in 1975 first time, and at last, Hiroshima became the champion in the central league. It was the first time for them. 




Hiroshima Carp was the kinds of the symbol concerning recover from the atomic bomb for the people in Hiroshima. 

Almost all of the citizens in Hiroshima were greatly delighted at the first time champion.

Since then Hiroshima had become the champion 6 times until 1991.

But, after that, the team had faced the many kinds of difficulties. 

The rule concerning move of players to the other team was changed after that. The rule is that players who was registered on the list of first team more than 10 years can move to the other teams. The rule is very advantageous for the team which has abundant funds. It is the rule of “Free Agency”. When the player uses this right, the player talk with the team which he wants to move to. If the team says it is OK for him to join the team, he can move to the team.

So, many famous players went into Yomiuri Giants, as a result, the team was getting stronger very much. On the other hand, Hiroshima became not so strong again.
From 1992 to 2015, Hiroshima couldn’t become the champion. And it was always in 5th or 6th place.

During that, many famous players went out from Hiroshima.
Especially in 2007, after the season, two main force players left Hiroshima Carp.

Takahiro Arai (Cleanup batter)
Hiroki Kuroda (Ace pitcher)

Hiroki Kuroda went to Major League Baseball. He couldn’t give up his dream playing in USA.

After he declared moving to USA, the fun of Carp were very sad, but they hoped his success in Major League.

At first, he started his career as the Major League baseball player in Los Angels Dodgers. Of course he got excellent results these terms, so, during the play in Dodgers, he got the offer from New York Yankees, and moved to the team.

After that, he played very well, and became one of the most important pitcher of Yankees.

But, 2014, he declared that he returned to Hiroshima in spite of huge amount of money offered by the other team(It was reported 18million dollars).

Actually he denied the other Major League’s team’s offer(18million dollars), and decided to come back to Carp 3.9million dollars.

He said that he wanted to help Carp to become the champion before he finished his career someday. Kuroda said that “Because of Carp, I have been able to be successful as the professional baseball player.”

In addition to Kuroda, Takahiro Arai returned to Carp also from Hanshin Tigers this year.
The fun of the team were very delighted and moved by his decision.

10th September 2016, Hiroshima Carp won the Yomiuri Giants and became the champion of the Central League in Japan at last, of course because of two great players, Kuroda and Arai. After the game, they moved to cry. Their tears were very beautiful.
It was the first time in 25 years for Hiroshima to be the top of the League.  

In my opinion, it is very great for the regional team to become the champion beating many strong teams, without getting good players from the other teams.