+-----------+---------------+
| Years | Team |
+-----------+---------------+
| 1936-1946 | Hankyu |
| 1947-1988 | Hankyu Braves |
| 1989-1990 | Orix Braves |
| 1991- | Orix BlueWave |
+-----------+---------------+
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
| Years | Team | Became |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
| 1936-1936 | Dai-Tokyo | L |
| 1937-1940 | Lion | As |
| 1941-1945 | Asahi | Pa |
| 1946-1946 | Pacific | TR1 |
| 1947-1947 | Taiyo Robins | TR |
| 1948-1949 | Taiyo Robins | SR |
| 1950-1952 | Shochiku Robins | TSR |
| 1950-1952 | Taiyo Whales | TSR |
| 1953-1954 | Taiyo-Shochiku Robins | TW |
| 1955-1977 | Taiyo Whales | YTW |
| 1978-1992 | Yokohama Taiyo Whales | YBS |
| 1992- | Yokohama BayStars | |
+-----------+-----------------------+--------+
Note that Yokohama is made up of the merger of Shochiku Robins and Taiyo Whales, the Taiyo Whales being a new team in 1950. The kanji for "Taiyo" in the two "Taiyo Robins" and "Taiyo Whales" are all three different (太陽, 大陽, and 大洋 respectively - if your system supports Kanji).
Hope this helps clear some things up until I find the time to present all of this in a better format.
This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
A number of things are very disconcerting, however. For one, Orix is painfully bad - ha ha. But more puzzling is that in my history books from the mid 1980s and '90s, there is no mention of the BlueWave. The BayStars seem to be new to me as well.
All of this may just be a result of my poor reading, but even so, I would appreciate a condensed history on the establishment of the Japanese teams and any changes the franchises may have experienced. Such an explanation would be greatly appreciated and clear up some of my confusion.
Benjamin Watanabe