Kinko (Nagoya 1936-1940)
The Nagoya Baseball Club, whose parent
company
was Nagoya Shinbun (It was combined
with
Shin Aichi Shinbun later), was formed
provisionally
on January 10, 1936. The official kick-off
was February 28. Their team name was
Nagoya
Kinko. I think we can say this Kinko
is a
nickname. Its origin was of course
from the
golden dolphin-like fish which were
traditionally
used to decorate the roof-ridge of
a Japanese
castle. However, no document about
this nickname
was found.
The advisor of the team was Mr. Genzaburo
Okada. He was well known in the baseball
field and knew about American Baseball
very
well. He became the manager of the
team.
He may have been the first to propose
that
baseball teams should have nicknames.
The rival company of Nagoya Shinbun,
Shinaichi
Shinbun, also formed a Dai Nihon Baseball
Association Nagoya branch on January
15,
but they decided not to have a nickname.
So, the two teams were called Nagoya
Kinko
team and the Nagoya team.
Nagoya Kinko had a practice game with
Tokyo
Giants from February 9 to 11, just
before
they left for a visit to America. They
won
one game but lost two.
In 1941 Kinko was combined with the
Tokyo
Senators because most of the main players
were called into the army. It was a
merger.
That meant that Nagoya Kinko, one of
the
founder teams of Japan Professional
Baseball
Association, disappeared.
|
