Taiyo Whales

Japan Series Titles: 1 (1960)

Central League Pennants: 1 (1960)

Franchise Players: Noboru Aota, Noboru Akiyama, Makoto Matsubara, Masaji Hiramatsu, Carlos Ponce, Kazuhiko Endo

The Taiyo Whales were a long-time member of Japan's Central League. They were founded on November 22, 1949, as the Maruha Baseball Club, by the Maruha Corporation as one of the new clubs as Nippon Pro Baseball went to a two-league format in the following season. Their name was quickly changed to the Taiyo Whales and continued (with a slight break) in the league until 1977 when they became the Yokohama Taiyo Whales. In 1953 and 1954 they were known as the Taiyo-Shochiku Robins after a merger with the Shochiku Robins, which failed to improve their performance. In their 27 years of play, the Whales won just one pennant in the six-team Central League.

Managers

• 1950: Tairiku Watanabe
• 1951: Haruyasu Nakajima
• 1951: Giichi Arima
• 1952: Tokuro Konishi
• 1955: Isamu Fujii
• 1956-1958: Masami Sakohata
• 1959: Shigeo Mori
• 1960-1967: Osamu Mihara
• 1968-1972: Kaoru Betto
• 1973: Noboru Aota
• 1974: Takeshi Miyazaki
• 1975-1976: Noboru Akiyama
• 1977: Kaoru Betto

New Team	Taiyo Whales 1950 - 1952	Succeeded by Taiyo-Shochiku Robins
Preceded by Taiyo-Shochiku Robins	Taiyo Whales 1955 - 1977	Succeeded by Yokohama Taiyo Whales