Nippon-Life Stadium, home of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, c.1960
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Nippon-Life Stadium, home of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, c.1960
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View Reddit by thecursedlexus – View Source
Nippon-Life Insurance built the the Stadium in 1950 to host basically anyone who wanted to play there, mainly envisioning it to be used as a secondary field for the Osaka prefectural high school baseball tournament.
Tired of sharing Osaka Stadium with the Nankai Hawks, the Kintetsu Pearls moved there in 1958, the year before they were renamed the Buffaloes.
They played there until 1996, when they moved into the Osaka Dome. The stadium was demolished in 1997. With a monument now standing on the site, along with some of the old sidewalk, which had a pattern of baseball stadiums carved into it.
The last game ever played at the stadium was the finals of the 1997 Japanese Inter-City Amatuer Baseball Tournament.
FTW: The popularity of Baseball in Japan actually predates the Second World War by over 50 years, with the oldest university teams tracing their roots back to the late 1880s, and some high schools even further back. The oldest (continueos) pro team, the Yomiuri Giants, was founded in 1934.
Awesome view, needs more Godzilla.