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The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu ("Middle of Japan") region of Japan. The team is in the Central League, and although they have had little success in the playoffs, they are still known as one of the most powerful teams in Nippon Professional Baseball. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series. They have a 2009 Nintendo Wii children's game based on the team called ''Doala de Wii''. ==Franchise history== The Chunichi Dragons were formed in 1936 as the Nagoya Club. The franchise was acquired by ''Chunichi Shimbun'' in 1946.〔("Chubu Nihon," ) Baseball-Reference.com. Accessed March 8, 2015.〕 They became the "Dragons" in 1947, but experimented with a number of variations on their team name before settling on Chunichi Dragons in 1954. The Dragons' most famous player toiled for the team from 1936–1958. Michio Nishizawa entered the league as a 15-year-old pitcher. He, developed into a 20-game winner by 1939. Nishizawa's most memorable pitching feats occurred in 1942. On May 24 of that year, Nishizawa pitched a remarkable twenty-eight complete innings, totalling 311 pitches in a 4-4 tie against the Taiyō Whales at Korakuen Stadium. Later that year, he tossed his first and only no-hitter, accomplishing the feat against the Hankyu team. Despite a career ERA of 2.22, the heavy workload combined with injuries sustained during two years of service in World War II forced him to switch positions to first base, and later the outfield. After early struggles with the bat, Nishizawa developed into a feared hitter. He swatted a then-league record 46 home runs in 1950. His best season came in 1952, when he led the league in both batting average and runs batted in. Altogether, Nishizawa appeared in five All Star Games and won the Best Nine Award three times. Forkball-specialist Shigeru Sugishita dominated the Central League for the Dragons from 1950–1955, winning more than 30 games twice (winning at least 23 games each season), and garnering three Eiji Sawamura Awards. Led by Sugishita and an aging Nishizawa, the Dragons won their first Japan Series championship in 1954, defeating the Nishitetsu Lions 4-games-to-3. Nishizawa went on to manage the team from 1964–1967; he was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 and his number 15 jersey is one of only two retired by the team. In 1974, the team won the Central League title for the first time in 20 years, and this victory stopped the Yomiuri Giants from winning the league for their tenth consecutive year. Another league title came in 1999, and in that year, Dragons set a record by winning 11 consecutive games at the opening of the season. In the 2004 season they reached the Japan Series, but lost to the Seibu Lions, the Pacific League Champions, and in 2006 they lost the Japan Series to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. At that point the team had won the Central League pennant seven times since 1950, but their last Japan Series victory was in 1954, the longest such drought in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chunichi Dragons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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