For years, the Nippon Ham Fighters have played in the shadow of their Tokyo Dome roommates, the Yomiuri Giants. While the Kyojin have won 28 pennants in five decades, the Fighters have only captured two Pacific League flags. Not surprisingly, Giants games are often standing-room-only affairs while Nippon Ham struggles to attract fans. History has much to do with how the two teams are viewed today.

Originally named the Senators, the franchise that evolved into the Fighters was founded in 1946. Of no relation to the earlier ball club (1936-39) that carried the same name, the second Senators played reasonably well for an expansion franchise, reaching fifth place in an eight-team league with a 47-58 record. Outfielder Hiroshi Oshita led the league with 20 home runs while ranking second with 74 RBIs that year while pitcher Yoshiichiro Shiraki topped the circuit in wins (30-22).

The following year, the Senators changed their name to the Tokyu Flyers, then to Kyei Flyers in 1948, and back to Tokyu Flyers in 1949. Despite the team's identity crisis, the ball club played pretty consistently, averaging around a .450 winning percentage every year until the end of the decade. Shiraki continued leading the Flyers pitching staff while Oshita came within eight RBIs of a triple crown in 1947 (.315, 17 home runs and 63 RBIs).

Joining the newly founded Pacific League in 1950 with three other established ball clubs and three expansion franchises, the Flyers posted a league-worst 4.52 team ERA and finished sixth (51-69), 32.5 games behind the first-place Mainichi Orions. Even though Oshita won the first PL batting crown (.339), the Tokyu compiled a team .256 average (fourth in the league).

In 1951, Oshita earned the batting (.383) and home run (26) crowns but to no avail. With lackluster pitching and little offense backing their slugger up, the Flyers remained in sixth place (38-56). At the end of the year, Oshita joined the Nishitetsu Lions.

Remaining near the bottom of the PL standings for the next several years, it wasn't until 1959 that team (renamed the Toei Flyers in 1954) finally posted a winning season. While pitcher Masayuki Dobashi posted 27 wins Rookie of the Year Isao Harimoto sparked the Flyers offense, leading the team in home runs and RBIs.

Throughout most of the 1960s, Harimoto was the Flyers' offense. From 1959-67, he led the team every year in home runs and RBIs, and from 1960-74, he compiled the highest average on the ball club every year except 1971, winning seven batting titles along the way.

After a miserable 1960 season (52-78), future Hall of Fame skipper Shigeru Mizuhara took over the team and immediately turned the Flyers around. Though compiling a franchise-best 83-52 record in 1961, Toei finished in second place, 2.5 games behind the pennant winning Nankai Hawks. While Dobashi picked up thirty wins and led the pitching staff to a 2.39 ERA, Harimoto picked up his first batting crown (.336) while leading the Flyers to a .264 team average. Both their hitting and pitching led the league.

After that heartbreak season, the Flyers came back in 1962 and won their first pennant (78-52). Though their hitting slightly faltered, Toei's pitching (a league-best 2.42 team ERA) gave them the edge over the power-hitting Hawks. But entering the Japan Series, it was the Flyers batting that would be tested against Hanshin's amazing pitching (team 2.03 ERA). Falling behind two games to zero, Toei fought the third match out to a fourteen-inning 2-2 draw and swept the next four games in a row.

Making five appearances, twice as a starter and three times in relief, pitcher Dobashi shared the series MVP with catcher Masayuki Tanemo who compiled five RBIs while batting .357. Though the Fighters later won a second PL pennant, they never again emerged Japan Series champions.

While the Flyers remained competitive for the next five years, their weakening pitching slowly pulled the team down. By 1968, the year after manager Mizuhara left the ball club, Harimoto had earned his third batting crown while infielder Katsuo Osugi took over as the team's top clean-up hitter. While the two led the Flyers to a team .248 average with 118 home runs (their highest total to that point), their worst-in-the-league pitching dropped Toei into the cellar (51-79).

Entering a brief period of turmoil in which the team changed its name to the to the Nittaku Home Flyers (1973), one of Japan's leading sausage makers bought the ball club and renamed them the Nippon Ham Fighters in 1974. But after dropping into the cellar that year (49-75), both Harimoto and Osugi had had enough. The batting champion moved to the Yomiuri Giants while the slugger fled to the Swallows.

In an attempt to fill the offensive gap, the Fighters came to rely on gaijin (foreign) sluggers more than any other Japanese team. From 1976-97, gaijin led the team in home runs all but two years, and tied for the lead with a Japanese hitter in two other seasons, while also usually leading the team in batting and home runs.

Under manager Keiji Osawa (1976-83), the Fighters made a slow climb back to respectability and, in 1979, they earned their first of five-straight winning seasons.

Though going 31-31 in the first half of the 1981 season, Nippon Ham clinched a second-half playoff berth with a final 68-54 record. Earning both the home run (44) and RBI (108) crowns, designated hitter Tony Solaita powered the Fighters offense past the Orions, enabling Nippon Ham to earn their second franchise pennant. Facing the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series, the Fighters won two of the first three games, but blew the next three matches to surrender the championship to the Kyojin.

As their pitching progressively worsened, the Fighters embarked on a slow decline, eventually reaching the cellar in 1984 with a 44-73 record and 13 ties while the Nippon Ham mound crew compiled a 4.98. For a decade, erratic pitching left the team close to the bottom of the PL standings.

But in 1993 Osawa returned to the Fighters and, with the help of ace starter Yukihiro Nishizaki (11-9, 2.20 ERA) and slugger Matt Winters (35 home runs, 87 RBIs), led the Fighters to a strong second-place 71-52 finish, one game behind the Lions. But as their top pitcher and slugger slumped the following season, Nippon Ham dropped back to sixth place (46-79), prompting the team to replace Osawa with former Hankyu Braves skipper Toshiharu Ueda.

One of the best Japanese managers of all time, even Ueda had trouble making the Fighters live up to their name. Pitcher Kip Gross helped improve the team's pitching but since Nippon Ham had become so dependent on their foreign sluggers, when the gaijin slumped through the 1995 season, the Fighters offense looked pretty anemic with a paltry .237 team average. Brought over in the middle of the 1995 season, Bernardo Brito offered enough fireworks (.313, 21 home runs in 56 games) to keep the Ham out of the cellar. Finishing in fourth-place, 22 games behind pace-setting Orix, the Fighters compiled a 59-68 record.

Though he slowed down a bit in his second year (.253, 29 home runs), Brito lifted the team's offense while Kip Gross (17-9, 3.62 ERA) stayed consistent and Nishizaki rebounded with a sterling performance, going 14-7 and posting a 2.87 ERA. But citing a family crisis (both his wife and daughter had become involved with the "Moonies"), Ueda went on a leave of absence and missed the last month of the 1996 season.

Though the Fighters were neck-and-neck with the BlueWave at the time, Ueda's departure sent Nippon Ham into a tailspin, eventually finishing the season in second place (68-58), seven games behind Orix.

But with Brito gone and Nishizaki ailing, their momentum had disappeared before the 1997 season had even begun. Ueda returned and the Fighters got good performances from foreign sluggers Nigel Wilson and Jerry Brooks, but the pitching staff fell apart, compiling a team 4.18 ERA. Though Gross pitched well for most of the season, in August he was a attacked by a drunken mob. Suffering a cracked rib, he pitched unspectacularly for the rest of the season. Finishing their schedule before any other team, the Fighters compiled a fourth-place 63-71 record.

Though Nippon Ham opted to keep their three regular foreign players after the 1997 season, they traded Nishizaki to Seibu after the season. Pitching remains the Fighters' weak area, and if they ever hope to outshine their fellow Tokyo Dome residents, Nippon Ham will have to work on building a mound staff that can stay consistent from year to year.