A lot of foreign fans may be most familiar with the Fighters as the team that every year gives away free tickets on

Owned by the Nippon Ham meat packing company, the Fighters were originally known as the Senators (1946) and Flyers (1947-73). Instead of a mascot which evokes a fighting image (a samurai with a bat?) or reminds one of sausages (a samurai with a three-foot wiener?), fans at home games can watch a fluorescent pink pterodactyl ride an undersized bicycle. Often that's about as thrilling as Fighters games get.

Sharing the Tokyo Dome with the more popular Yomiuri Giants, Nippon Ham games are seldom crowded affairs. With only one pennant in the last twenty years, it's no wonder.

A bottom-feeding team for most of the last five decades, the Fighters have produced few high quality domestic stars. One exception, seven-time batting champion Isao Harimoto played the first seventeen years of his career (1959-81) with the team and collected a record 3085 hits while compiling a lifetime .319 batting average with 504 home runs. For the last two decades, however, the Fighters have had to heavily rely on imported sluggers.

The Fighters do have promise, however, and manager Toshiharu Ueda nearly led them to a pennant in 1996. A year later they foundered and finished tied for fourth place. Entering what may be his final season, first baseman Hiromitsu Ochiai (career .313, 508 home runs) offers experience and leadership, but a dwindling number of hits.

Yoshinori Ueda (.300 average in 1997), gold glove-winner Tatsuya Ide (27 steals), and import Jerry Brooks form one of the better outfields in the league while third baseman Atsushi Kataoka also won a gold glove and helped with the batting chores. Leading the league in wins (1995-96) Kip Gross leads the pitching staff. Although the team has no regular catcher and the pitching staff is prone to trouble, the Fighters are a generally solid team.