Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

In June of Nippon Professional Baseball's 2004 season, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave announced that, due to financial difficulties, the two teams planned to merge into one for the start of the 2005 season. Both teams were in the Pacific League (PL), and a merger between the two would result in a team imbalance with the PL's opposing league, the Central League (CL). As a large number of players were expected to lose their jobs when the merger was finalized, the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) organized a players' strike in an attempt to force the postponement of the merger for at least one year. When team officials definitively announced that a one-year freeze on the merger was impossible, the players conducted a two-day strike on September 18–19, 2004. With the threat of further strikes looming, team representatives agreed to ease the rules of entry for new teams into NPB and that one would be allowed to join the following season.

That same month, Takafumi Horie, president of the Internet services company Livedoor, established a new professional baseball team and applied for team ownership with NPB, hoping to fill the void left by the merger of the BlueWave and the Buffaloes. Horie intended the team to be composed of players who were left jobless after the merger and planned for it to be based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.[2] One week later a second Internet services company, Tokyo-based Rakuten, also submitted a formal application to Japanese professional baseball to form a team. Like Horie, Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani also expressed a desire to locate his new team in Sendai.[3]

In early October, the public screening process to select one of the two companies and allow them form a new NPB team began. Both Livedoor and Rakuten were given an hour and a half to discuss their team and budget propositions before a panel of five Japanese baseball executives. The panel consisted of Central League chairman Hajime Toyokura and the head officials of the Yomiuri Giants, the Yokohama BayStars, the Seibu Lions and the Chiba Lotte Marines. The screening standards include the adequacy of the applications, the prospective continuity and stability of the planned baseball teams, the prospective financial standings of the applicants and planned teams, and their planned baseball facilities.[4] As screenings were held weekly through October,[4] more details about each potential new team emerged. Rakuten, announced Marty Kuehnert and Yasushi Tao as general manager and manager, respectively, of their newly named "Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles" baseball club.[5][6][7] The team is named after the Japanese golden eagle, a large, endangered, predatory bird found in the mountains of Tōhoku.[8] Upon registering the trademark for their name, Rakuten learned that Livedoor had registered an "eagles" trademark one day earlier. Livedoor allowed Rakuten to use the name, however, after it placed second behind "phoenix" in an internet poll that the company was using to determine the name of their team.[9]

A telephone survey conducted by Kyodo News during the selection period of 300 people living in the Tōhoku region indicated that Livedoor was the early fan favorite to win the right to start a new team in Sendai. In the survey, forty percent of the respondents supported Livedoor's bid compared to only seven percent supporting Rakuten.[10] Rakuten, however, was considered the more likely of the two companies to be chosen by NPB. Rakuten president Mikitani had extensive connections in established Japanese business circles and already operated another sports team, the soccer club Vissel Kobe in Japan's J.League. On November 2, NPB selected Rakuten over Livedoor to create a new Pacific League team to be based in Sendai. The team would play its home games in Miyagi Stadium, which was being renovated by Rakuten.[11] It was the first time a new team, excluding cases of mergers or acquisitions, joined NPB since the creation of the now-defunct Takahashi Unions in the Pacific League in 1954.[6]

Team owner Mikitani was looking for someone that didn't have a relationship with the old Japanese business community to run the team. In hiring Kuhnert, NPB's first foreign general manager, he hoped to bring "new blood" and "innovative ideas" to Japanese baseball. Kuhnert's approach to the team was analytic and sabermetrics-minded. He was known for his criticisms of Japanese baseball's traditionally intense training methods and hired a like-minded managers and coaches. The Eagles' budget for the year was $22 million, the lowest in NPB.[12]

Instead of allowing the Eagles to draft players from all 11 NPB teams in an expansion draft,[13] the team had to construct their roster from the 107 players left over from the dissolved Kintetsu and original Orix teams during a special dispersal draft held on November 8. Furthermore, Orix was allowed to select 25 players that would be protected from the distribution process before the draft, thus giving them preferential signing rights. Included in these selections were all free agents and foreign players. Rakuten was only then allowed to select 20 unprotected players, not including any first- or second-year players. After that, the first- and second-year players were unprotected and Orix and Rakuten alternating selecting 20 more players for the last round of the draft. Of the 40 players the Eagles selected, 17 were pitchers and 23 were position players.[14] The league's decision to employ an unequal dispersal draft to build the Eagles roster was blamed for the team's struggles to come. An expansion draft would have better allowed for the new team to be more competitive. Mikitani believed the draft to be "unfair".[15]

In the draft, Rakuten was able to pick up former Buffaloes outfielder Koichi Isobe.[14] Isobe was left unprotected by Orix as he refused to play for their newly formed team because of their involvement in the merger.[14][16] Despite also voicing that he no intention of playing for the merged team, Orix protected Hisashi Iwakuma, the Kintetsu Buffaloes' pitcher who led the league in wins the previous season. Iwakuma insisted that Orix team president Takashi Koizumi live up to his pledge that he would sincerely listen to the players involved in the merger regarding their futures. After four rounds of talks between Iwakuma and Koizumi, negotiations broke down and the JPBPA was brought in to mediate. Eventually, Orix agreed to trade him to the Eagles in exchange for cash.[17] Rakuten also signed five foreign players before the start of the season to help fill out its debut-season roster.[18]

After winning the first game of their debut season behind starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles lost their second game to the Chiba Lotte Marines, 0–26. The loss tied the 1946 Gold Star record for losing by the highest run differential in Japanese professional baseball history.[19] Following a 6–22 start, just over a month into the season, the Eagles removed Kuehnert as general manager and demoted the head and batting coaches.[20] Eventually it was revealed that there had been friction between Kuehnert and higher-ups, and that he had been denied powers afforded to most general managers, such as being able to attend league or players' association meetings, having input in the budget, and being made a company director.[12] Over the course of the season, the team posted two separate 11-game losing streaks[21] and last place in the PL was ensured after a loss on August 29, a month before the end of the regular season.[22] The Eagles finished 51.5 games out of first place[23] and was the first NPB team in 40 years to lose over 90 games in a single season. As a result, ten players were released,[24] and Tao was dismissed despite being signed to a three-year contract.[21]

In an otherwise disastrous season, one highlight was team's home debut on April 1. A mere five months after being awarded a franchise and without even a preseason game as a dry run, Rakuten ran and operated the game smoothly in front of a packed, newly-named Fullcast Stadium. Isobe hit a home run in the team's first at-bat, and they went on to defeat the Seibu Lions, the defending Japan Series champion, 16–5. It was also was estimated that the economic impact of the team in the Tōhoku region was $300 million in the first year.[25] Furthermore, after the season, the team expected to post a profit of tens of millions of yen instead of the ¥1.5 billion loss that it had projected. Contributing factors were that the average home-game attendance for the year came close to the team's target of 15,000 per game, sales of Eagles' merchandise were strong, and players' performance-based pay was minimal. The team expected to post a loss the next season with plans to spend more than ¥1 billion on enhancing player training and about ¥3 billion on the continuing remodel of Fullcast Stadium.[26] The stadium's off-season renovations expanded its seating capacity to allow for 23,000 spectators in addition to adding a sports bar, press seats, broadcast booths, a lounge, luxury boxes, and additional food concessions.[27]

In an about-face from its nontraditional approach to its inaugural season, Mikitani instead looked to experience to lead the Eagles in its second season when he replaced first-time manager Tao with Hall of Famer and veteran manager Katsuya Nomura,[28] signing him to a three-year contract.[29] Third baseman José Fernández was also acquired from the Seibu Lions in the off-season.[30] The team improved slightly over its first season,[31] and Fernández went on to receive the Eagles' first Best Nine Award in his first season with the team.[32] However, the 2006 season also brought the Eagles' their first no-hit loss,[33] and they still finished last in the Pacific League.[34] At the end of the season, Rakuten drafted pitcher Masahiro Tanaka in the first round of the 2006 amateur high school draft. They were awarded the opportunity to draft Tanaka after winning a four-team lottery against the Yokohama BayStars, the Orix Buffaloes, and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, who also named him as their first-round selection.[35]

The Eagles' first real signs of improvement came during the 2007 season, the team's third. First baseman and designated hitter Takeshi Yamasaki led the league in home runs through May and was named the Pacific League MVP for the month of May, the team's first.[36] Yamasaki, as the top vote-getter overall, went on to be selected by fans to the Pacific League All-Star team for the 2007 All-Star Series. With one of the All-Star games being played at the Eagles' home stadium that year, fans also voted in seven other Rakuten players, including rookie pitcher Tanaka. The Eagles were the first PL team to have eight players selected for the All-Star team since 1978.[37] Nomura was critical of the fans' selections, stating that not all of his players selected were worthy of being named All-Stars.[38] Rakuten finished the season with a losing record, however, for the first time they did not finish the season last, instead finishing fourth.[31] At the end of the season, Yamasaki led the league in both home runs and runs batted in (RBIs) and Tanaka was awarded the Pacific League Rookie of the Year Award.[39][40] In the off-season, the team's president since its inception, Toru Shimada, acquired ownership of the team.[41] Additionally, Nippon Paper acquired the naming rights to Miyagi Stadium, and the park was renamed Kleenex Stadium.[42] The team finished fifth next season, however, Iwakuma finished with the best earned run average (ERA) and most wins in the league after struck by injuries the previous few years.[43][44] At season's end, he was presented with his and the team's first PL Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Eiji Sawamura Awards.[43]

In the 2008–09 offseason, the Eagles extended Nomura's contract to keep him on as manager for one more year.[45] By mid-August of the 2009 season, the team found themselves battling for their first playoff berth.[46] With a win on October 9, Rakuten secured second place in the Pacific League and advanced to the Climax Series.[47] Shimada, however, announced before the start of the playoffs that Nomura still would not return as manager for the following season despite the Eagles advancing to the postseason for the first time in its history.[48] A pair of complete game wins at home both by Iwakuma and Tanaka in the First Stage allowed the Eagles to advance, however, the managerial decision loomed over the 2009 Pacific League Climax Series and Nomura expressed bitterness about the situation after the sweep.[49] Rakuten lost to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in four games in the Climax Series' Second Stage, ending their season. Despite the loss, Nomura praised Sendai's fans and was tossed into the air in celebration by members of both the Eagles and the Fighters.[50]

Rakuten hired American and the former Hiroshima Toyo Carp manager Marty Brown to succeed Nomura. Even though Brown was signed to a two-year contract, he was let go a year later after the Eagles finished the 2010 season in last place.[51] The club looked to Senichi Hoshino next to turn the team around.[52] Before the season started, however, the team allowed Iwakuma to pursue a career in Major League Baseball (MLB) via the posting system. The Oakland Athletics's were awarded exclusive negotiating rights after agreeing to pay a $19.1 million transfer fee to Rakuten, but contract negotiations between the A's and Iwakuma ended without an agreement and he returned to the Eagles. Kazuo Matsui and Akinori Iwamura, both returning from playing stints in MLB, were also added to the roster.[53] Teppei Tsuchiya was also named as the team's first ever captain.[54]

On March 11, 2011, two weeks before the first game of the season, the Tōhoku region was struck by the largest earthquake in the country's history. The quake and the subsequent tsunami devastated the region, including the Eagles' home city of Sendai.[55] The preseason game that Rakuten was playing against the Hanshin Tigers in Akashi, Hyōgo at the time of the event was cancelled after the eighth inning so players and personnel could check on the safety of their friends and families in the area.[56] With the season opener postponed until April 12,[57] the Eagles continued to train in the Kansai region because of the damage to Sendai and Kleenex Stadium.[58] In addition to the Eagles holding fund-raising events,[59] all 12 teams played charity games between April 3 to 4 to help raise money for earthquake relief.[57] The club opened the season at QVC Marine Field against the Marines. Fans displaced by the earthquake were able to watch Rakuten's come-from-behind win on large screens the team set up at 20 refuge sites in Tōhoku.[60] Days later, they hosted their first "home" game at Koshien Stadium while the restoration work to Kleenex Stadium continued.[61] The earthquake had damaged 47 different parts of the stadium, including its lights and outside walls.[60] Baseball returned to Sendai on April 12, when the Eagles played their first game at their home field. An opening ceremony attended by the governor of Miyagi Prefecture Yoshihiro Murai and United States Ambassador John Roos was held before the game and Rakuten went on to win.[62] Furthermore, the final game of the 2011 All-Star Series was switched from Tokyo Dome to Kleenex Stadium, the second time the Eagles hosted the event since 2007.[63]

Rakuten finished the 2011 season in fifth and again missed the playoffs.[64] However, in addition to winning a Golden Glove and a Best Nine award,[65][66] Tanaka was also named PL MVP of the month three times over the course of the season, a first in the Pacific League.[67] After the season, Hisashi Iwakuma left the club and signed a deal with MLB's Seattle Mariners.[68] Starting with the 2012 season, Kazuo Matsui was named team captain.[69] Later that same season, Toru Shimada retired as team president and owner and Yozo Tachibana was hired to replace him as team president and Mikitani was once again appointed as owner.[70] Rakuten went deep into the season as a playoff contender that year, but ultimately missed advancing to the Climax Series by one game and finished fourth.[71]

Before the start of the 2013 season, the Eagles signed former MLB players Casey McGehee and Andruw Jones.[71] During spring training, Tanaka and Matsui played in the 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) with the Japan national baseball team.[72] Because of Tanaka's participation in the WBC so close to the start of the season, it was decided that he would not pitch on Opening Day.[73] Instead, Takahiro Norimoto was selected to be Rakuten's Opening Day starting pitcher, becoming the first rookie start Opening Day in the PL in 55 years.[74] The Eagles finished April in fifth place,[75] however, the next two months saw Tanaka winning consecutive PL MVP of the month awards,[76] helping the club to finish June in second.[75] The team took sole possession of first place in the Pacific League in early July and never relinquished it, winning the Eagles' their first PL pennant.[75] Over the remaining three months of the season, Tanaka continued to win games and finished the season with 24 wins and no losses.[77] He was awarded a record-setting five consecutive monthly MVPs from May to September.[78] As league champions, the Eagles advanced directly to the Final Stage of the Climax Series Final where they defeated the Marines to advance to their first Japan Series.[79] Rakuten defeated the Giants at home in the final game of a seven-game series to win the franchise's first and only Japan Series championship.[80] Starting pitcher Manabu Mima was named the Japan Series MVP after the series,[80] and at the end of the season, Tanaka was presented with the PL MVP and Eiji Sawamura Awards,[77] Norimoto was named the PL Rookie of the Year,[81] and Senichi Hoshino was given the Matsutaro Shoriki Award.[82] In the offseason, Miyagi Stadium's name was changed to Kobo Stadium,[83] and after the increased ticket demand during the 2013 season, an expansion project that increased its maximum seating capacity above 28,000 was completed the next year.[84]

Following the championship-winning season, Masahiro Tanaka left the Eagles via the posting system to play for the New York Yankees, netting the team a $20 million transfer fee in return.[85] Likewise, McGehee also left for MLB, and the team struggled in the years following their departures, finishing last the next season. This disappointing finish, along with back problems that caused him to miss almost two months of the season, prompted manager Senichi Hoshino to resign despite ownership wanting him to return for a fifth season.[86] Rakuten promoted their farm team manager Hiromoto Okubo to manager and named catcher Motohiro Shima the team's new captain for the 2015 season.[87][69] At the end of July, hitting coach Tomio Tashiro abruptly resigned and it was brought to light that owner Hiroshi Mikitani had often been interfering in on-the-field decisions, such as dictating the batting order.[88] After Tashiro's resignation, Mikitani began conferring with field personnel before making any decisions,[89] however the team again finished in last and Okubo resigned at the end of the season.[88]

Masataka Nashida was hired as the next manager, and after a fifth-place finish in 2016, the Eagles returned to the playoffs in 2017, where they defeated the Saitama Seibu Lions in the first stage of the Climax Series. However, they were ousted by the eventual-champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Climax Series Final.

After a slow start to the 2018 campaign Nashida resigned and was replaced by Yosuke Hiraishi, and the Eagles once again finished at the bottom of the Pacific League. The Eagles qualified again for the postseason in 2019, but were defeated again by the Hawks. In the offseason yet another managerial change was made, with Hajime Miki taking over as skipper. However, in a shortened 2020 season the Eagles failed to capture a playoff berth. After the season general manager Kazuhisa Ishii announced that he would assume both managerial and GM duties for the 2021 season, and that Miki would return to his previous post as manager of the second squad.[90]

• 10 – This number is worn by both team mascots, Clutch and Clutchina, and is considered the number of the fan, the 'tenth man' on the field. It is the first retired number in NPB involving a fan, inspired by some teams in other sports (such as football, which retires "12" for the "12th man", or basketball, which retires "6" for the "6th man"). There are ten starting players in the Pacific League as the league uses the designated hitter. The Chiba Lotte Marines has the No. 26 retired in similar fashion (MLB's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has retired No. 26, in similar fashion, for the original owner Gene Autry).
• 77 - Senichi Hoshino

Former:

• Masahiro Tanaka (2014–2020)

Retired:

• Kazuo Fukumori (2008)
• Hisashi Iwakuma (2012–2017)

Japan Series Championship (1): 2013

The Eagles' team color is crimson red, the corporate color of its parent company, Rakuten. Yellow was added as an accent color to represent a golden eagle. The team's logo applies a golden eagle motif to the word "Eagles", which has wings added to its left and right sides. The word "Rakuten" sits at atop in a smaller, simpler font.[91] The winged "E" from this logo also serves as the team's cap insignia. The club's home and away uniforms both include the same crimson caps bearing this insignia. Starting with the 2020 season, '47 supplies the caps for the team. Their glossy helmets mimic the cap design and are created using a traditional Miyagi Prefecture lacquer technique called tamamushi-nuri.[92] The supplier of Rakuten's uniforms has changed several times. At the start of the 2011 season, Descente provided all of the team's uniforms and apparel.[93] Then, from 2014 to 2019, the team had a contract with Majestic Athletic, the then-supplier of MLB.[94] Since the start of the 2020 season, Mizuno Corporation has supplied the uniforms and apparel for the Eagles.[92] The Eagles' uniforms bear the logos of various sponsors on the jersey, pants, cap, and helmet.[95]

Home uniform, 2014

The Eagles home uniforms are all white. The pants are white with crimson piping from beltline to cuff on each side and have not changed since being introduced. For the team's inaugural season, the front of the white, button-down jersey displayed the team's logo along with the player's number in crimson outlined in yellow. The raglan lines on the shoulders and sides featured crimson piping, and the back displayed the player's name and number in the same style as the front number. The right sleeve displayed Rakuten's corporate logo. The jersey underwent a small design change for the 2011 season when the fonts for the player's name and numbers were simplified to match the font on the visitor jersey.[96] Then, after the Tōhoku earthquake, a patch reading "Ganbaro Tōhoku" (がんばろう東北, 'Let's do this, Tōhoku') was added to the left sleeve as a symbol of support.[97] This patch has been featured on every home and visitor uniform since it was first added. Before the 2018 season, the home jersey design was again tweaked. All of the yellow was changed to gold, including the chest logo, its first change. Additionally, the raglan and side piping was removed in favor of crimson and gold stripes around the collar and sleeves and the font of the player's name and numbers was again modified.[98] The club's current home jersey debuted before the 2020 season and is very similar to its previous iteration, albeit with the crimson and gold collar stripes removed.[99]

Visitor uniforms

Debut jersey, 2008

Second design, 2014

The team's visitor uniform has undergone more drastic changes since the first design. The same pants worn with the home jerseys are utilized for the visitor uniforms, however the button-down jersey is crimson red and bares the name of the team's owner "Rakuten" on the chest. In the garment's first iteration, the white Rakuten logo was wholly original and incorporated a yellow drop shadow to give it a 3D effect. White piping along the raglan lines on the shoulders and sides was added and the player's number in white appeared on the front. The back displayed the player's name and number, again in white. As with the home jerseys, the right sleeve displayed Rakuten's corporate logo. Its first design change came one year before the home jersey's when the chest logo was changed in 2009. All yellow was removed leaving the logo completely white, and the font was changed to bring it in line with Rakuten's corporate branding. Additionally, the font of the name and numbers was simplified.[100] The font used for the name and numbers was again modified for the 2014 season. The next change to the visitor jersey occurred in 2018, the same time as the home design change. Again keeping with the changes to the corporate logo, a white line was added under "Rakuten" on the chest. The raglan and side piping was also removed in favor of white stripes around the collar and sleeves.[98] The Eagles' current visitor jersey again debuted alongside the home jersey. Similarly, the stripes around the collar were removed, however a gold stripe was added to the white stripes around the sleeves. Gold outlines were also added to the back name and number and the front chest number was removed for the first time.[99]

Third uniform, 2011

Throughout the team's history, there have also been several alternate and limited-time uniform designs. A third alternate uniform was introduced in 2006 for home games during interleague play. These were primarily white with crimson sides and shoulders outlined by yellow piping along the raglan lines. The left side of the chest featured the cap emblem, while the right featured the player's number in crimson outlined in yellow. It was redesigned for the 2010 and 2011 seasons and worn at several games played in the Tōhoku region before being discontinued. The chest displayed the words "Tohoku" and "Rakuten" in crimson, with the "E" logo moved instead to the sleeve and the player's chest number removed altogether. The yellow piping was removed in favor of yellow and white stripes around the sleeve cuff.[101]

Other than the third alternate uniform, the Eagles have also worn many limited, seasonal uniforms throughout their history that often have unique designs, colors, and sleeve patches. Starting with the 2007 season, players wore special uniforms during a limited, home-game stretch dubbed "Fan Club Day". From 2007 to 2009, each season's uniform was selected from a pool of fan-submitted designs and were variants of the their white, home jersey.[102] After skipping the 2010 season, the event returned in 2011, however the design contest was no longer employed.[103] In an effort to fill the stands with color for the event,[104] the jersey was changed to crimson, a color traditionally used only for road games, for 2012 and 2013.[105] In 2014, these jerseys were rebranded as the "Fans'" uniform and were worn for home games played throughout the Tōhoku region. To reflect this, the Eagles' chest logo was removed from the crimson jersey and instead replaced with the word "Tohoku". A patch was also added to the sleeve that season to commemorate the team's 2013 Japan Series win.[106] This general design continued to be utilized for Fans' Days through the 2018 season. For the 2019 season, Rakuten's fifteenth, the Fans' uniform was changed and again borrowed the home jersey design, however in grey instead of white.[107] The next year, the same design was kept but the base color was changed to black,[108] and it would be worn again in 2021 after the COVID pandemic limited fan attendance in 2020.[109]

Special uniforms

"Eagle Star" uniform, 2012

"Tohoku Green" uniform, 2014

In addition to the various Fans' uniform iterations, the Eagles have worn several themed seasonal uniforms throughout its history. The first was introduced in 2011 to celebrate the team's seventh season, a lucky number in Japan. The design, dubbed the "Eagle Rainbow", was drastically different from the team's previous uniforms. The jersey was the team's only v-neck pullover and was white and crimson with seven different shades of red, orange, and yellow. The chest bore the word "Eagles" in a simple dark blue font with a logo illustration of an eagle underneath. The cap emblem was also changed to feature the same "E" as on the chest. The uniforms were worn during four interleague games that season, and the player-worn jerseys were auctioned off to raise money for earthquake relief.[110] The team has worn a special summer uniform every season since, and next season Rakuten unveiled the "Eagle Star" uniform, which added crimson, full-body pinstripes to the home design.[111] The "Tohoku Green" theme was introduced in 2013 and variations of the same uniform was used for three seasons. To bring attention to the conservation of Tōhoku's forests, the jerseys were green and displayed "Tohoku" across the chest.[112] Full-body crimson pinstripes were brought back in 2012, this time extending to the cap as well. The "Eagle Summer" uniforms also displayed "Rakuten" on the chest.[113] The next two seasons featured black jerseys and caps. The first, "Black Eagles" in 2017, was a black version of the home uniforms.[114] The following year, the "Tōhoku Pride" uniform was a black version of that year's Fans' uniform.[115] The current special uniform theme is "Tohoku Blue", a companion to the green theme. First introduced in 2019, the jersey design was similar to the previous year's, however it was blue to represent the sky.[116] The colors were modified for the following season when it changed to white with blue pinstripes. As with the Fans' uniform, 2020's Tohoku Blue uniforms are returning for 2021.[109]

At the time of team's inception, Rakuten created a pair of male and female golden eagle mascots.[117] Named Clutch and Clutchena respectively, the names were chosen from suggestions from the public and are derived from the clutch of an eagle's claw as well as the baseball concept of a clutch hitter.[117][118] Clutch wears a jersey bearing the number 10, an Eagles retired number that represents the fans. A third mascot, a harpy eagle named Switch, was unveiled in 2016.[119] The Eagles have also periodically featured an unofficial, mischievous mascot named Mr. Carrasco. The character, based on a black crow, is masked and rides a motorcycle.[120] For Black Eagles Day in 2017, Rakuten added a mascot character called Kurowashi-san. Unlike the other costumed mascots, Kurowashi-san appeared as a normal man with a black eagle on his head.[121]