Japan Samurai Bears

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Japan Samurai Bears
Founded in 2005
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[[Image:|120px]]
Team Logo

Cap Insignia

League affiliations

Golden Baseball League (2005)

Name

Japan Samurai Bears (2005)

Team Colors

black and gold

Ballpark

none

Championships

League titles: 0
Division titles: 0

Owner(s)/Operated By: Golden Baseball League

General Manager:

Manager: Warren Cromartie

Media: '

Website: []

The Japan Samurai Bears were a Golden Baseball League team based in the Arizona Division. The team, which existed for one season, played all of its games on the road in order to keep an even number of teams in the league.

The manager of the team was Warren Cromartie (aka "Cro"), an American who had played for a number of years in the Japanese baseball league. The team was almost entirely made of players from Japan, but did include some US-born players of Japanese descent to fill out the roster.

In their only season, the Samurai Bears finished last in the Arizona division with a league worst 33-57 record. Though the team struggled, there were some bright spots for the season. They had 3 pitchers (Hideki Nagasaka, Takaaki Igarashi, and Rentaro Seki) on the Arizona Division all-star team. First baseman Yuji Nerei was a gold glove winner and led the team in home runs and RBI, in addition to several other offensive categories.

In 2007, a documentary of the experience was released titled "Season of the Samurai." The documentary, directed by Matthew Asner and Danny Gold, looked at the on- and off-field experiences of the team, including an in-depth look at the challenging relationship with the coach. The film was made an official selection to the Santa Barbara Film Festival.The film also was selected as the opening film of The 11th annual Comedia at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal.