 the  are a professional baseball team in japan's pacific league based in chiba city, chiba prefecture, in the kantÅ region, and owned by the lotte conglomerate. ==history== the marines franchise began in 1950 as an inaugural member of the pacific league. the marines were founded as the mainichi orions, and they won the inaugural japan series in 1950. in 1958, they were renamed the daimai orions; the tokyo orions in 1964; and the lotte orions in 1969. the team played in central tokyo until 1972. from 1973 to 1977 the lotte orions played in the northern japanese city of sendai. in 1978 the team returned to the tokyo area, settling in kawasaki. finally, in 1992, the team moved to chiba city on the eastern shore of tokyo bay and renamed itself the chiba lotte marines. the franchise was slow to duplicate its initial success: the orions made the japan series in 1960 and 1970, only to lose both years. in 1974, they beat the chunichi dragons becoming the first pacific league team to win the series in 10 years as the yomiuri giants had claimed the prior nine titles behi
1950_establishments_in_Japan Baseball_teams_in_Japan Lotte_subsidiaries Sport_in_Chiba_Prefecture Sports_clubs_established_in_1950