Nippon Professional Baseball merged with the Orix BlueWave and were replaced by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Until 1993, baseball was the only team sport played professionally in Japan. In that year, the J.League professional soccer league was founded. The new soccer league placed teams in prefectural capitals around the country—rather than clustering them in and around Tokyo—and the teams were named after their locations rather than after corporate sponsors. The wave of players moving to Major League Baseball, which began with Hideo Nomo "retiring" from the Kintetsu Buffaloes, then signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has also added to the financial problems.
2016 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team I Baseball Tournament. Ian Happ was drafted ninth overall by the Chicago Cubs. Happ was named first team American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), he was previously named First Team All-America by D1Baseball.com and was added to the second team by Baseball America, the NCBWA, Louisville Slugger Collegiate Baseball and College Sports Madness. He also was named a First Team Capital One Academic All-American by CoSIDA, along with AAC Player of the year 2016 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team The 2016 Cincinnati Bearcats baseball team represents the University of Cincinnati during the 2016 NCAA Division I baseball season. The Bearcats play their