Editing Nippon Professional Baseball (section)

===1980s and the "Invincible Seibu" ===
After being a second division team for much of the 1960s and 1970s, in 1983 the [[Seibu Lions]] began a period of sustained success. The team gained the moniker "Invincible Seibu" during the 1980s and 1990s due to their sustained domination of the league, winning 11 league championships and eight [[Japan Series]] championships between 1982 and 1994. The Lions had a powerful lineup in this period, loaded with sluggers such as [[Koji Akiyama]], [[Kazuhiro Kiyohara]], and [[Orestes Destrade]]. Their defense also benefited from the services of skilled players such as [[Hiromichi Ishige]], [[Hatsuhiko Tsuji]] and catcher [[Tsutomu Ito]]. Among the pitchers employed by the Lions in this period was "The Oriental Express" [[Tai-Yuan Kuo|Taigen Kaku]], [[Osamu Higashio]], [[Kimiyasu Kudoh]], [[Hisanobu Watanabe]], and relievers [[Yoshitaka Katori]] and [[Tetsuya Shiozaki]].

American expatriate players made their mark in NPB in the 1980s, with players like the Lee brothers ([[Leron Lee]] and [[Leon Lee]]), [[Greg Wells (baseball)|Greg "Boomer" Wells]], [[Randy Bass]], and [[Ralph Bryant]] playing key roles on their NPB teams.