Hiroshima Toyo Carp

The Hiroshima Toyo Carp are a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan, who compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball and play their home games at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima. The club was founded in 1949, four years after the atomic bombing of the city, and narrowly escaped merger and contraction in its early years thanks to fundraising by Hiroshima citizens and fans. It won its first Central League pennant in 1975 and Japan Series titles in 1979, 1980 and 1984, and is widely regarded as a symbol of the city's recovery. The Toyo in the name comes from the Toyo Kogyo company, later renamed Mazda, which became chief sponsor in 1968, and the Carp name refers to the koi that climbed the rapids of Hiroshima Castle.