The new northern Hokkaido Shibetsu City baseball team “Shibetsu Samurai Blades” will offer training programs for baseball players and try to activate the community and make up for the labor shortage through baseball. The “Shibetsu Samurai Blades” will enter the first Hokkaido baseball independent league, “Hokkaido Baseball League” (HBL) in 2021. Team president Sugawara, who is preparing to establish the team, expressed his enthusiasm, “I want to make a baseball team that is attached to the community and that links to the revitalization of the town.”
The players of HBL live in the base community, work in the morning or in the middle of the night, and practice baseball or go to games in the afternoon. The players of HBL affiliated baseball teams in Furano City and Bibai City work at local companies, farms, and lodging facilities, and they contribute to the community.
They instilled a Japanese (Yamato) spirit into the team name “Shibetsu Samurai Blades” to promote Shibetsu around the world and appeal to people outside of Japan to get international players. The logo is designed with a sun image that symbolizes the town name “Asahicho” (sunrise town) and an American comic book style katana sword that symbolizes the Japanese samurai.