The Chunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ, Chūnichi Doragonzu) are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan.

Despite a career ERA of 2.22, the heavy workload combined with injuries sustained during two years of service in World War II forced him to switch positions to first base, and later the outfield.

Led by Sugishita and an aging Nishizawa, the Dragons won their first Japan Series championship in 1954, defeating the Nishitetsu Lions 4-games-to-3.

In 1962, the Dragons became one of the first NPB teams to sign established MLB players when they brought on former stars Larry Doby and Don Newcombe.

He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 and his number 15 jersey is one of only two retired by the team.

Another league title came in 1999, and in that year, Dragons set a record by winning 11 consecutive games at the opening of the season.

At that point the team had won the Central League pennant seven times since 1950, but their last Japan Series victory was in 1954, the longest such drought in Nippon Professional Baseball.

A year later, the Dragons were back in the 2011 Japan Series, but fell to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in seven games.

In 2012, they made the Central League Climax Series, by first defeating the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 3 games in the first stage, but lost to the eventual Japan Series champion Yomiuri Giants in 6 games in the final stage, while the Giants also had a 1-game advantage.

From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the stylized lettering on the Dragons' jerseys and caps was virtually identical to the Dodgers' uniforms during that same period.