Chinese Professional Baseball League
The Chinese Professional Baseball League ( Chinese : 中華 職業 棒球 大 聯盟), often abbreviated as CPBL , is the highest league in professional baseball in Taiwan . The league was founded in 1989. With consistently over one million viewers per season since 2013, the CPBL is the most popular professional sports league in Taiwan.
The league has 4 teams, from 2021 5 teams.
history
Baseball was introduced to Taiwan during the Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945. The sport grew in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s as Taiwan won multiple titles in the Little League Baseball World Series . The national baseball team also celebrated many successes during this period. Hung Teng-Sheng (洪騰勝), an influential entrepreneur and owner of Brother Hotel Inc. in Taipei , had the idea of his own professional league . In 1984 he founded an amateur team called Brother Elephants, the predecessor team of what is now the Chinatrust Brothers . He was also able to convince the chairmen of the Wei Chuan Corporation, Mercuries Chain Stores and Uni-President Corporation to also set up baseball teams. The Chinese Professional Baseball League was founded on October 23, 1989 with four teams. The logos of all four founding teams were designed by the manga artist Chung Meng-shun.
In 1997, the Taiwan Major League was a second professional baseball league in Taiwan, which initially competed with the CPBL. However, in 2003 it was merged with the CPBL. From 1993 to 1996 the CPBL consisted of six teams, from 1997 to 1999 of seven and from 2000 to 2008 of six again. Since the 2009 season, after the departure of Chinatrust Whales and Dmedia T-REX, there are only four teams left in the CPBL: the Chinatrust Brothers , the Lamigo Monkeys , the Fubon Guardians and the Uni-Persident 7-Eleven Lions . The winner of the Taiwan Series, the CPBL's championship series, has been participating in the Asia Series since 2005 . In 2021 the Wei Chuan Dragons will be the 5th team to participate in the league again.
Teams
Former teams
- China Times Eagles (時報 鷹) (1993–1997)
- Mercuries Tigers (三 商 虎) (1990–1999)
- Wei Chuan Dragons (味全 龍) (1990–1999)
- Chinatrust Whales (中信 鯨) (1997-2008)
- Dmedia T-REX (米迪亞 暴龍) (2003-2008)
Today's teams
| team | Chinese name | city | Stadion | capacity | accession |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinatrust Brothers | 中信 兄弟 | Taichung | Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium | 20,000 | 1990 |
| Rakuten Monkeys | 樂天 桃 猿 | Taoyuan | Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium | 20,000 | 2004 |
| Fubon Guardians | 富邦 悍將 | New Taipei | Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium | 12,500 | 1993 |
| Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions | 統一 7-ELEVES 獅 | Tainan | Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium | 12,000 | 1990 |
Taiwan Series Winner
The Taiwan Series is the final of the CPBL. The participation of the individual teams in the Taiwan Series is listed below:
| team | Victories | Defeats |
|---|---|---|
| Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions | 9 | 5 |
| Chinatrust Brothers | 7th | 6th |
| Lamigo Monkeys | 5 | 2 |
| Wei Chuan Dragons * | 4th | 2 |
| Fubon Guardians | 3 | 5 |
| Chinatrust Whales * | 0 | 2 |
| Mercuries Tigers * | 0 | 1 |
| China Times Eagles * | 0 | 1 |
| Macoto Cobras * | 0 | 1 |
- (no longer existing team)
spectator
Audience numbers in the opening year (1990) and the last few years:
| year | Games | total | ∅ per game |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 180 | 899.955 | 5,000 |
| 2013 | 240 | 1,459,072 | 6,079 |
| 2014 | 240 | 1,225,142 | 5.105 |
| 2015 | 240 | 1,327,639 | 5,532 |
| 2016 | 240 | 1,409,312 | 5,872 |
| 2017 | 240 | 1,318,275 | 5,493 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ 中華 職棒 大 聯盟 全球 資訊 網 The Official Site of CPBL. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
- ↑ FEATURE: Baseball artist's can-do attitude a hit - Taipei Times. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .
- ↑ 中華 職棒 大 聯盟 全球 資訊 網 The Official Site of CPBL. Retrieved June 20, 2018 .