Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions

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Uni-Lions
File:Uni-lions logo 2009.jpg
League Chinese Professional Baseball League
Ballpark Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Year founded 1989 (1989)
Taiwan Series championships
Former name(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Uni-President (1989-1990)
  • Uni-President Lions (1990-2007)
Playoff berths
Ownership <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Manager Chen Lien-hung
General Manager Su Tai-an
Uniforms
Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
Traditional Chinese 統一7-Eleven獅
Simplified Chinese 統一7-Eleven狮

The Uni-President Lions[1] (Chinese: 統一7-Eleven獅) is a professional baseball team based in Tainan City, Taiwan. The organization is named after the Uni-President Corporation, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerate whose sub-company Uni-President Baseball Team Company oversees operations of the team. The Lions play their home games at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tainan City, where they enjoy a large fan base.

History

Amateur era

The team was first established as amateur Uni-President Baseball Team (Chinese: 統一棒球隊) in 1989 for the purpose of training and preparation for eventual professionalization in the next year. The corporation originally intended to recruit players from Taipower Baseball Team, an amateur baseball team based in nearby Kaohsiung, but faced many difficulties in the process.

Uni-President originally offered Lin Chia-hsiang (Chinese: 林家祥) the position of team manager, hoping that his status as Taipower's head coach would ensure players' willingness to join the new team. Lin accepted at first, and agreed to aid the effort of recruiting players. However, due to uncertainties in a professional career, players were reluctant to leave Taipower for the new team, and Lin could only secure a few players and was far below the 15 players minimum requirement of the amateur league. Lin then turned down the offer, leaving Uni-President searching for a replacement for the manager position. Uni-President eventually contacted Cheng Kuen-chi (Chinese: 鄭昆吉) and offered him the position. Cheng, a former coach of Taipower who was respected by many players, accepted the offer and became the first manager for Uni-President. Cheng then used his connection to convince players to join the team, and Uni-President barely met the minimum requirement after Brother baseball team lent players to Uni-President. The team then participated and performed modestly in two amateur series in 1989.

Early years

The team was professionalized on January 1, 1990, following the establishment of CPBL. Uni-President chose Lions as its mascot, and hence the team was renamed Uni-President Lions. The Lions played the opening game of CPBL on March 17, 1990 with Brother Elephants in the now demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium, defeated the Elephants, and scored their first victory in professional baseball.[2] However, the Lions performed poorly in their first professional season, placed third and only saved by Brother Elephants's even poorer performance.

The season of 1991 saw significant improvements in the Lions' performance. The Lions were able to advance into the playoffs and play Wei Chuan Dragons, who they defeated four games to two and won their first title. The next three years saw the dominance of the Elephants, who won three consecutive seasonal titles from 1992 to 1994, and defeated the Lions in the 1993 playoffs. It was during these years that the Lions and Elephants developed a long-lasting rivalry. The Lions again won the titles in 1995 and 1996.

Black Eagles scandal and the 1997 season

The 1997 season was not smooth sailing as many has expected; the Lions started out losing some prominent players to the rival Taiwan Major League. Also, the game-fixing scandal in mid-season of 1997, known as the Black Eagles scandal, was a major blow to the CPBL in general in that the average attendance dropped significantly, and teams were either forced out of the market or had to scale back on the budget and shut down some expansion projects over the next few years.

Furthermore, at the end of 1997 season, the Lions led the league with 58-7-31, while the Dragons (46-4-46) and the Eagles (41-4-51) were placed third and fourth respectively. However, the regulation dictated that the playoffs should be played by the team that led the league in the first half-season and the team in the second half-season. It was assumed that if a team leads the league in the whole year, it should have placed first in both half-seasons, and thus allowed to participate in the championship series. The loophole became obvious when the Dragons, placed seventh in the first half but first in the second half, and the Eagles, placed first in the first half and seventh in the second half, got a berth in the playoffs. The loophole was fixed in the following year.

Present

The team was officially renamed Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in 2008. 7-Eleven in Taiwan is franchised by President Chain Store Corporation, a subsidiary of Uni-President Enterprises Corporation; each entity now owns roughly half of the shares of the Lions.

Organization

Minor league

The Lions were credited as the first organization to form a minor league team. As early as 1990, when CPBL was still in its early years, the Lions were making preparation for establishment of a second team by hiring coaches and scouting talented players for the project. The reserve team, however, was disbanded due to lack of opponent and players. In 1997, the Lions again formed a reserve team, but it met the same fate as its predecessor due to the game-fixing scandal and the decline in attendance. No further expansion was made until after the CPBL-TML merger took place.

In late 2003, after the merger of the two competing league, the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association assisted CPBL in forming a minor league by sending alternative service players to be trained by and filled the roster of member organizations of CPBL. The Lions were supportive of this project initially, but later backed out due to financial reasons. In early 2006, the Lions announced the revival of the minor league project, and began the expansion of the team. The roster consisted of reserve players, alternative service players, and non-contract players. Alternative service players and non-contract players are restricted to play exclusively on the second team. As of the 2013 season, the team is made up exclusively of contracted players.

Foreign cooperation

The Lions have been working with other organization in Asia and North America to improve the performance of the organization; collaborators includes Yomiuri Giants of NPB's Central League and Red Sox organization of MLB. Also, the Lions have participated in many friendly exhibition games with teams from other professional organizations.

Notable achievements

The Lions are the holders of many CPBL records. The most well-known is the winning streak of 17 games in the 2006 season. The Lions are currently holding the records as the team with the most wins, home runs, and Taiwan Series titles throughout its history.

Records

Qualified for Playoffs Taiwan Series Championship Asia Series Championship

Regular seasons

Season Wins Losses Ties Pct. Place
Uni-President Lions
1990 37 (16/21) 49 (29/20) 4 (0/4) .430 (.356/.512) 3 (4/2)
1991 46 (21/25) 34 (20/14) 10 (4/6) .575 (.512/.641) 1 (2/1)
1992 41 (20/21) 45 (23/22) 4 (2/2) .477 (.465/.488) 3 (3/2)
1993 54 (25/29) 34 (20/14) 2 (0/2) .614 (.556/.674) 1 (3/1)
1994 48 (22/26) 38 (20/18) 4 (3/1) .558 (.524/.591) 2 (3/2)
1995 62 (32/30) 36 (17/19) 2 (1/1) .633 (.653/.612) 1 (1/1)
1996 60 (34/26) 37 (15/22) 3 (1/2) .619 (.694/.542) 1 (1/3)
1997 58 (28/30) 31 (16/15) 7 (4/3) .652 (.636/.667) 1 (2/2)
1998 57 45 3 .563 2
1999 56 37 0 .602 2
2000 44 (17/27) 43 (27/16) 3 (1/2) .506 (.386/.659) 2 (4/1)
2001 49 (27/22) 37 (14/23) 4 (4/0) .570 (.659/.489) 1 (1/3)
2002 32 (18/14) 54 (24/30) 4 (3/1) .372 (.429/.318) 4 (4/4)
2003 54 (24/30) 39 (23/16) 7 (3/4) .581 (.511/.652) 3 (4/2)
2004 54 (28/26) 40 (18/22) 6 (4/2) .574 (.543/.542) 1 (1/3)
2005 48 (24/24) 49 (26/23) 3 (0/3) .495 (.480/.511) 3 (5/3)
2006 48 (28/20) 45 (18/27) 7 (4/3) .516 (.609/.426) 2 (2/5)
2007 58 (27/31) 41 (23/18) 1 (0/1) .586 (.540/.633) 1 (2/2)
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
2008 67 (34/33) 33 (16/17) 0 (0/0) .670 (.680/.660) 1 (1/2)
2009 63 (34/29) 54 (24/30) 3 (2/1) .538 (.586/.492) 1 (1/2)
2010 54 (25/29) 63 (34/29) 3 (1/2) .462 (.424/.500) 3 (4/2)
2011 65 (37/28) 52 (22/30) 3 (1/2) .556 (.627/.483) 2 (1/3)
2012 71 (41/30) 48 (19/29) 1 (0/1) .597 (.683/.508) 1 (1/2)
2013 62 (30/32) 55 (29/26) 3 (1/2) .530 (.508/.552) 1 (2/1)
2014 58 (32/26) 55 (24/31) 7 (4/3) .513 (.571/.456) 2 (2/4)
Totals 1346 1094 94 .552 --

Playoffs

Season First Round Taiwan Series
Opponent Wins Losses Opponent Wins Losses
Uni-President Lions
1991 No first round. Wei Chuan Dragons 4 3
1993 No first round. Brother Elephants 2 4
1995 No playoffs. The Lions won the championship by virtue of winning both half-seasons.
1996 No first round. Wei Chuan Dragons 4 2
1998 Wei Chuan Dragons 1 2 Eliminated.
1999 Wei Chuan Dragons 1 2 Eliminated.
2000 No first round. Sinon Bulls 4 3
2001 No first round. Brother Elephants 3 4
2004 No first round. Sinon Bulls 3 4
2005 Macoto Cobras 1 3 Eliminated.
2006 Sinon Bulls 3 0 La New Bears 0 4
2007 Macoto Cobras 3 0 La New Bears 4 3
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
2008 Seeded first. Brother Elephants 4 3
2009 No first round. Brother Elephants 4 3
2011 No first round. Lamigo Monkeys 4 1
2012 No first round. Lamigo Monkeys 1 4
2013 No first round. EDA Rhinos 4 0
Total 50 45

Asia series

Year First/Second Round Championship round
Wins Losses Standing Opponent Result
Uni-President Lions
2007 1 2 3 Eliminated
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
2008 2 1 2 Saitama Seibu Lions 0 - 1 (L)
2011 1 2 3 Eliminated
2013 2 1 -- Canberra Cavalry 4 - 14 (L)
Total 6 8 -- --

Roster

Current roster

Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions Roster
Players Coaches

Pitchers

Catchers

Roster updated 2014-08-06

Infielders

Outfielders

Manager

Coaches

Second Team Coaches


List of managers

Manager # Manager name Years Games Wins Losses Ties Playoffs Champions
1 Cheng Kuen-chi (鄭昆吉) 1990–1993 360 178 162 20 2 1
2 Yataro Oishi (大石弥太郎) 1994–1996 290 170 111 9 2 2
3 Lin Chia-Hsiang (林家祥) 1997–1998 193 110 73 10 1 0
(Acting) Yukihiko Machida (町田行彥) 1997 1 1 0 0 0 0
(Acting) Osamu Inoue (井上 修) 1998 7 4 3 0 0 0
4 Tseng Chih-chen (曾智偵) 1999–2002 353 178 164 11 3 1
(Acting) Masashi Takenouchi (竹之内雅史) 2000 10 3 7 0 0 0
5 Hsieh Chang-heng (謝長亨) 2003–2005 250 132 105 13 1 0
6 Yutaka Ohashi (大橋 穣) 2005 - 2007 167 76 81 10 1 0
(Acting) Lo Kuo-chang (羅國璋) 2007 33 23 10 0 0 0
7 Lu Wen-sheng (呂文生) 2007 - 2011 500 280 220 4 4 4
8 Terushi Nakajima (中島 輝士) 2011–2013 193 104 87 2 1 0
9 Chen Lien-hung (陳連宏) 2013–Present 44 27 15 2 1 1

Notable former players

{(player USA John Frascatore (baseball)right handed pitcher won Cy Young award Former Major League player St. Louis Cardinals,Arizona Diamondbacks,Toronto Blue Jays

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cpbl.com.tw/en_4.aspx
  2. ↑ History of the Chinese Professional Baseball League

External links

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