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Asia Series

International club baseball competition


Summary

International club baseball competition

FieldValue
titleAsia Series
last_season2013 Asia Series
logoAsia Series.png
pixels200px
formerlyKonami Cup
sportBaseball
inaugural2005
teams6
countryAustralia (2011–2013)
China (2005–2008, 2012)
Europe (2013)
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
most_champsAUS Canberra Cavalry
JPN Chiba Lotte Marines
JPN Chunichi Dragons
JPN Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
JPN Saitama Seibu Lions
KOR Samsung Lions
JPN Yomiuri Giants
(1 each)
related_compsAUS ABL
CHN CBL
TWN CPBL
EUR CEB European Cup (CEB)
KOR KBO League (KBO)
JPN NPB

China (2005–2008, 2012) Europe (2013) Japan South Korea Taiwan JPN Chiba Lotte Marines JPN Chunichi Dragons JPN Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters JPN Saitama Seibu Lions KOR Samsung Lions JPN Yomiuri Giants (1 each) CHN CBL TWN CPBL EUR CEB European Cup (CEB) KOR KBO League (KBO) JPN NPB

The Asia Series was an international club baseball competition, contested by the champions of all four professional leagues associated with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)—Australian Baseball League (ABL), Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO League), and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB)—along with the CEB European Champion Cup holder and host city, to bring the number of teams to six.

The competition was co-sponsored by NPB Association and Konami from 2005 to 2007 and known as the Konami Cup. Participation was limited to the East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China). The tournament was stopped between 2009 and 2010 due to financing issues. It was reintroduced in 2011 and has been hosted by Taiwan and South Korea, whereas the previous had been held in Japan.

Following the 2013 edition, the Asia Series was discontinued due to scheduling issues.

Background

The Asia Series began in 2005 as a tournament among the champions of NPB, KBO League and CPBL and an All-Star team from China Baseball League (CBL), which was called China Stars. Konami co-sponsored the competition until 2007, when the 2008 season became the first Asia Series. Additionally, it was the first time that the champion of CBL was appointed for the tournament, instead of an All-Star line-up.

The withdrawal of Konami raised in the following years financing issues. The 2009 season was reduced to a single-game championship between the champions of NPB and KBO League and held at the Nagasaki Stadium. The Yomiuri Giants won against the Kia Tigers by 9–4.

A potential 2010 season was then cancelled due to a conflict with the 2010 Asian Games and replaced by another sets of Club Championship. The KBO League champion SK Wyverns first split the two-game championship with CPBL champion Brother Elephants at the Taichung Stadium, before being defeated in a single-game championship by the NPB champion Chiba Lotte Marines at the Tokyo Dome with 3–0.

The subject of re-introducing the event for 2011 was discussed in a November 2010 meeting between the heads of the NPB, KBO, CPBL, and ABL. The CPBL offered to host the event in November 2011. The ABL, whose season runs from November through February, added a bye week in its schedule to allow the champion of the season before to participate in the Asia Series.

In 2013, Fortitudo Baseball Bologna of the Italian Baseball League competed as the first representative of Europe to participate in the tournament, qualifying as the 2013 CEB European Cup champion. Due to the CBL's hiatus that year, the tournament remained at six teams.

The 2014 and 2015 seasons were cancelled due to scheduling issues.

Format

Each of the teams participated in a round-robin series, playing each other team once. The two teams with the best win-loss percentage faced each other in the final, with the team finishing higher considered the "home team", meaning that they had the advantage of batting last. If teams were tied a series of tiebreakers were used to decide which teams qualified for the final and in what order, firstly using the head-to-head win–loss records amongst tied teams, and if necessary the ranking based on the lowest team run average. All games have the designated hitter rule in effect, though not all participating teams would have it in their regular league.

Participants

Country2005200620072008201120122013
Japan (NPB)
South Korea (KBO)
Taiwan (CPBL)
China (CBL)
Australia (ABL)
Europe (CEB)

Finals results

Konami Cup

;2005–2007

SeasonHost cityChampionsScoreRunners-upMVPNo. of teams
2005
DetailsJPN
TokyoJPN
Chiba Lotte Marines5–3KOR
Samsung LionsPHL Benny Agbayani
Chiba Lotte Marines4
2006
DetailsJPN
TokyoJPN
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters1–0TWN
La New BearsJPN Yu Darvish
Hok. Nippon-Ham Fighters4
2007
DetailsJPN
TokyoJPN
Chunichi Dragons6–5KOR
SK WyvernsJPN Hirokazu Ibata
Chunichi Dragons4

Asia Series

;2008, 2011–2013

SeasonHost cityChampionsScoreRunners-upMVPNo. of teams
2008
DetailsJPN
TokyoJPN
Saitama Seibu Lions1–0TWN
Uni-President 7-Eleven LionsJPN Tomoaki Satoh
Saitama Seibu Lions4
2011
DetailsTWN
TaichungKOR
Samsung Lions5–3JPN
Fukuoka SoftBank HawksKOR Won-Sam Jang
Samsung Lions4
2012
DetailsKOR
BusanJPN
Yomiuri Giants6–3TWN
Lamigo MonkeysJPN Hayato Sakamoto
Yomiuri Giants6
2013
DetailsTWN
TaichungAUS
Canberra Cavalry14–4TWN
Uni-President 7-Eleven LionsUSA Jack Murphy
Canberra Cavalry6

Series records

By country

CountryChampionsRunners-upYears wonYears finalist
Japan (NPB)512005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 20122011
South Korea (KBO)1220112005, 2007
Australia (ABL)102013
Taiwan (CPBL)042006, 2008, 2012, 2013

By club

ClubChampionsRunners-upParticipatedYears
wonYears
finalistGames
wonGames
lostGames
pct.
KOR Samsung Lions1152011200597
JPN Chiba Lotte Marines101200540
JPN Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters101200640
JPN Yomiuri Giants101201230
JPN Chunichi Dragons101200731
JPN Saitama Seibu Lions101200831
AUS Canberra Cavalry101201331
TWN Lamigo Monkeys10222006, 201243
TWN Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions0242008, 201368
JPN Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks011201131
KOR SK Wyverns012200752
JPN Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles00121
KOR Lotte Giants00111
TWN EDA Rhinos200214
CHN China Stars004011
AUS Perth Heat00205
ITA Fortitudo Baseball Bologna00102
CHN Tianjin Lions00103
  • 1: Participated in 2006 under its old name La New Bears
  • 2: Participated in 2005 under its old name Sinon Bulls

References

References

  1. "Bologna, Italy to play in Asia Series - IBAF".
  2. {{usurped
  3. Yoon Chul. [https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2010/01/136_59878.html Asia Series Likely Off Due to Schedule Conflict.] ''[[The Korea Times]]''; January 28, 2010. Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
  4. {{usurped
  5. Elborough, Brad. (8 October 2014). "Perth Heat's Asian expedition off after annual series cancelled".
  6. (19 May 2011). "Asia Series 2011 opens November 25". [[International Baseball Federation]].
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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