Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions

Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
File:Uni-lions logo.jpg
Uniforms
Home Away

The Uni-President Lions (Chinese: 統一獅) are a professional baseball team based in Tainan, Taiwan. It is owned by the Uni-President Corporation, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerate. It has a strong fan base in southern Taiwan, especially in the Tainan area. The Lions are nicknamed Shih-tzu-chun (Chinese: 獅子軍, Lions Corps) by fans, and are sometimes refered ti as Nan-ba-tien (Chinese: 南霸天, Southern Overlord) by commentators. The team's motto is "Clean, decisive, determined, progressive" (乾乾淨淨、勇猛果斷、緊咬不放、積極進取).

History

Amateur Era

File:Tainanbf4.jpg

Lions players warming up before a game.

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 had in mind to draw players from Taipower Baseball Team, an amateur baseball team based in nearby Kaohsiung that has been producing some of the best players in Taiwan, but this idea was soon met with difficulties.

Uni-President originally offered Lin Chia-hsiang (Chinese: 林家祥) the position as team manager for the newly established team, hoping his status as head coach of Taipower could ensure players' willingness to join the new team. Lin accepted at first, and agreed to recruit players within Taipower for Uni-President. However, due to uncertainties in a professional career, players were reluctant to leave Taipower and join the new baseball 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 head coach position. Uni-President eventaully contacted to Cheng Kuen-chih (Chinese: 鄭昆吉) and offered him the position. Lin, a former coach of Taipower who was respected by many players, accepted the offer and became the first manager of Uni-President. Cheng then used his connection to convince players to join the team, and the team barely past the minimum requirement after Brother baseball team lent two players to Uni-President.

Following its establishment, the team participated in two amateur series in 1989. However, unlike Brother and Wei Chuan, who had a long history in amateur baseball, over half of the players on Uni-President's roster were discharged players from Taipower, the team morale was low and team chemistry was not very well. This problem caused the Lions great pain in their first years of professional baseball. The team was professionalized in 1990, the year CPBL was founded.

Early Years

File:Uni-Lions.jpg

Alternative logo of the Lions

The team was professionalized on January 1, 1990, following the establishment of CPBL. The mascot that was chosen for Uni-President was Lions, hence the team was renamed Uni-President Lions. The Lions played the opening game of CPBL on March 17, 1990 against Brother Elephants in the now demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium; the Lions defeated the Elephants 4-3, scoring their first victory in professional baseball. However, the Lions performed poorly in the first half-season, place fourth with a losing streak of eight games following their first victory. The Lions managed to show some improvements in the second half-season, placed second in the second half and third in overall standing.

The season of 1991 saw significant improvements in the Lions' performance. The Lions placed first in the second half-season, and advanced to the playoff to play Wei Chuan Dragons, which they defeat 4-2 and won their first seasonal title. However, the next three years saw the dominance of the Elephants, who won three consecutive seasonal titles from 1992 to 1994, and defeated the Lions 4-2 in the 1993 playoffs. It was around this time that the Lions and Elephants developed a long-lasting rivalry.

In the season of 1995, the Elephants suffered when CPBL increased the tours from three games to four games. The Elephants, lacked a decent pitching staff, could not have an efficient rotation going while the Lions benefited from its strong pitching staff with the so-called Four Aces that helped the Lions dominated the league. The Lions won both half-seasonal titles and was declared the seasonal champion. The Lions would again win the seasonal title in 1996, defeated the Dragons four games to two in the playoffs.

Black Eagles Scandal and TML

The Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium is the home stadium of the Lions.

The 1997 season was not a smooth sails as many has expected, the Lions started out with some of their most prominent players left, and Also, the Black Eagles Scandal in mid-season of 1997 was a major blow to the Lions and the league in general. The Lions had to suspend several players due to allegation of their involvement in the scandal, and shut down the team expansion project which was part of the formation of the CPBL minor league. However, the Lions performed extremely well despites these impacts, and was only prevented from winning the season title by regulation.

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, which placed seventh in the first half but first in the second half, and the Eagles, who placed first in the first half and seventh in the second half, got their berths to the playoffs. The loophole was fixed in the following year, but the Lions lost their dominance to the Dragons, who went on to win three consecutive seasonal titles.

CPBL-TML Merger

The merger of the two leagues brought the number of teams in CPBL from four to six, but did not present any serious challenge to the Lions. The Lions managed to best the two new teams in the season of 2003, but failed to secure a berth in the Taiwan Series. The Lions were praised for its stable performance since the merger, often placed in the top three places, and often participate in the playoffs.

Organization

Minor league

A minor league game with La New Bears

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 minor league team and began to scout talented players for the project. The minor league team, however, was disbanded due to lack of opponent and players. In 1997, the Lions again formed a minor league 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 began to cooperate with CPBL to form a minor league by sending alternative players to be trained by and filled the roster of member teams of CPBL. At first, the Lions were very supportive of this project, but later backed out due to financial reasons. However, in early 2006, the Lions announced the revival of the minor league project, and began the expansion of the team. There are currently a major league team and a minor league team in the organization, with separate coaching staff, medical staff, transportations, and games schedule in accordance with CPBL minor league.

Foreign cooperation

The Lions had participate in many friendly series, both CPBL-hosted and Lions-hosted, and gain much valuable experiences through these games, many of which ended in the Lions' defeat. The Lions have also 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.

Roster

Managers

Manager #	Manager Name	Years	Games	Wins	Losses	Ties
1	Cheng Kuen-chi (鄭昆吉)	1990 - 1993	360	178	162	20
2	Oishi Yataro (大石彌太郎)	1994 - 1996	290	170	111	9
3	Lin Chia-Hsiang (林家祥)	1997 - 1998	194	111	73	10
(Acting)	Inoue Osamu (井上 修)	1998	7	3	4	0
4	Tseng Chih-chen (曾智偵)	1999 - 2002	353	178	164	11
(Acting)	Takenouchi Masashi (竹之內雅史)	2000	10	3	7	0
5	Hsieh Chang-heng (謝長亨)	2003 - 2005	250	132	105	13
6	Ohashi Yutaka (大橋 穰)	2005 - 2007	167	76	81	10
(Acting)	Lo Kuo-chang (羅國璋)	2007	33	23	10	0
7	Lu Wen-sheng (呂文生)	2007 - Present	50	31	18	1

• Record for the current manager is only through the last complete half-season.

Notable Former Players

• Izzy Alcantara - famous for video footage in which he kicked the catcher after being thrown at.
• José Canó - father of Robinson Canó, Yankees second baseman.
• Eric Cyr - on the forty-men roster of Canadian national team for 2006 WBC and representing Canada in 2008 Olympic Games.
• Mark Grant - current commentator for San Diego Padres.
• Hsieh Chang-heng (謝長亨) - former manager of the Lions.
• Kuo Yuen-chih (郭源治) - famous Taiwanese baseball player whose jersey number 33 is a retired number for Taiwanese national team.
• Lo Min-ching (羅敏卿) - current head coach for minor league Lions.
• Tseng Chih-chen (曾智偵) - former manager and assistant general manager.

Retired Number

• 22 - The number of former player, coach, and manager Tseng Chih-chen, who played for 12 years and coached for 6 years for the Lions, for his achievement as player. This number was un-retired when Tseng came out of retirement in 2003, and, although no ceremony took place, was retired again when Tseng retired for the second time in 2005. He then served as Assistant General Manager for one more year, before being dismissed during the management restructuring.

The names of Japanese coaches/players may not be accurate because Uni-President Lions have only released their name in Chinese characters, which may not be their actual name in Japanese characters.

Records

Regular Season

Season	Name	First Half-Season					Second Half-Season
		Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.	Place	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.	Place
1990	Uni-President Lions	16	29	0	.356	4	21	20	4	.512	2
1991	Uni-President Lions	21	20	4	.512	2	25	14	6	.641	1
1992	Uni-President Lions	20	23	2	.465	3	21	22	2	.488	2
1993	Uni-President Lions	25	20	0	.556	3	29	14	2	.674	1
1994	Uni-President Lions	22	20	3	.524	3	26	18	1	.591	2
1995	Uni-President Lions	32	17	1	.653	1	30	19	1	.612	1
1996	Uni-President Lions	34	15	1	.694	1	26	22	2	.542	3
1997	Uni-President Lions	28	16	4	.636	2	30	15	3	.667	2
1998	Uni-President Lions	57	45	3	.563	2
1999	Uni-President Lions	56	37	0	.602	2
2000	Uni-President Lions	17	27	1	.386	4	27	16	2	.628	1
2001	Uni-President Lions	27	14	4	.659	1	22	23	0	.489	3
2002	Uni-President Lions	18	24	3	.429	4	14	30	1	.318	4
2003	Uni-President Lions	24	23	3	.511	4	30	16	4	.652	2
2004	Uni-President Lions	28	18	4	.543	1	26	22	2	.542	3
2005	Uni-President Lions	24	26	0	.480	5	24	23	3	.511	3
2006	Uni-President Lions	28	18	4	.609	2	20	27	3	.426	5
2007	Uni-President Lions	27	23	0	.540	2	31	18	1	.633	2

Last update: 10/10/2007

CPBL Playoffs

Season	Name	First Round			Taiwan Series
		Opponent	Wins	Losses	Opponent	Wins	Losses
1991	Uni-President Lions				Wei Chuan Dragons	4	2
1993	Uni-President Lions				Brother Elephants	2	4
1996	Uni-President Lions				Wei Chuan Dragons	4	2
1998	Uni-President Lions	Wei Chuan Dragons	1	2	-	-	-
1999	Uni-President Lions	Wei Chuan Dragons	1	2	-	-	-
2000	Uni-President Lions				Sinon Bulls	4	3
2001	Uni-President Lions				Brother Elephants	3	4
2004	Uni-President Lions				Sinon Bulls	3	4
2005	Uni-President Lions	Macoto Cobras	1	3	-	-	-
2006	Uni-President Lions	Sinon Bulls	3	0	La New Bears	0	4
2007	Uni-President Lions	Macoto Cobras	3	0	La New Bears	4	3

• The Lions won the championship in 1995 by virtue of winning both half-seasons.
  
• Championship series was renamed Taiwan Series in 2003

Asia Series

Year	Name	Round Robin			Chaniponship Round
		Wins	Losses	Standing	Opponent	Result
2007	Uni-President Lions	-	-	-	-	-

Notable Achievement

The Lions origination is the holder of many CPBL record. The most well-known is the winning streak of 17 games, which took place in 2006 season. Other notable records includes Pan Wei-lun's (Chinese: 潘威倫) individual winning streak of 16 games, Tilson Brito's 33 homeruns in a single season, and Kao Kuo-ching's (Chinese: 高國慶) 152 hits in 100 games.

See also

• Chinese Professional Baseball League
• Professional baseball in Taiwan
• Taiwan Series

External links

Chinese

• Chinese Professional Baseball League
• Uni-President Lions

English

• History of the Chinese Professional Baseball League
• Taiwanese Baseball Primer
• Uni-President Corporation Official Website