Wei Chuan Dragons
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Wei Chuan Dragons | ||||
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Uniforms | ||||
The Wei Chuan Dragons (Chinese: 味全龍; pinyin: Wèiquán Lóng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bī-chôan-liông) are a professional baseball team in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League that originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise's revival and return to the CPBL took place. The team is to play one season of minor league baseball prior to rejoining the CPBL.[1]
Brief history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/CPBL_Wei_Chuan_Dragons_uniform_20150912.jpg/220px-CPBL_Wei_Chuan_Dragons_uniform_20150912.jpg)
This team had a long amateur history when its parent company, the Wei-Chuan Food Corporation, started sponsoring Chinese Culture University's baseball team in late 1970s. After these student players graduated, Wei-Chuan formed an amateur team to allow them to continue playing baseball in 1978; it was this team that later professionalized to become one of the first four teams of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Because of its long Amateur history, its games often drew large attendances, and games with Brother Elephants, another popular team, were often sold-out. This team took the now-demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium as its home throughout its history.
This club won CPBL championships four times in 1990, 1997, 1998, and 1999, and became the team with most CPBL championships after the 1999 season ended. After the 1999 season, Wei Chuan Food Corporation announced its decision to disband the club,[2] mainly due to:
- Threats from local criminal gangs (Wei Chuan Dragons's then manager Hsu Sheng-ming was attacked in April 1999)
- The financial loss brought about by CPBL's game-fixing scandals since 1996
- Ting Hsin International Group became the largest (40%) shareholder of Wei Chuan Food Corporation in 1998. The new Ting Hsin management did not show high interest in supporting the baseball club.
The disbandment shocked many local fans and a procession was even raised against the decision. However the Wei Chuan Food Corporation did not change its mind. Most Wei Chuan Dragons' coaches and players later found their new homes at Sinon Bulls or Kaohsiung-Pingtung Fala. CPBL also did not fine those former Wei Chuan players and coaches who returned with Macoto Gida and First Financial Holdings Agan before the 2003 season started, because they did not leave CPBL voluntarily.
Records
Qualified for playoffs | Taiwan Series Championship |
Regular Seasons
Season | First half-season | Second half-season | ||||||||
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Wins | Losses | Ties | Pct. | Place | Wins | Losses | Ties | Pct. | Place | |
1990 | 25 | 20 | 0 | .556 | 2 | 27 | 14 | 4 | .659 | 1 |
1991 | 26 | 17 | 2 | .605 | 1 | 20 | 19 | 6 | .513 | 2 |
1992 | 23 | 20 | 2 | .535 | 2 | 18 | 22 | 5 | .450 | 4 |
1993 | 26 | 19 | 0 | .578 | 2 | 22 | 21 | 2 | .512 | 3 |
1994 | 17 | 27 | 1 | .386 | 5 | 19 | 25 | 1 | .432 | 4 |
1995 | 25 | 25 | 0 | .500 | 3 | 22 | 27 | 1 | .449 | 5 |
1996 | 25 | 23 | 2 | .521 | 4 | 30 | 20 | 0 | .600 | 1 |
1997 | 15 | 31 | 2 | .326 | 7 | 31 | 15 | 2 | .674 | 1 |
1998 | 56 | 48 | 1 | .538 | 3 | No half-seasons | ||||
1999 | 49 | 39 | 4 | .557 | 3 |
Playoffs
Season | First Round | Taiwan Series | ||||
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Opponent | Wins | Losses | Opponent | Wins | Losses | |
1990 | No first round | Mercuries Tigers | 4 | 2 | ||
1991 | No first round | Uni-President Lions | 3 | 4 | ||
1996 | No first round | Uni-President Lions | 2 | 4 | ||
1997 | No first round | China Times Eagles | 4 | 2 | ||
1998 | Uni-President Lions | 2 | 1 | Sinon Bulls | 4 | 3 |
1999 | Uni-President Lions | 2 | 1 | Chinatrust Whales | 4 | 1 |
Notable former players
- Jim Aylward
- José Canó
- Silvestre Campusano
- Munenori Kawasaki
- Huang Ping-yang
- Joe Strong
- Chang Tai-Shan
- Freddie Toliver
See also
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ Shan, Shelley (14 May 2019). "Wei Chuan Dragons are fifth team to join CPBL". Taipei Times. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ^ Shan, Shelley (25 June 2019). "CPBL welcomes back Dragons after 20 years". Retrieved 25 June 2019.
- Wei Chuan Dragons in Taiwan Baseball Wiki (in Traditional Chinese)
- Wei Chuan Food Corporation official website