Rakuten Monkeys

Rakuten Monkeys
File:Lamigo Monkeys logo.jpg
Information
Colors	Blue, white and red

Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium

The Lamigo Monkeys (Chinese: Lamigo 桃猿; pinyin: Lamigo Táoyúan), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (第一金控金剛, abbreviated 第一金剛) and then the La New Bears (La New 熊), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Owned and administered by the Kaohsiung-based shoe-producing La New Corporation, the Bears qualified for the playoffs in 2006 for the first time in team history, and by finishing with the best record for the whole season, gained an automatic berth in the Taiwan Series.

The Bears played their home games at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field in Kaohsiung County (now part of Kaohsiung City) from 2004 to 2010. In the 2011 season, their home stadium was moved to Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Accordingly, the team's name was changed to the Lamigo Monkeys.

History

First Financial Holdings Agan

First known as the First Securities Agan, the team was owned by the First Financial Holding Corporation, a government-funded financial holding service institute. Its then-chairman Chen Chien-lung (陳建隆) was a keen political supporter of President Chen Shui-bian, and, upon the president's request, immediately agreed to take over one of the two former TML teams after TML was merged into CPBL in January 2003. Since Macoto Bank had already decided to take-over the Macoto Gida, Chen Chien-lung took over the Agan as promised. Interestingly, the bulk of Agan's player came from Taipei Gida and Kaohsiung-Pingtung Fala, and not the Taichung Agan which carried the same mascot and the champion of the final season of TML. Agan played its home games at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field.

Without a strong roster plus the management's inexperience and unprofessionalism in running a professional sports club, the Agan performed poorly right from the start of the 2003 season. After Chen Chien-lung's sudden resignation due to allegation of insider trading in August 2003, the First Financial Holding Corporation no longer showed willingness in running the team. The Agan finished the 2003 season placing fifth overall, and did not win any of the 20 games against Brother Elephants, the Taiwan Series champion of that season.

La New Bears

Just before the 2004 season, Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing invited the La New Corporation, a footwear manufacturer to sponsor the then-vacant Chengcing Lake Baseball Field, which was under the management of Kaohsiung County after the disbandment of Taiwan Major League. La New Corporation eventually agreed and, in addition, offered to buy the First Financial Holdings Agan, whose management had been struggling in the past season. On December 16, 2003, La New completed the process with First Financial Holdings and renamed the team La New Bears. In the first two years of their existence, the Bears did not perform well. But after several additions to the roster through drafts and the minor league, the Bears turned the team around, eventually winning the 2006 Taiwan Series title.

Lamigo Monkeys

After several years of futile effort to manage the Kaohsiung market, the team relocated to Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City) and changed its name to Lamigo Monkeys in January 2011. Lamigo is a subsidiary of La New Corporation that operates a wellness center, restaurants as well as a travel agency in northern Taiwan. Since Lamigo is based in northern Taiwan, the team was moved to Taoyuan County and play their home games at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Their new name in Chinese, taoyuan (桃猿), is a homophone to their new home county. Despite the name change, La New Corporation retained its direct ownership of the team. In 2012, the Monkeys won their first seasonal title after the name change when they defeated Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions four games to one in Taiwan Series.

Records

Qualified for playoffs

Taiwan Series Championship

Asia Series Championship

Regular seasons

Season	Wins	Losses	Ties	Pct.	Place
First Financial Holdings Agan
2003	20 (9/11)	71 (37/34)	9 (4/5)	.220 (.196/.244)	5 (6/5)
La New Bears
2004	40 (18/22)	56 (30/26)	4 (2/2)	.417 (.375/.458)	6 (6/5)
2005	42 (16/26)	55 (32/23)	3 (2/1)	.433 (.333/.531)	6 (6/2)
2006	62 (30/32)	34 (19/15)	4 (2/2)	.646 (.612/.681)	1 (1/1)
2007	58 (26/32)	42 (24/18)	0 (0/0)	.580 (.520/.640)	2 (2/1)
2008	61 (28/33)	35 (19/16)	4 (3/1)	.610 (.596/.673)	2 (2/1)
2009	61 (33/28)	58 (26/32)	1 (1/0)	.513 (.559/.467)	2 (2/4)
2010	55 (31/24)	62 (27/35)	3 (2/1)	.470 (.534/.407)	3 (2/4)
Lamigo Monkeys
2011	66 (33/33)	52 (26/26)	2 (1/1)	.559 (.559/.559)	1 (2/1)
2012	66 (28/38)	52 (30/22)	2 (2/0)	.559 (.483/.633)	2 (2/1)
2013	58 (28/30)	60 (32/28)	2 (0/2)	.492 (.467/.517)	3 (3/2)
2014	66 (39/27)	51 (19/32)	3 (2/1)	.564 (.672/.458)	1 (1/3)
2015	68 (37/31)	52 (23/29)	0 (0/0)	.567 (.617/.517)	1 (1/2)
Total	723	680	37	.515	—

Playoffs

Season	First Round			Taiwan Series
	Opponent	Wins	Losses	Opponent	Wins	Losses
La New Bears
2006	Seeded first			Uni-President Lions	4	0
2007	Seeded first			Uni-President Lions	3	4
2008	Brother Elephants	0	3	Eliminated
Lamigo Monkeys
2011	No first round.			Uni-President Lions	1	4
2012	No first round.			Uni-President Lions	4	1
2014	No first round.			Chinatrust Brother	4	1
2015	No first round.			Chinatrust Brother	4	3
Total					20	13

Asia Series

Year	Round Robin			Championship Round
	Wins	Losses	Standing	Opponent	Result
La New Bears
2006	2	1	2	Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters	0 – 1 (L)
Lamigo Monkeys
2012	2	0	1	Yomiuri Giants	3 – 6 (L)
Total	4	1	—	0W – 2L

Roster

Notable former players

• Cory Bailey
• Todd Betts
• Tony Fiore
• Jacob Cruz
• Midre Cummings
• José Silva
• Mac Suzuki
• Víctor Zambrano
• Shane Youman
• Scot Drucker

Retired number

• 10 – The number is reserved for the fans, as the tenth player on the field.

See also

• Chinese Professional Baseball League
• First Financial Holdings Agan

External links

• Official website Template:Zh icon
• Official Facebook