The 2011 Asia Series was the fifth time the

Asia Series The Asia Series was an international club baseball competition, contested by the champions of all four of the professional leagues that are associated with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) — Australian Baseball League (ABL), ...

has been held, and the first after a two-year break. The tournament was held in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, the first time it has been held outside

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Though originally scheduled to commence on 11 November, the tournament was postponed by two weeks to allow for the delayed finish to the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season due to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The new schedule has the opening games to be played on 25 November, and the championship game concluded the tournament on 29 November. As had been the case in previous tournaments, the winners of NPB's 2011 Japan Series,

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KBO ...

's (KBO)

2011 Korean Series The Best-of-7 2011 Korean Series began on Tuesday, October 25th, at the Daegu Baseball Stadium in Incheon. It featured the Samsung Lions, who had claimed homefield advantage by finishing in first place at the end of the regular season, and the SK ...

and

Chinese Professional Baseball League The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier professional baseball league in Taiwan. The league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing Taiwan Major League in 20 ...

's (CPBL) 2011 Taiwan Series competed. Though originally included, no team represented the

China Baseball League The China Baseball League (, CBL) was a professional baseball league under the administration of Chinese Baseball Association, founded in 2002. The league suspended operations in 2012 due to financial troubles after the 2011 season, but returne ...

(CBL) due to ″concerns about the team's makeup″. An

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n team participated in the tournament for the first time: the

Perth Heat The Perth Heat is a baseball team in the current Australian Baseball League and a foundation member of the Australian Baseball League. It is now the most successful team in ABL, winning 15 Claxton Shields. Australian Baseball League (1989–19 ...

were invited as winners of the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

's (ABL) 2011 Championship series. The

Samsung Lions The Samsung Lions () are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982. They are based in the southeastern city of Daegu and are members of the KBO League. Their home stadium is Daegu Samsung Lions Park. They have won the Korean Champ ...

defeated the

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

in the title game to become the first non-Japanese champion. Starting pitcher

Jang Won-Sam Jang Won-sam (Hangul: 장원삼, Hanja: 張洹三) (born June 9, 1983 in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea) is a South Korean left-handed starting pitcher who plays for the LG Twins in the KBO League. Amateur career As a junior at Yon ...

was named the MVP of the series.

Participating teams

Format

Each of the four 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. In previous tournaments, if teams were tied a series of

tiebreakers In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...

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 In baseball statistics, run average (RA) refers to measures of the rate at which runs are allowed or scored. For ''pitchers,'' the run average is the number of runs—earned or unearned—allowed per nine innings. It is calculated using this formu ...

Round-robin stage

Final

References

External links

Official Website
{{Asia Series Asia Series 2011 in baseball

International baseball competitions hosted by Taiwan