The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL; ) is the top-tier

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

league 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 league was established in 1989 and played the first season in 1990. CPBL eventually absorbed the competing

Taiwan Major League The Taiwan Major League Professional Baseball (TML; ) was a professional baseball league in Taiwan that operated from 1996 to 2003. It was established by TV tycoon Chiu Fu-sheng after a row over the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) b ...

in 2003. As of the 2024 season, the CPBL consists of six organizations, all of which have teams in the main league and farm league. The CPBL consists of Major () and, since 2006, Minor () leagues, with the Minor league team rosters consist of developmental and injury-recovering players. CPBL TV is CPBL's official paid live-streaming and video-on-demand platform. It receives signals from each team's broadcasting partners and is available worldwide.

History

Baseball was first introduced to Taiwan during Japanese rule, and gained popularity when the national little league baseball teams won numerous

Little League World Series The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...

championships in the 1970s and 1980s. The national baseball team also performed exceptionally well in many international competitions. However, the development of baseball in Taiwan was limited due to the lack of a professional league, and therefore many players were reluctant to commit to the sport. The idea of forming a professional baseball league in Taiwan was first suggested by local Brother Hotel's chairman Hung Teng-sheng (洪騰勝). He formed his amateur Brother Hotel baseball team in 1984, and intended to professionalize his team and form a professional league within a few years. Throughout 1988 and 1989, Hung visited numerous Taiwanese businesses, trying to convince them to form professional baseball clubs. Most of his requests were rejected, but Wei Chuan Corporation, Mercuries Chain Stores, and

Uni-President Corporation Uni-President Enterprises Corporation () is an international food conglomerate based in Tainan, Taiwan. It is the largest food production company in Taiwan as well as Asia, and has a significant market share in dairy products, foods and snacks, ...

all supported the idea and formed teams. The Chinese Professional Baseball League was established on October 23, 1989, with Hung Teng-sheng acting as secretary-general. Because of his contribution to professional baseball in Taiwan, Hung is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the CPBL." Chung Meng-shun (鍾孟舜) designed every original logo of the four founding teams.

Expansions in the 1990s

With the popularity rise in the first few years, the

Jungo Bears Jungo Connectivity is an Israeli software company that specializes in driver monitoring system (DMS) software and device driver development. History Jungo Connectivity was founded in 2013 as an automotive software divestiture from Cisco Systems. ...

and

China Times Eagles The China Times Eagles () is a defunct professional baseball team belonging to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) that existed between 1993 and 1997. History Originally formed as an amateur club Black Eagles in 1990, this club was pu ...

joined in 1993. The

Koos Group Whales Koos may refer to: * Koos (name), a masculine given name and a surname * Koos (fashion label), a former haute couture fashion label * Koos (island), in the Bay of Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany * Koos Group, a Taiwan-based pan-Asian bu ...

joined in 1997. The league consisted of seven teams in the 1997 season which is the maximum in CPBL history.

Game-fixing scandals and decline in popularity

The Black Eagles Incident in 1997 resulted in a major popularity decline. The

became defunct after the 1997 season. The

Wei Chuan Dragons The Wei Chuan Dragons () are a professional baseball team in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) that originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise's revival and return to the CPBL took ...

and

Mercuries Tigers The Mercuries Tigers () were a professional baseball team belonging to Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) between 1990 and 1999. History The Tigers were owned and administered by the local Mercuries Corporation whose then cha ...

also became defunct after the 1999 season, prior to which the Dragons had won all championships from 1997 to 1999.

Merger with Taiwan Major League

In 1997, the newly founded

began to compete with the CPBL. The two leagues were often competing with each other, but eventually, the TML merged with the CPBL.

Recent expansions

In May 2019, Commissioner John Wu announced that CPBL had reached agreement with

Ting Hsin International Group Ting Hsin International Group () is a Taiwanese-owned corporate group established in 1958. It owns various food brands such as the instant noodle maker Master Kong, Wei-Chuan Food Corporation and Dicos. History Taipei 101 and noodles The compa ...

to join the league by reactivating a former team, the

. The Dragons participated in the minor league in 2020, and returned to the major league in 2021. After

Tsai Chi-chang Tsai Chi-chang (; born 16 April 1969) is a Taiwanese politician. He was elected to the Legislative Yuan in Taichung's first constituency in 2012 and re-elected in 2016. He is currently the Deputy Speaker of Legislative Yuan, having served in th ...

became commissioner in 2021, he proposed that

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

serve as the location for a new team since it was the only

major city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...

in Taiwan without a CPBL team at the time. In February 2022, Tsai announced that the sixth team would either be formed by

Chunghwa Telecom Chunghwa Telecom Company, Ltd. () (, ) is the largest integrated telecom service provider in Taiwan, and the incumbent local exchange carrier of PSTN, Mobile, and broadband services in the country. History Chunghwa Telecom was founded as ...

Taiwan Steel Group 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 northeast ...

. It was later announced that the expansion team would be by Taiwan Steel Group. The proposed team name is

TSG Hawks The TSG Hawks () are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. The team is owned by Taiwan Steel Group and was formed in 2022 as part of CPBL's expansion. The Hawks are set to play their home games ...

, and their home field would be Chengcing Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung.

2020 season and COVID-19

Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the opening day of the 31st CPBL season on March 14 was delayed. It was originally brought earlier compared to previous seasons to accommodate the

final qualifying tournament Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

2021 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. On 1 April, the CPBL announced that the season would begin from 11 April as the

Rakuten Monkeys The Rakuten Monkeys (), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (, abbreviated ), La New Bears () and then the Lamigo Monkeys (), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. Owned and administer ...

hosted the

Chinatrust Brothers The CTBC Brothers () or simply Brothers are a professional baseball team in Taiwan. The team was originally established as an amateur team in 1984 by the Brother Hotel located in Taipei City, and later joined the Chinese Professional Baseball Leagu ...

with the games being playing without live fans. This received international coverage because other major baseball leagues such as the

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, the

NPB or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

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 ...

, and the KBO in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, which were still severely impacted by the virus outbreak were unable to confirm the dates of their respective season openings. The annual

CPBL All-Star Game The CPBL All-Star Game (), alternatively known as Red v. White All-Star Game (), is an annual baseball game held by the Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan. The teams are organized along the geographic dispositions of the member organiz ...

was cancelled for the first time to accommodate to the compact schedule.

Naming issue

The name "Chinese Professional Baseball League" has attracted debate among Taiwanese baseball fans. Owing to the ambiguous

political status of Taiwan The controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan or the Taiwan issue is a result of World War II, the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949), and the Cold War. The basic issue hinges on who the islands of Taiwan, Peng ...

and the

Nagoya Resolution The Republic of China (ROC) took part in the opening ceremony of the 1924 Summer Olympics, but its four athletes, all of whom were tennis players, withdrew from competition. The ROC participated in its first Olympic Games in 1932 under the name o ...

, the Republic of China (Taiwan) was forced to use the name of "

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

" under pressure from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Many have called to for the name of CPBL be changed, with suggestions including the replacement of “Chinese” with “Taiwan”, “Formosa” or “Chunghwa”. In the

2018 Taiwanese referendum A multi-question referendum was held in Taiwan on 24 November 2018 alongside local elections. The referendum was the first since the December 2017 reform to the Referendum Act, which reduced the threshold for submitting questions to the ballot; ...

, CPBL officials publicly rejected the proposal for Taiwan to compete as "Taiwan" in the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, for fear that Taiwanese athletes may risk losing eligibility. The league received criticism for holding this stance while selling official merchandise that said "Team Taiwan." In April 2020, Premier

Su Tseng-chang Hope Su Tseng-chang (; born 28 July 1947) is a Taiwanese politician serving as premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2019, and previously from 2006 to 2007. He was the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2005 and from 2012 ...

said that in order to elevate Taiwan's visibility in the world, there was a need to distinguish Taiwan from China in the naming of

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; ) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of its two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1,400 flights weekly (inclu ...

and CPBL. A

New Power Party The New Power Party (NPP) is a political party in Taiwan formed in early 2015. The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan independenc ...

survey showed that 62% of Taiwanese people support changing the name of the league to distinguish itself from Chinese baseball and avoid confusion. In January 2021, CPBL commissioner

agreed that spectators should be made aware that the league was being played in Taiwan and not China, but that a name change was not a top priority.

Organizations

All teams are owned by and named after large Taiwanese corporations, a similar practice seen in Japan's

and South Korea's KBO. Each team manages a regional market with a home city, but does not play its games exclusively in that market. Other than the home cities, regular season games are also held in

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

Douliu Douliu (Hokkien POJ: ''Táu-la̍k'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Yunlin County, Taiwan. It is also the political and economic center of the county. Douliu City is served by National Highway No. 3. Name Its former name ...

Chiayi Chiayi (, Taigi POJ: ''Ka-gī''; ), officially known as Chiayi City, is a city located in the plains of southwestern Taiwan. Formerly called ''Kagee'' during the late Qing dynasty and ''Kagi'' during the Japanese era (), its historical name i ...

, Pingtung,

Luodong Luodong Township () is an urban township An urban township is a designation of a unit of local government in several countries. United States The term is called ''urban township'' Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio and urban town in Wisconsin. General ...

, Hualien, and Taitung with less frequency. Each season spans from March to October, with a one-week all-star break in June or July, which separates the season into first and second half-seasons. Playoffs are held in late October or early November, with three teams competing in two rounds. A team may qualify for playoffs either by winning a half-season title, or be awarded a wild card berth by attaining the highest place in the seasonal ranks. If a team wins a half-season title, it will not be considered in the seasonal ranks when the winner of the wild card is being decided. If both half seasons were won by the same team, another wild card berth will be given through the same mechanism after the first berth has been awarded Between 2005 and 2013, the champion team will represent Taiwan in 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), ...

to compete with other champion teams from

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

(

Korean Series The Korean Series is the final championship series of the KBO League. It has been held since the KBO League's first season in and is the final series of the post-season play-offs. From to 2013, the winner of the Korean Series went on to play in ...

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 ...

(

Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as the name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010� ...

), and the

WBSC Europe The World Baseball Softball Confederation Europe, known as WBSC Europe, was established on February 10th, 2018 during a Congress of the Confederation of European Baseball and the European Softball Federation in Val d’Europe, France. the establi ...

( European Champion Cup).

Foreign players

A typical monthly salary for a foreign player is in between 25,000 and 50,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

, these positions are normally filled by AA, AAA, or Japanese minor leaguers. The number of foreign players allowed on a team's roster is limited to four. Of the four players only three are allowed to be activated on the major league roster, the remaining foreign player can practice and prepare with the team or play in the minors. A foreign player, once sent to the minor league team, must wait a week before being allowed to be recalled to the major league. Foreign players, from regions other than Japan and South Korea, are given Chinese

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

s to increase familiarity with Taiwanese fans. These epithets, usually two to three characters in length, are generally loose

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

s of the players' names and are generally chosen as terms meant to convey strength or might. One example is

Jeff Andra Jeffrey Louis Andra (born September 9, 1975) is a former professional baseball pitcher. Career Andra attended the University of Oklahoma, where he played for the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team. In 1996, he played collegiate summer baseball wit ...

, whose epithet is ''Feiyong'' (飛勇) — meaning, literally, a flying brave man. Recently however, most foreign players are just simply given a direct Chinese

transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...

. Some players (mostly foreign players) have now adopted the custom in the rest of the world by placing their surnames on the back of their jerseys using the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

. Some teams now have adopted Latin alphabet jerseys, a trend that has picked up in recent years. The

Fubon Guardians The Fubon Guardians () are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. The team is owned by Fubon Financial Holding Co. and play their home games at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City. ...

only have uniforms with such, and the other teams are adopting such jerseys on occasion.

Current clubs

Defunct clubs

(時報鷹) (1993–1997) *

Chinatrust Whales The Chinatrust Whales (中信鯨), formerly Koos Group Whales (和信鯨), were a Taiwanese professional baseball team. Founded as an amateur team in 1991, this club became professional and joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in ...

(中信鯨) (1997–2008) * Macoto Cobras /

dmedia T-REX The dmedia T-REX (米迪亞暴龍) was a professional baseball team belonging to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). History The history of the team can be traced back to early 2001, when local Macoto Bank started to sponsor Taiwa ...

(米迪亞暴龍) (2003–2008) *

(三商虎) (1990–1999)

Minor League

The CPBL Minor League took shape in late 2003 as a result of cooperation with

Chinese Taipei Baseball Association The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) was established for political compensation on February 28, 1973. The Chinese translation of the English name is: traditional Chinese: 中華台北棒球協會, hanyu pinyin: Zhōnghuá Táiběi bàng ...

Alternative service Alternative civilian service, also called alternative services, civilian service, non-military service, and substitute service, is a form of national service performed in lieu of military conscription for various reasons, such as conscientious ...

draftees, players deemed eligible to complete their national service obligation in the field of baseball, were sent to the CPBL member organizations to fill their roster. There are currently 6 minor league teams, each plays about 80 games annually. Similar to the

's minor leagues, the minor league teams are each owned by CPBL member clubs as reserve teams rather than independent organizations.

League Champions

Titles by teams as of the end of the 2023 CPBL season: The Taiwan Series was not held in 1992, 1994 and 1995 because the Brother Elephants and the Uni-President Lions had won the titles by virtue of winning both half-seasons.

All-star game

An all-star game has been held since 1990.

Home Run Derby

A home run derby has been held since 1992. It is usually held the day before the all-star game.

Awards

;Overall * CPBL MVP of the Year Award *

CPBL Rookie of the Year Award The CPBL Rookie of the Year is awarded to the rookie who performs best in a particular Chinese Professional Baseball League season. The award has been given since 1993. Rookies cannot have played in Nippon Professional Baseball, the International ...

* CPBL Manager of the Year Award *

CPBL Most Progressive Award The CPBL most progressive award is the annual award officially given by Chinese Professional Baseball League. It is given to one player in the league. The award recognizes players who have "re-emerged" as a player during a single season. First wa ...

;Pitching * CPBL wins champion * CPBL ERA champion * CPBL strikeout champion * CPBL holds champion * CPBL saves champion ;Batting * CPBL batting champion * CPBL home run champion * CPBL RBI champion * CPBL hits champion * CPBL stolen bases champion

Culture

Cheersticks are a pair of plastic sticks, often seen at baseball games in Taiwan. They are banged together to make noise.

Colors of cheersticks in the CPBL

* Brother Elephants and CTBC Brothers: Yellow *

: White and black *

EDA Rhinos EDA or Eda may refer to: Computing * Electronic design automation * Enterprise Desktop Alliance, a computer technology consortium * Enterprise digital assistant * Estimation of distribution algorithm * Event-driven architecture * Exploratory da ...

: Purple * First Financial Agan, La New Bears, Lamigo Monkeys and Rakuten Monkeys: Light blue at the beginning, then changed to teal, now black and white. *

: Aquamarine * Jungo Bears, Sinon Bears and Sinon Bulls: Light green * Koos Group Whales and Chinatrust Whales: Green and white at the beginning, then changed to blue, then all white. * Macoto Gida, Macoto Cobras and dmedia T-REX: Red at the beginning, then changed to orange and black, then red and black. *

: Blue * Uni-President Lions and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions: Green at the beginning, then changed to orange and green, and all orange now. *

: Red

Colors of cheersticks in the TML

* Chianan Luka: Green *

Kaoping Fala The Rakuten Monkeys (), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (, abbreviated ), La New Bears () and then the Lamigo Monkeys (), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan. Owned and administer ...

: Yellow *

Taichung Agan The Taichung Agan () was a Taiwanese professional baseball team belonging to the Taiwan Major League (TML). It was based in Taichung and took the Taichung Baseball Field (and occasionally the Hsinchu CKS Baseball Stadium) as its home throughout its ...

: Blue *

Taipei Gida Taipei Gida () was a Taiwanese professional baseball team that existed from 1997 to 2002. It was one of the four Taiwan Major League (TML) teams and was based in Taipei, Taiwan. Its historical sponsors included local Sampo Corporation and Macoto B ...