The Asia Series was an international club baseball competition, contested by the champions of all four professional leagues associated with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)—Australian Baseball League (ABL), Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO League), and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB)—along with the CEB European Champion Cup holder and host city,[1] to bring the number of teams to six.

Asia Series
Most recent season or competition:
2013 Asia Series
FormerlyKonami Cup
SportBaseball
First season2005
No. of teams6
Country Australia (2011–2013)
 China (2005–2008, 2012)
 Europe (2013)
 Japan
 South Korea
 Taiwan
Most titlesAustralia Canberra Cavalry
Japan Chiba Lotte Marines
Japan Chunichi Dragons
Japan Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
Japan Saitama Seibu Lions
South Korea Samsung Lions
Japan Yomiuri Giants
(1 each)
Related
competitions
Australia ABL
China CBL
Taiwan CPBL
Europe CEB European Cup (CEB)
South Korea KBO League (KBO)
Japan NPB

The competition was co-sponsored by NPB Association and Konami from 2005 to 2007 and known as the Konami Cup. Participation was limited to the East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China). The tournament was stopped between 2009 and 2010 due to financing issues. It was reintroduced in 2011 and has been hosted by Taiwan and South Korea, whereas the previous had been held in Japan.

Following the 2013 edition, the Asia Series was discontinued due to scheduling issues.

Background

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The Asia Series began in 2005 as a tournament among the champions of NPB, KBO League and CPBL and an All-Star team from China Baseball League (CBL), which was called China Stars. Konami co-sponsored the competition until 2007, when the 2008 season became the first Asia Series. Additionally, it was the first time that the champion of CBL was appointed for the tournament, instead of an All-Star line-up.

The withdrawal of Konami raised in the following years financing issues. The 2009 season was reduced to a single-game championship between the champions of NPB and KBO League and held at the Nagasaki Stadium. The Yomiuri Giants won against the Kia Tigers by 9–4.[2]

A potential 2010 season was then cancelled due to a conflict with the 2010 Asian Games[3] and replaced by another sets of Club Championship. The KBO League champion SK Wyverns first split the two-game championship with CPBL champion Brother Elephants at the Taichung Stadium, before being defeated in a single-game championship by the NPB champion Chiba Lotte Marines at the Tokyo Dome with 3–0.[4]

The subject of re-introducing the event for 2011 was discussed in a November 2010 meeting between the heads of the NPB, KBO, CPBL, and ABL. The CPBL offered to host the event in November 2011. The ABL, whose season runs from November through February, added a bye week in its schedule to allow the champion of the season before to participate in the Asia Series.

In 2013, Fortitudo Baseball Bologna of the Italian Baseball League competed as the first representative of Europe to participate in the tournament, qualifying as the 2013 CEB European Cup champion. Due to the CBL's hiatus that year, the tournament remained at six teams.

The 2014 and 2015 seasons were cancelled due to scheduling issues.[5]

Format

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Each of the 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. If teams were tied a series of tiebreakers 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.[6] All games have the designated hitter rule in effect, though not all participating teams would have it in their regular league.

Participants

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Country 2005 2006 2007 2008 2011 2012 2013
  Japan (NPB)              
  South Korea (KBO)              
  Taiwan (CPBL)              
  China (CBL)          
  Australia (ABL)      
  Europe (CEB)  

Finals results

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Konami Cup

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2005–2007
Season Host City Champions Score Runners-up MVP No. of Teams
2005
Details
 
Tokyo
 
Chiba Lotte Marines
5–3  
Samsung Lions
  Benny Agbayani
Chiba Lotte Marines
4
2006
Details
 
Tokyo
 
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
1–0  
La New Bears
  Yu Darvish
Hok. Nippon-Ham Fighters
4
2007
Details
 
Tokyo
 
Chunichi Dragons
6–5  
SK Wyverns
  Hirokazu Ibata
Chunichi Dragons
4

Asia Series

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2008, 2011–2013
Season Host City Champions Score Runners-up MVP No. of Teams
2008
Details
 
Tokyo
 
Saitama Seibu Lions
1–0  
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
  Tomoaki Satoh
Saitama Seibu Lions
4
2011
Details
 
Taichung
 
Samsung Lions
5–3  
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
  Won-Sam Jang
Samsung Lions
4
2012
Details
 
Busan
 
Yomiuri Giants
6–3  
Lamigo Monkeys
  Hayato Sakamoto
Yomiuri Giants
6
2013
Details
 
Taichung
 
Canberra Cavalry
14–4  
Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions
  Jack Murphy
Canberra Cavalry
6

Series records

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By country

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Country Champions Runners-up Years Won Years Finalist
  Japan (NPB) 5 1 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012 2011
  South Korea (KBO) 1 2 2011 2005, 2007
  Australia (ABL) 1 0 2013
  Taiwan (CPBL) 0 4 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013

By club

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Club Champions Runners-up Participated Years
Won
Years
Finalist
Games
Won
Games
Lost
Games
Pct.
  Samsung Lions 1 1 5 2011 2005 9 7 .563
  Chiba Lotte Marines 1 0 1 2005 4 0 1.000
  Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 1 0 1 2006 4 0 1.000
  Yomiuri Giants 1 0 1 2012 3 0 1.000
  Chunichi Dragons 1 0 1 2007 3 1 .750
  Saitama Seibu Lions 1 0 1 2008 3 1 .750
  Canberra Cavalry 1 0 1 2013 3 1 .750
  Lamigo Monkeys1 0 2 2 2006, 2012 4 3 .571
  Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 0 2 4 2008, 2013 6 8 .429
  Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 0 1 1 2011 3 1 .750
  SK Wyverns 0 1 2 2007 5 2 .714
  Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 0 0 1 2 1 .667
  Lotte Giants 0 0 1 1 1 .500
  EDA Rhinos2 0 0 2 1 4 .200
  China Stars 0 0 4 0 11 .000
  Perth Heat 0 0 2 0 5 .000
  Fortitudo Baseball Bologna 0 0 1 0 2 .000
  Tianjin Lions 0 0 1 0 3 .000
  • 1: Participated in 2006 under its old name La New Bears
  • 2: Participated in 2005 under its old name Sinon Bulls

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Bologna, Italy to play in Asia Series - IBAF". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  2. ^ History of Asia Series – Cancellation of 2009 Asia Series and Follow-Up Archived November 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. (Traditional Chinese/English). Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
  3. ^ Yoon Chul. Asia Series Likely Off Due to Schedule Conflict. The Korea Times; January 28, 2010. Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
  4. ^ History of Asia Series – Cancellation of 2010 Asia Series and Follow-Up Archived November 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. (Traditional Chinese/English). Retrieved on November 24, 2011.
  5. ^ Elborough, Brad (8 October 2014). "Perth Heat's Asian expedition off after annual series cancelled". Brisbane Times.
  6. ^ "Asia Series 2011 opens November 25" (Press release). International Baseball Federation. 19 May 2011. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
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