The Asia Series was an international club

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

competition, contested by the champions of all four

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leagues associated with the

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(WBSC)—

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 s ...

(ABL),

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 ...

(CPBL), Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO League), and

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB)—along with the CEB European Champion Cup holder and host city, to bring the number of teams to six. The competition was co-sponsored by NPB Association and

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

from 2005 to 2007 and known as the Konami Cup. Participation was limited to the

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countries (

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South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

). 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

The Asia Series began in 2005 as a tournament among the champions of NPB,

KBO League The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...

and

CPBL 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 ...

and an

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team from

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(CBL), which was called

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. 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

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won against the

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by 9–4. A potential 2010 season was then cancelled due to a conflict with the

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and replaced by another sets of Club Championship. The KBO League champion

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first split the two-game championship with CPBL champion

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at the Taichung Stadium, before being defeated in a single-game championship by the NPB champion

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at the

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with 3–0. 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

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. 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,

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of the

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competed as the first representative of

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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.

Format

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 In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...

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 form ...

. All games have the

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. Unlike other players in a team's lineup, they generally only play as an offensive player and usually do not play defense as ...

rule in effect, though not all participating teams would have it in their regular league.

Participants

Finals results

Konami Cup

;2005–2007

Asia Series

;2008, 2011–2013

Series records

By country

By club

*¹: Participated in 2006 under its old name La New Bears *²: Participated in 2005 under its old name Sinon Bulls

References

External links

* {{Professional Baseball International baseball competitions in Asia Recurring sporting events established in 2005