The Route Inn BCL, formerly known as the , is an independent minor
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 ...
league in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. The league's abbreviated designation is "."
League structure
The 72-game season runs from April–October, split into two half-terms, with the division champion from each half-term meeting in a playoff at the end of the year to determine which two teams compete for the league championship. Each team carries 27 players.
Typically, players earn 150,000
yen (c. U.S. $2,000) per month, with another 50,000 yen in potential bonuses.
[Patrick]
"Japan’s Independent Leagues 2014,"
NPB Tracker (09 February 2014). The league imposes a 7.2 million
yen (c. U.S. $60,600) salary limit for team managers.
[Jun Hongo]
"Julio Franco, 56 Years Old, Joins a Japan Team as Player-Manager,"
''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', February 9, 2015.
Not every team has a permanent home stadium. Instead, the team travels around its home
prefecture
A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...
, playing in different stadiums, each one called "home” for that game.
History
The BC League began play in 2007 as the Hokushinestu Baseball Challenge League. It originally consisted of four teams based in the
Hokuriku region
The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...
: the
Ishikawa Million Stars, the
Niigata Albirex Baseball Club, the
Shinano Grandserows, and the
Toyama Thunderbirds. In 2008 the league added two teams,
Gunma Diamond Pegasus and the
Fukui Miracle Elephants, and split into two divisions,
Jōshin'etsu (Gunma, Shinano, and Niigata) and
Hokuriku (Fukui, Ishikawa, and Toyama).
Ishikawa Million Stars Infielder
Kensuke Uchimura led the league in steals in 2007, which led to him being drafted by
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 ...
's
Rakuten Golden Eagles. In 2008, he became the first player to reach NPB after playing in the BC League.
In February 2014, the league agreed to a
naming rights
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
deal with Route Inn Group, becoming the Route Inn BC League.
[Gen]
"BC League agrees to naming rights deal with Route Inn Group,"
Yakyubaka.com (Feb. 25, 2014).
That same month, it was announced that a new team, the Musashi Heat Bears, based out of
Saitama Prefecture
is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...
, would join the league in time for the 2015 season.
In July 2014, it was announced that a second new team, the Fukushima Hopes, would also join the league for the 2015 season.
[Gen]
"New BC League team from Fukushima will be named the Fukushima Hopes,"
Yakyubaka.com (July 18, 2014).
Late in the summer of 2014, along with the
Shikoku Island League Plus, the Route Inn BCL formed the Japan Independent Baseball League Organization.
With the addition of two new teams, in 2015 the league realigned and renamed its divisions, replacing the previous divisions Jōshin'etsu and Hokuriku with Future—East and Advance—West.
The team adopted a three-division alignment in 2020.
In September 2021, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, and Shiga (the West division) announced that they would leave the league in 2022 and form a new league, the
Nihonkai Ocean League.
Teams
2025 season
Yearly standings
References
External links
Baseball Challenge League Official Site(in Japanese)
2014 Final Standings, Playoff Results, Statistical Leaders
{{Professional Baseball
Baseball leagues in Japan
Sports leagues established in 2007
2007 establishments in Japan
Professional sports leagues in Japan