Western League (Japanese baseball): Difference between revisions

Western League (Japanese baseball)
Classification	Ni gun (1952–present);
Sport	Baseball
Founded	1952 (72 years ago)
No. of teams	6
Country	Japan
Most recent; champion(s)	Hanshin Tigers
Most titles	Hanshin Tigers (18)
TV partner(s)	For the Fans
Official website	npb.jp/farm

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The Western League (ウエスタン・リーグ) is one of the two minor leagues ("ni-gun")^[1] of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

The league traces its roots to the Kansai Farm League, a formerly independent baseball league outside the realm of the NPB. It formerly included 7 teams, which quickly transformed into 6 due to the disbandment of once famous ballclub Sanyo Crowns. The first farm teams or second armies joined the league for the 1955 season.

A league champion is determined at the end of each season. The Hanshin Tigers have won 18 Western League titles, the most in the league's history, followed by the Chunichi Dragons (16) and the SoftBank hawks (12).

Structure and season[edit]

The league is currently based on a round robin system with at most 33 games against each other team in the league, which allows second teams to play a maximum of 132 games per year, including interleague games with the Eastern League. The number of scheduled games will vary from team to team, and games that are cancelled will not be replaced. The league championship is thus decided on winning percentage.

Interleague play[edit]

Interleague play exists. Interleague play is played in May during the Miyazaki Sunshine Series (宮崎サンシャインシリーズ). Plus, the WL champion meets the Eastern league's champion in the Farm Japan Championship Game, a single game to determine an overall champion of farm baseball, which has been held annually since 1987.

Teams[edit]


Team	City	Stadium
Chunichi Dragons	Nakagawa-ku, Nagoya	Nagoya Stadium
Orix Buffaloes	Konohana-ku, Osaka	Maishima Baseball Stadium
Hanshin Tigers	Nishinomiya	Hanshin Naruohama Baseball Stadium
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	Yū, Yamaguchi	Hiroshima Toyo Carp Yuu Training Field
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks	Chikugo	HAWKS Baseball Park Chikugo
Kufu HAYATE Ventures Shizuoka	Shizuoka	Shizuoka City Shimizu Ihara Stadium

History[edit]

Kansai Farm League[edit]

The league was created in 1952 as the Kansai Farm League,^[1] and was initially completely separate from the workings of the Nippon Professional Baseball. It featured the minor league teams of the six professional teams that had their homefields in the western region of Japan, as well one independent team not affiliated with an NPB franchise.

The initial complement of teams:^[1]

The Sanyo Crowns were dissolved after the 1952 season. The Shochiku Robins merged with the Taiyo Whales in 1953, but the Kintetsu Pearls' farm team joined the league that year, keeping the number of teams at six.^[1]

In 1954 the six teams of Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League decided to form their own minor league, called the New Japan League.^[1] With the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers affiliates dropping out to join the new minor league, only four teams remained in the Kansai Farm League.^[1]

Formation of the Western League[edit]

Both minor league decided to join forces with NPB in 1955, and the 14 farm teams of the Central League and Pacific League were split up to create the Western League and Eastern League, each with seven teams.^[1]

1955 Western League lineup (minor league homefield shown in parentheses):

Shrinkage[edit]

The Lions moved their franchise to Saitama in 1979 to join the Eastern League, leaving six teams, and in 2005 the Orix BlueWave and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes merged to become the Orix Buffaloes, leaving five teams in the Western League.

Format History[edit]

Until 2002, teams played each other 18 times per year (9 home and 9 away) giving a 90-game season. In 2003 and 2004, the season was divided into two stages, with teams playing each other nine times in each stage. The two stage winners would then meet in a play-off game in October with the winners of the first stage hosting the game.

In 2005, the split-season system was abolished and teams played each other 22 times each (11 home, 11 away) giving an 88-game season. From 2011 to 2014, the number of games played has increased to 104 games (26 vs each opponent). From 2015, the number of games increased to a maximum of 132 per team with teams meeting up to 33 times per season.

League rankings include all games played - including interleague games against teams in the Eastern League, played during the Miyazaki Sunshine Series in May - with winning percentage determining positions as teams play different numbers of games (cancelled games are not rescheduled).

Prior to 2013 only games hosted by a team whose first team belongs to the Pacific League (Orix and SoftBank) included the designated hitter system (DH system). Since 2013 games hosted by Hanshin also used the DH system and Hiroshima followed suit in 2015. At present .

In principle, games can only run to 10 innings. However, in the case of a preliminary game held at the same venue as an official game of the first team, or in the case of a regional game held at a different venue the next day, extra innings are not played after two and a half or three hours (depending on the venue) from the start of the game. Even if the score is tied in the final inning or the home team wins the game after the top of the 9th inning, the bottom of the 9th will still be played. Even if time expires before the fifth inning is completed, the game shall always be played until the fifth inning.

In addition, a tournament has been held in May every year since 1961, in which all teams participate and the tournament is held at a neutral site (the 29th tournament in 1986 through the 40th tournament in 1997 were added to the official round-robin tournament).

Also, a few pro-am exchange tournaments are held during the season between teams that are not scheduled to play and teams from the Japan Baseball Federation.

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Minor League History," JapaneseBaseball.com. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed April 20, 2015.

External links[edit]

Western League standings from 1955–2011 (Japanese)

[JBcom-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "Minor League History," JapaneseBaseball.com. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Accessed April 20, 2015.

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|Minor baseball league in Japan}}
-{{Unreferenced|date=January 2007}}
+{{Refimprove|date=January 2007}}
 {{Infobox sports league
+| current_season  =
-| logo     = Blank.gif<!--Please replace with the actual logo-->
+| logo     =
 | pixels   = 125px
 | caption  =
 | sport    = [[Baseball]]
+| classification={{Unbulleted list
-| founded  = 1952
+ |[[Minor league|Ni gun]] (1952–present)
+}}
+| founded  = {{start date and years ago|1952|p=yes}}
+| president=
 | motto    =
-| teams    = 5
+| teams    = 6
-| country  = {{JPN}}
+| country  = Japan
-| champion =
+| champion = [[Hanshin Tigers]]
+| TV       = [[Next Level Sports|For the Fans]]
-| folded   =
+| most_champs = [[Hanshin Tigers]] (18)
-| website  =
+| website  = [https://npb.jp/farm/ npb.jp/farm]
 }}
-The {{Nihongo|'''Western League'''|ウエスタン・リーグ}} is one of the two [[minor leagues]] of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the [[Pacific League]].
+The {{Nihongo|'''Western League'''|ウエスタン・リーグ}} is one of the two [[minor leagues]] ("ni-gun")<ref name=JBcom>[http://www.japanesebaseball.com/forum/thread.gsp?forum=2&thread=31150 "Minor League History,"] JapaneseBaseball.com. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304085244/http://www.japanesebaseball.com/forum/thread.gsp?forum=2&thread=31150|date=March 4, 2016}}. Accessed April 20, 2015.</ref> of [[Professional baseball in Japan|Japanese professional baseball]]. The league is owned and managed by the [[Pacific League]] of [[Nippon Professional Baseball]] (NPB).
+The league traces its roots to the Kansai Farm League, a formerly independent baseball league outside the realm of the NPB. It formerly included 7 teams, which quickly transformed into 6 due to the disbandment of once famous ballclub Sanyo Crowns. The first farm teams or second armies joined the league for the 1955 season.
+A league champion is determined at the end of each season. The Hanshin Tigers have won 18 Western League titles, the most in the league's history, followed by the Chunichi Dragons (16) and the SoftBank hawks (12).
+== Structure and season ==
+The league is currently based on a round robin system with at most 33 games against each other team in the league, which allows second teams to play a maximum of 132 games per year, including interleague games with the [[Eastern League (Japanese baseball)|Eastern League]]. The number of scheduled games will vary from team to team, and games that are cancelled will not be replaced. The league championship is thus decided on winning percentage.
+===Interleague play===
+Interleague play exists. Interleague play is played in May during the Miyazaki Sunshine Series (宮崎サンシャインシリーズ). Plus, the WL champion meets the Eastern league's champion in the Farm Japan Championship Game, a single game to determine an overall champion of farm baseball, which has been held annually since 1987.
+== Teams ==
+{| class="wikitable sortable"
+|+
+|-
+! Team !! City !! Stadium
+|-
+| [[Chunichi Dragons]] || [[Nakagawa-ku, Nagoya]] || [[Nagoya Stadium]]
+|-
+| [[Orix Buffaloes]] || [[Konohana-ku, Osaka]] || [[Maishima Baseball Stadium]]
+|-
+| [[Hanshin Tigers]] || [[Nishinomiya]] || Hanshin Naruohama Baseball Stadium
+|-
+| [[Hiroshima Toyo Carp]] || [[Yū, Yamaguchi]] || Hiroshima Toyo Carp Yuu Training Field
+|-
+| [[Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks]] || [[Chikugo, Fukuoka|Chikugo]] || HAWKS Baseball Park Chikugo
+|-
+| [[Kufu HAYATE Ventures Shizuoka]] || [[Shizuoka (city)|Shizuoka]] || Shizuoka City Shimizu Ihara Stadium
+|-
+|}
 ==History==
-The league was created in 1952 as the Kansai Farm League, and contained the minor league teams of the seven professional teams that had their homefields in the western region of Japan. The original teams in the league were, the [[Hanshin Tigers|Osaka Tigers]], [[Orix Bluewave|Hankyu Braves]], [[Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks|Nankai Hawks]], [[Chunichi Dragons|Nagoya Dragons]], [[Saitama Seibu Lions|Nishitetsu Lions]], [[Yokohama BayStars|Shochiku Robins]], and Sanyo Crowns. The league was initially completely separate from the workings of the [[Nippon Professional Baseball|NPB]]. The [[Sanyo Crowns]] were dissolved in 1952, and the [[Yokohama BayStars|Shochiku Robins]] merged with the [[Taiyo Whales]] in 1953, to cut the number of teams down to five. The [[Kintetsu Buffaloes|Kintetsu Pearls]] joined in 1953, but the six teams of the [[Central League]] decided to form their own minor league in 1954, and the [[Chunichi Dragons]] and [[Hanshin Tigers]] dropped out of the league to leave only four teams in the league.
+=== Kansai Farm League ===
-The league decided to join the [[Nippon Professional Baseball|NPB]] in 1955, and the 14 minor league teams of the [[Central League]] and [[Pacific League]] were split up to create the '''Western League''' and [[Eastern League (Japanese baseball)|Eastern League]]. The new league consisted of the minor league teams of, the [[Hanshin Tigers]], [[Orix Bluewave|Hankyu Braves]], [[Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks|Nankai Hawks]], [[Chunichi Dragons]], [[Saitama Seibu Lions|Nishitetsu Lions]], [[Kintetsu Buffaloes|Kintetsu Pearls]], and [[Hiroshima Toyo Carp|Hiroshima Carp]]. The Lions moved their franchise to [[Saitama Prefecture|Saitama]] in 1979 to join the Eastern League, leaving six teams, and the [[Orix BlueWave]] and [[Kintetsu Buffaloes|Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes]] merged to become the [[Orix Buffaloes]] in 2005, leaving five teams in the league.
+The league was created in 1952 as the '''Kansai Farm League''',<ref name=JBcom /> and was initially completely separate from the workings of the Nippon Professional Baseball. It featured the minor league teams of the six professional teams that had their homefields in the western region of Japan, as well one independent team not affiliated with an NPB franchise.
+The initial complement of teams:<ref name=JBcom />
-The [[Hiroshima Toyo Carp|Hiroshima Carp]] minor league affiliate was called the Hiroshima Greens, or Hiroshima Carp Greeners, before returning to their parent team's name in 1958. The same goes for the [[Hanshin Tigers]] minor league team, which was called the Hanshin Jaguars until 1957. The [[Orix BlueWave]] minor league team was renamed the Surpass Kobe in 2000, and then the Surpass in 2005 as the [[Orix Buffaloes]] minor league team, but the name was returned to the Orix Buffaloes in 2009.
+* [[Hankyu Braves]]
+* [[Osaka Tigers|Hanshin Jaguars]]
+* [[Nagoya Dragons]]
+* [[Nankai Hawks]]
+* [[Nishitetsu Lions]]
+* [[Sanyo Crowns]] — independent
+* [[Shochiku Robins]]
+The Sanyo Crowns were dissolved after the 1952 season. The [[Shochiku Robins]] merged with the [[Taiyo Whales]] in 1953, but the [[Kintetsu Pearls]]' [[farm team]] joined the league that year, keeping the number of teams at six.<ref name=JBcom />
-==Teams==
-The league contains the minor league affiliates of five Japanese professional teams (minor league homefield shown in parentheses):
+In 1954 the six teams of [[Nippon Professional Baseball]]'s [[Central League]] decided to form their own minor league, called the '''New Japan League'''.<ref name=JBcom /> With the [[Chunichi Dragons]] and [[Hanshin Tigers]] affiliates dropping out to join the new minor league, only four teams remained in the Kansai Farm League.<ref name=JBcom />
+=== Formation of the Western League ===
+Both minor league decided to join forces with NPB in 1955, and the 14 farm teams of the [[Central League]] and [[Pacific League]] were split up to create the '''Western League''' and '''[[Eastern League (Japanese baseball)|Eastern League]]''', each with seven teams.<ref name=JBcom />
+Western League lineup (minor league homefield shown in parentheses):
 * [[Chunichi Dragons]] ([[Nagoya, Aichi]])
-* [[Hanshin Tigers]] ([[Nishinomiya, Hyogo]])
+* [[Hankyu Braves]] ([[Kobe, Hyōgo]])
-* [[Orix Buffaloes]] ([[Kobe, Hyogo]])
+* [[Hanshin Tigers|Hanshin Jaguars]] ([[Nishinomiya, Hyōgo]])
-* [[Hiroshima Toyo Carp]] ([[Iwakuni, Yamaguchi]])
+* [[Hiroshima Carp|Hiroshima Greens]] ([[Iwakuni, Yamaguchi]])
+* [[Kintetsu Pearls]]
-* [[Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks]] ([[Fukuoka, Fukuoka]])
+* [[Nankai Hawks]] ([[Fukuoka, Fukuoka]])
+* [[Nishitetsu Lions]]
+=== Shrinkage ===
-Most of the Japanese minor league teams carry the same name, and use the same uniforms as their parent team, with the exception of the Yokohama BayStars (Shonan Searex), Orix Buffaloes (named Surpass until 2008, but currentry using Orix Buffaloes), and Saitama Seibu Lions (depends on the sponsored company, but currently using Saitama Seibu Lions) minor league teams.
+The Lions moved their franchise to [[Saitama Prefecture|Saitama]] in 1979 to join the [[Eastern League (Japanese baseball)|Eastern League]], leaving six teams, and in 2005 the [[Orix BlueWave]] and [[Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes]] merged to become the [[Orix Buffaloes]], leaving five teams in the Western League.
-==See also==
+=== Format History ===
-* [[Eastern League (Japanese baseball)|Eastern League]]
-* [[Central League]]
+Until 2002, teams played each other 18 times per year (9 home and 9 away) giving a 90-game season. In 2003 and 2004, the season was divided into two stages, with teams playing each other nine times in each stage. The two stage winners would then meet in a play-off game in October with the winners of the first stage hosting the game.
-* [[Pacific League]]
+In 2005, the split-season system was abolished and teams played each other 22 times each (11 home, 11 away) giving an 88-game season. From 2011 to 2014, the number of games played has increased to 104 games (26 vs each opponent). From 2015, the number of games increased to a maximum of 132 per team with teams meeting up to 33 times per season.
+League rankings include all games played - including interleague games against teams in the Eastern League, played during the Miyazaki Sunshine Series in May - with winning percentage determining positions as teams play different numbers of games (cancelled games are not rescheduled).
+Prior to 2013 only games hosted by a team whose first team belongs to the Pacific League (Orix and SoftBank) included the designated hitter system (DH system). Since 2013 games hosted by Hanshin also used the DH system and Hiroshima followed suit in 2015. At present .
+In principle, games can only run to 10 innings. However, in the case of a preliminary game held at the same venue as an official game of the first team, or in the case of a regional game held at a different venue the next day, extra innings are not played after two and a half or three hours (depending on the venue) from the start of the game. Even if the score is tied in the final inning or the home team wins the game after the top of the 9th inning, the bottom of the 9th will still be played. Even if time expires before the fifth inning is completed, the game shall always be played until the fifth inning.
+In addition, a tournament has been held in May every year since 1961, in which all teams participate and the tournament is held at a neutral site (the 29th tournament in 1986 through the 40th tournament in 1997 were added to the official round-robin tournament).
+Also, a few pro-am exchange tournaments are held during the season between teams that are not scheduled to play and teams from the Japan Baseball Federation.
+== References ==
+{{reflist}}
+== External links ==
+* [http://www.jttk.zaq.ne.jp/genmatsu/data/westarn.htm Western League standings from 1955–2011] (Japanese)
 {{Professional Baseball}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Western League (Japanese Baseball)}}
-[[Category:Asian baseball leagues]]
+[[Category:Nippon Professional Baseball|2]]
-[[Category:Baseball in Japan]]
+[[Category:Baseball leagues in Japan|3]]
-[[Category:Nippon Professional Baseball]]
+[[Category:Sports leagues established in 1952]]
+[[Category:1952 establishments in Japan]]
+[[Category:Professional sports leagues in Japan]]
-[[ja:ウエスタン・リーグ]]