Uni-Lions | |||
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League | Chinese Professional Baseball League | ||
Ballpark | Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium | ||
Year founded | 1989 | ||
Taiwan Series championships | |||
Former name(s) |
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Playoff berths | 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 | ||
Ownership | |||
Manager | Chen Lien-hung | ||
General Manager | Su Tai-an | ||
Uniforms | |||
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Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions | |||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 統一7-Eleven獅 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 統一7-Eleven狮 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Tǒngyī Shī |
Wade–Giles | T'ung-I Shih |
Tongyong Pinyin | Tǒngyī Shīh |
Yale Romanization | Tǔngyī Shr̄ |
IPA | [tʰʊ̀ŋí ʂɻ̩́] |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | Thóng-it Sai |
Home
Away
The Uni-President Lions (Chinese: 統一7-Eleven獅) is a professional baseball team based in Tainan City, Taiwan. The organization is named after the Uni-President Corporation, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerate whose sub-company Uni-President Baseball Team Company oversees operations of the team. The Lions play their home games at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tainan City, where they enjoy a large fan base.
The team was first established as amateur Uni-President Baseball Team (Chinese: 統一棒球隊) in 1989 for the purpose of training and preparation for eventual professionalization in the next year. The corporation originally intended to recruit players from Taipower Baseball Team, an amateur baseball team based in nearby Kaohsiung, but faced many difficulties in the process.
Uni-President originally offered Lin Chia-hsiang (Chinese: 林家祥) the position of team manager, hoping that his status as Taipower's head coach would ensure players' willingness to join the new team. Lin accepted at first, and agreed to aid the effort of recruiting players. However, due to uncertainties in a professional career, players were reluctant to leave Taipower for the new team, and Lin could only secure a few players and was far below the 15 players minimum requirement of the amateur league. Lin then turned down the offer, leaving Uni-President searching for a replacement for the manager position. Uni-President eventually contacted Cheng Kuen-chi (Chinese: 鄭昆吉) and offered him the position. Cheng, a former coach of Taipower who was respected by many players, accepted the offer and became the first manager for Uni-President. Cheng then used his connection to convince players to join the team, and Uni-President barely met the minimum requirement after Brother baseball team lent players to Uni-President. The team then participated and performed modestly in two amateur series in 1989.