Fixtures

CPBL Exhibition 03/19 10:35 - Uni-Lions vs Rakuten Monkeys - View
CPBL Exhibition 03/20 10:35 - TSG Hawks vs Uni-Lions - View
CPBL Exhibition 03/22 10:35 - CITIC Brothers vs Uni-Lions - View
CPBL Exhibition 03/23 09:05 - Wei-Chuan Dragons vs Uni-Lions - View
CPBL Exhibition 03/24 06:05 - Fubon vs Uni-Lions - View
CPBL 03/31 09:05 - Uni-Lions vs Fubon - View

Results

CPBL Exhibition 03/17 06:05 - TSG Hawks v Uni-Lions D 3-3
CPBL Exhibition 03/16 09:05 - Rakuten Monkeys v Uni-Lions W 6-7
CPBL Exhibition 03/15 10:35 - Fubon Guardians v Uni-Lions L 6-5
CPBL Exhibition 03/14 10:35 - CITIC Brothers v Uni-Lions L 7-2
CPBL Exhibition 03/13 10:35 - Wei-Chuan Dragons v Uni-Lions W 0-6
CPBL 10/30 10:35 2 [3] Rakuten Monkeys v Uni-Lions [1] L 7-1
CPBL 10/29 09:05 2 [1] Uni-Lions v Rakuten Monkeys [3] L 2-3
CPBL 10/28 09:05 2 [3] Rakuten Monkeys v Uni-Lions [1] L 3-2
CPBL 10/25 10:35 1 [5] Fubon Guardians v Uni-Lions [1] W 3-4
CPBL 10/23 10:35 1 [4] CITIC Brothers v Uni-Lions [1] W 2-4
CPBL 10/22 09:05 1 Fubon Guardians v Uni-Lions W 3-9
CPBL 10/21 09:05 1 [2] Wei-Chuan Dragons v Uni-Lions [1] W 2-8

The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, stylized as Uni-President 7-ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn Lions, also known as Uni-Lions (Chinese: 統一7-ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn獅), are a professional baseball team playing in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). The Lions are based in Tainan City, Taiwan and homefielded primarily at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium.

The organization is owned by Uni-President Corporation, one of Taiwan's largest conglomerates, whose subsidiary Uni-President Baseball Team Company oversees operations of the team. The Lions are the only CPBL team owned by the same parent company and played continuously since CPBL's founding season in 1990.

History

Amateur era

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.

Early years

The team was professionalized on January 1, 1990, following the establishment of CPBL. Uni-President chose Lions as its mascot, and hence the team was renamed Uni-President Lions. The Lions played the opening game of CPBL on March 17, 1990 with Brother Elephants in the now demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium, defeated the Elephants, and scored their first victory in professional baseball. However, the Lions performed poorly in their first professional season, placed third and only saved by Brother Elephants's even poorer performance.

The season of 1991 saw significant improvements in the Lions' performance. The Lions were able to advance into the playoffs and play Wei Chuan Dragons, who they defeated four games to two and won their first title. The next three years saw the dominance of the Elephants, who won three consecutive seasonal titles from 1992 to 1994, and defeated the Lions in the 1993 playoffs. It was during these years that the Lions and Elephants developed a long-lasting rivalry. The Lions again won the titles in 1995 and 1996.

Black Eagles scandal and the 1997 season

The 1997 season was not smooth sailing as many has expected; the Lions started out losing some prominent players to the rival Taiwan Major League. Also, the game-fixing scandal in mid-season of 1997, known as the Black Eagles scandal, was a major blow to the CPBL in general in that the average attendance dropped significantly, and teams were either forced out of the market or had to scale back on the budget and shut down some expansion projects over the next few years.

Furthermore, at the end of 1997 season, the Lions led the league with 58–7–31, while the Dragons (46–4–46) and the Eagles (41–4–51) were placed third and fourth respectively. However, the regulation dictated that the playoffs should be played by the team that led the league in the first half-season and the team in the second half-season. It was assumed that if a team leads the league in the whole year, it should have placed first in both half-seasons, and thus allowed to participate in the championship series. The loophole became obvious when the Dragons, placed seventh in the first half but first in the second half, and the Eagles, placed first in the first half and seventh in the second half, got a berth in the playoffs. The loophole was fixed in the following year.

Present

The team was officially renamed Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in 2008. 7-Eleven in Taiwan is franchised by President Chain Store Corporation, a subsidiary of Uni-President Enterprises Corporation; each entity now owns roughly half of the shares of the Lions.