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Central League#Central League pennant winners

{{Expand Japanese|topic=sport|セントラル・リーグ|date=February 2022}}

{{short description|Nippon Professional Baseball league}}

{{about|the Japanese baseball league}}

{{Infobox sports league

| title = Central League
セントラル・リーグ

| current_season =

| logo = NPB Central League Flag.png

| caption = Central League Flag

| pixels = 150px

| sport = Baseball

| league = Nippon Professional Baseball

| founded = {{start date and age|1949|12|15}}

| teams = 6

| champion = Yomiuri Giants (39)

| most_champs =

| most successful club = Yomiuri Giants (39)

| color = green

| font_color =

| country = Japan

| President =

}}

The {{Nihongo|Central League|セントラル・リーグ|Sentoraru Rīgu}} or {{Nihongo|Ce League|セ・リーグ|Se Rīgu}}, also known as the {{Nihongo|JERA Central League|JERAセ・リーグ|JERA Se Rīgu}} for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country. Unlike the Pacific League, designated hitters are not used during Central League home games.

History

The Central League was founded in 1949 with eight teams: four holdovers from the previous Japanese Baseball League — the Chunichi Dragons, the Hanshin Tigers, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Shochiku Robins (formerly the Taiyō Robins) — and four new teams — the Hiroshima Carp, the Kokutetsu Swallows, the Nishi Nippon Pirates, and the Taiyō Whales.

The Nishi Nippon Pirates existed for one season — they placed sixth in 1950, and the following season merged with the also Fukuoka-based Nishitetsu Clippers (a member of the Pacific League) to form the Nishitetsu Lions, who joined the Pacific League. This brought the number of Central League teams down to an ungainly arrangement of seven.

Ryuji Suzuki became president of the Central League in 1952.[http://english.baseball-museum.or.jp/baseball_hallo/detail/detail_072.html "SUZUKI, Ryuji,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727190718/http://english.baseball-museum.or.jp/baseball_hallo/detail/detail_072.html |date=2020-07-27 }} The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Japan). Accessed March 27, 2015.

In 1952, it was decided that any team ending the season with a winning percentage below .300 would be disbanded or merged with other teams. The Shochiku Robins fell into this category, and were merged with the Taiyō Whales to become the Taiyō Shochiku Robins in January 1953. This enabled the Central League to shrink to an even number of six teams.

Ryuji Suzuki retired as CL president in 1984 after 33 years at the post.

In 2007, a new Climax Series was introduced. This playoff series was inspired by the stepladder playoff used in the Pacific League introduced in 2004 for the top three teams of the league to determine which one progressed to the Japan Series. Under the previous system, there was no post-season playoff and the winner of the pennant automatically qualified for the Japan Series.

Current teams

class="wikitable"

! Cap

Insignia

! Team

! Japanese Name

! style="padding: 0.2em 2.2em;" | Founded{{cite web|author=一般社団法人日本野球機構 |url=https://npb.jp/teams/ |title=球団別インデックス | NPB.jp 日本野球機構 |publisher=Npb.jp |date= |accessdate=2022-08-23}}

! Location

! Stadium

! Owner

70px

| Chunichi Dragons

| 中日ドラゴンズ
Chūnichi Doragonzu

| January 15, 1936

| Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi

| Vantelin Dome Nagoya

| Chunichi Shimbun

70px

| Hanshin Tigers

| 阪神タイガース
Hanshin Taigāsu

| December 10, 1935

| HQ in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo

Plays between Osaka and Hyogo{{Cite web |title=公式戦 京セラドーム大阪｜チケット｜阪神タイガース公式サイト |trans-title=Regular Season in Osaka Dome｜Tickets｜Hanshin Tigers Official Site |url=https://hanshintigers.jp/ticket/list.html#regular_kyocera |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=hanshintigers.jp |language=ja}}

| Hanshin Koshien Stadium

and

Kyocera Dome Osaka

| Hankyu Hanshin Holdings

70px

| Hiroshima Toyo Carp

| 広島東洋カープ
Hiroshima Tōyō Kāpu

| December 5, 1949

| Minami-ku, Hiroshima, Hiroshima

| Mazda Stadium

| Matsuda family [66.7%]
Mazda [33.3%]

70px

| Tokyo Yakult Swallows

| 東京ヤクルトスワローズ
Tōkyō Yakuruto Suwarōzu

| January 12, 1950

| Shinjuku, Tokyo

| Meiji Jingu Stadium

| Yakult Honsha

70px

| Yokohama DeNA BayStars

| 横浜DeNAベイスターズ
Yokohama DeNA Beisutāzu

| December 15, 1949

| Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa

| Yokohama Stadium

| DeNA

70px

| Yomiuri Giants

| 読売ジャイアンツ
Yomiuri Jaiantsu

| December 26, 1934

| Bunkyo, Tokyo

| Tokyo Dome

| Yomiuri Shimbun

Central League pennant winners

Climax Series winners

  • 2024 Yokohama DeNA BayStars
  • 2023 Hanshin Tigers
  • 2022 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
  • 2021 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
  • 2020 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2019 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2018 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
  • 2017 Yokohama DeNA BayStars
  • 2016 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
  • 2015 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
  • 2014 Hanshin Tigers
  • 2013 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2012 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2011 Chunichi Dragons
  • 2010 Chunichi Dragons
  • 2009 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2008 Yomiuri Giants
  • 2007 Chunichi Dragons

Central League statistics

class="sortable wikitable"

!Team

!First

!Second

!Third

Yomiuri Giants391213
Chunichi Dragons92314
Hiroshima Toyo Carp9710
Tokyo Yakult Swallows956
Hanshin Tigers61916
Yokohama DeNA BayStars2612
Shochiku Robins100
Nishi Nippon Pirates000

Most Valuable Pitcher

:See: Best Nine Award#Other notes

Best Nine Awards

{{main|Best Nine Award}}

See also

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{in lang|ja}} [http://www.npb.or.jp/cl/ Official website]
  • [http://baseballguru.com/jalbright/stats.html Japanese Baseball Data Archive at The Baseball Guru]
  • [http://japanesebaseball.com/players/index.jsp List of players at Japanese Baseball]

{{Japanese Professional Baseball}}

{{Baseball in Japan}}

{{Central League MVPs}}

{{Baseball leagues}}

{{Professional Baseball}}

{{Sports leagues in Japan}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1949 establishments in Japan

Category:Sports leagues established in 1949

Category:Annual events in Japan

Category:Professional sports leagues in Japan