Central League

Central League
Sport	Baseball
Founded	December 15, 1949; 74 years ago
No. of teams	6
Country	Japan
Most recent; champion(s)	Yomiuri Giants (39)
Most titles	Yomiuri Giants (39)

The Central League (セントラル・リーグ, Sentoraru Rīgu) or Ce League (セ・リーグ, Se Rīgu), also known as the 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.^[1]

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.^[1]

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

Team	Japanese Name	Founded^[2]	Location	Stadium	Owner
Chunichi Dragons	中日ドラゴンズ Chūnichi Doragonzu	January 15, 1936	Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi	Vantelin Dome Nagoya	Chunichi Shimbun
Hanshin Tigers	阪神タイガース Hanshin Taigāsu	December 10, 1935	Nishinomiya, Hyōgo	Hanshin Koshien Stadium	Hankyu Hanshin Holdings
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%]
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
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
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

Team	First	Second	Third
Yomiuri Giants	39	12	13
Chunichi Dragons	9	23	14
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	9	7	10
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	9	5	6
Hanshin Tigers	6	19	16
Yokohama DeNA BayStars	2	6	12
Shochiku Robins	1	0	0
Nishi Nippon Pirates	0	0	0

Most Valuable Pitcher

See: Best Nine Award#Other notes

Best Nine Awards

References

^ ^a ^b "SUZUKI, Ryuji," Archived 2020-07-27 at the Wayback Machine The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Japan). Accessed March 27, 2015.
^ 一般社団法人日本野球機構. "球団別インデックス | NPB.jp 日本野球機構". Npb.jp. Retrieved 2022-08-23.

External links

[Suzuki-1] "SUZUKI, Ryuji," Archived 2020-07-27 at the Wayback Machine The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Japan). Accessed March 27, 2015.

[2] 一般社団法人日本野球機構. "球団別インデックス | NPB.jp 日本野球機構". Npb.jp. Retrieved 2022-08-23.

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