Тайваньның Тайнан қаласының "Юни Президент 7-Eleven Арыстандары" бейсбол командасы

Professional baseball team in Tainan City, Taiwan

The Uni President 7 Eleven Lions, stylized as Uni President 7 ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇn Lions, also known as Uni Lions , 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.

The team was first established as amateur Uni President Baseball Team 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Lions were credited as the first organization to form a minor league team. As early as 1990, when CPBL was still in its early years, the Lions were making preparation for establishment of a second team by hiring coaches and scouting talented players for the project. The reserve team, however, was disbanded due to lack of opponent and players. In 1997, the Lions again formed a reserve team, but it met the same fate as its predecessor due to the game fixing scandal and the decline in attendance. No further expansion was made until after the CPBL TML merger took place. In late 2003, after the merger of the two competing league, the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association assisted CPBL in forming a minor league by sending alternative service players to be trained by and filled the roster of member organizations of CPBL. The Lions were supportive of this project initially, but later backed out due to financial reasons. In early 2006, the Lions announced the revival of the minor league project, and began the expansion of the team. The roster consisted of reserve players, alternative service players, and non contract players. Alternative service players and non contract players are restricted to play exclusively on the second team. As of the 2013 season, the team is made up exclusively of contracted players.

The Lions have been working with other organization in Asia and North America to improve the performance of the organization; collaborators includes Yomiuri Giants of NPB's Central League and Red Sox organization of MLB. Also, the Lions have participated in many friendly exhibition games with teams from other professional organizations.

The Lions are the holders of many CPBL records. The most well known is the winning streak of 17 games in the 2006 season. The Lions are currently holding the records as the team with the most wins, home runs, and Taiwan Series titles throughout its history.

SeasonWinsLossesTiesPct. Place Uni President Lions 1990 37 (16/21) 49 (29/20) 4 (0/4) .430 (.356/.512) 3 (4/2) 1991 46 (21/25) 34 (20/14) 10 (4/6) .575 (.512/.641) 1 (2/1) 1992 41 (20/21) 45 (23/22) 4 (2/2) .477 (.465/.488) 3 (3/2) 1993 54 (25/29) 34 (20/14) 2 (0/2) .614 (.556/.674) 1 (3/1) 1994 48 (22/26) 38 (20/18) 4 (3/1) .558 (.524/.591) 2 (3/2) 1995 62 (32/30) 36 (17/19) 2 (1/1) .633 (.653/.612) 1 (1/1) 1996 60 (34/26) 37 (15/22) 3 (1/2) .619 (.694/.542) 1 (1/3) 1997 58 (28/30) 31 (16/15) 7 (4/3) .652 (.636/.667) 1 (2/2) 1998 57 45 3 .563 2 1999 56 37 0 .602 2 2000 44 (17/27) 43 (27/16) 3 (1/2) .506 (.386/.659) 2 (4/1) 2001 49 (27/22) 37 (14/23) 4 (4/0) .570 (.659/.489) 1 (1/3) 2002 32 (18/14) 54 (24/30) 4 (3/1) .372 (.429/.318) 4 (4/4) 2003 54 (24/30) 39 (23/16) 7 (3/4) .581 (.511/.652) 3 (4/2) 2004 54 (28/26) 40 (18/22) 6 (4/2) .574 (.543/.542) 1 (1/3) 2005 48 (24/24) 49 (26/23) 3 (0/3) .495 (.480/.511) 3 (5/3) 2006 48 (28/20) 45 (18/27) 7 (4/3) .516 (.609/.426) 2 (2/5) 2007 58 (27/31) 41 (23/18) 1 (0/1) .586 (.540/.633) 1 (2/2) Uni President 7 Eleven Lions 2008 67 (34/33) 33 (16/17) 0 (0/0) .670 (.680/.660) 1 (1/2) 2009 63 (34/29) 54 (24/30) 3 (2/1) .538 (.586/.492) 1 (1/2) 2010 54 (25/29) 63 (34/29) 3 (1/2) .462 (.424/.500) 3 (4/2) 2011 65 (37/28) 52 (22/30) 3 (1/2) .556 (.627/.483) 2 (1/3) 2012 71 (41/30) 48 (19/29) 1 (0/1) .597 (.683/.508) 1 (1/2) 2013 62 (30/32) 55 (29/26) 3 (1/2) .530 (.508/.552) 1 (2/1) 2014 58 (32/26) 55 (24/31) 7 (4/3) .513 (.571/.456) 2 (2/4) 2015 49 (26/23) 69 (33/36) 2 (1/1) .415 (.441/.390) 4 (4/4) 2016 55 (29/26) 65 (31/34) 0 (0/0) .458 (.483/.433) 3 (2/4) 2017 57 (23/34) 61 (35/26) 2 (2/0) .483 (.397/.567) 2 (3/2) 2018 64 (35/29) 55 (25/30) 1 (0/1) .538 (.583/.492) 2 (2/2) 2019 48 (25/23) 70 (34/36) 2 (1/1) .407 (.424/.390) 4 (4/4) 2020 58 (26/32) 61 (34/27) 1 (0/1) .487 (.433/.542) 3 (3/1) 2021 64 (32/32) 51 (26/25) 5 (2/3) .557 (.552/.561) 2 (2/1) 2022 48 (31/17) 69 (27/42) 3 (2/1) .410 (.534/.288) 4 (3/5) 2023 62 (34/28) 55 (24/31) 3 (2/1) .530 (.586/.475) 2 (1/4)

Season First round Taiwan Series Opponent Wins Losses Opponent Wins Losses Uni President Lions 1991Did not play Wei Chuan Dragons 4 3 1993Did not play Brother Elephants 2 4 1995No playoffs. The Lions won the championship by virtue of winning both half seasons. 1996Did not play Wei Chuan Dragons 4 2 1998 Wei Chuan Dragons 1 2Eliminated 1999 Wei Chuan Dragons 1 2Eliminated 2000Did not play Sinon Bulls 4 3 2001Did not play Brother Elephants 3 4 2004Did not play Sinon Bulls 3 4 2005 Macoto Cobras 1 3Eliminated 2006 Sinon Bulls 3 0 La New Bears 0 4 2007 Macoto Cobras 3 0 La New Bears 4 3 Uni President 7 Eleven Lions 2008Did not play Brother Elephants 4 3 2009Did not play Brother Elephants 4 3 2011Did not play Lamigo Monkeys 4 1 2012Did not play Lamigo Monkeys 1 4 2013Did not play EDA Rhinos 4 0 2017 Chinatrust Brothers 1 3Eliminated 2018 Fubon Guardians 3 1 Lamigo Monkeys 2 4 2020Did not play CTBC Brothers 4 3 2021Did not play CTBC Brothers 0 4 2023 Rakuten Monkeys 1 3Eliminated

No. NameYears Playoffs Championships 1 Cheng Kuen chi 1990–1993 2 1 2 Yataro Oishi 1994–1996 2 2 3 Lin Chia hsiang 1997–1998 1 0 Acting Yukihiko Machida 1997— Acting Osamu Inoue 1998— 4 Tseng Chih chen 1999–2002 3 1 Acting Masashi Takenouchi 2000— 5 Hsieh Chang heng 2003–2005 1 0 6 Yutaka Ohashi 2005–2007 2 0 Acting Lo Kuo chong 2007— 7 Lu Wen sheng 2007–2011 4 4 8 Nakajima Terushi 2012–2013 1 0 Acting Lo Kuo chong 2013— 9 Chen Lien hung 2013–2015 1 1 10 Kuo Tai yuan 2016 0 0 11 Huang Kan lin 2017–2019 2 0 Acting Hsu Sheng chieh 2018— Acting Liu Yu chen 2019— 12 Lin Yueh ping 2020–present 3 1 Acting Kao Chih kang 2022—