From the CLPB to CBL to CBA
Baseball was introduced in China over 100 years ago by the Japanese university teams. In 1915, four teams were formed, becoming the China League of Professional Baseball (CLPB). The league has made baseball the most popular sport in China. However, due to unrest between the KMT and the Communists, and the lack of competition recently, the CLPB may fold. Since 1931, when the Championship series called the China Series was introduced, only Sichuan, Guangzhou, and Jiangsu made an apperence and won at least one of them. For Beijing and Tianjin, they dwelled in the bottom, and this cause anger among the players. When the revolution started in 1947, the CLPB folded, but the popularity of baseball remained.
In 1950, under Mao Zedong, a new professional baseball league was introduced, it is called the China Baseball League (CBL). It originally had 16 teams seperated into 2 leagues, the Mao League and the Han League. The league expanded to 20 teams in 1962, and 24 teams in 1969, which introduced division play and the LCS. Despite the Cultural Revolution, China maintained a strong grip in baseball and in 1977, the league contunues to expand. In 1993, the league expaned to 28 teams seperated by 3 divisions of the Mao League and the Zhou League. The CBL expanded to the current 30 teams in 1998.
The CBL, however did not solve the competiveness of the league. There are still some teams that still have not made a playoff appearance. The Chongqing swallows sitll have not made an appearance in the playoffs. So in 2012, the CBL expaned the postseason to 10 teams with 2 wild cards facing each other. Recently, there have been a huge gap between standings. Teams such as Changsha and Jiangsu recently have been winning 100+ games while some teams have 100 losses. In 2014, Changsha beat Guilin in the final China Series of the CBL. Immedietly after the China Series, the commissioner left the office, and there were questions surrounding the furture of the CBL. In November, a new commissioner stepped in, who is a former president of the Chinese Super League (Soccer). He would radically change the CBL. First he proposed that the league will change from the North American style league with divisions and sub leagues to the European style of Promotion and Relegation. Then he would introduce a number of tournaments to the new system. He divided the CBL in to 10 teams in 3 leagues and named it after Chinese dynasties: the Ming League, the Han League and the Qin League. This would become the China Baseball Association we know today. He promised that the new system will begin in 2015 and hopes that will be more competitive than the CBL.
