103th Baseball in Asia - By Hugh

The Saitama Seibu Lions, the Samsung Lions, the Tianjin Lions and the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions...The Hanwha Eagles, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and the Shanghai Golden Eagles... the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Lotte Giants... These are names of some of the many professional baseball teams in East Asia. In Korea, in Taiwan, in Japan and increasingly in China, baseball attracts huge followings and is a huge if sometimes money-losing business. And in quality of play Asian baseball takes a back seat to no one. Asian stars in North America's MLB ( major league baseball ) leagues have shown that Asian players can individually compete with the best of American and Latin American players. But while Asia has many club teams playing within nation-based leagues there has only been limited play between clubs based in different countries in tournaments such as the Asia Series. Will we ever see a pan-Asian league in which the best of Asian players play against each other on Asia-based teams? Will we ever have a situation where the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Lotte Giants can face each other in regular league play.