The Wei Chuan Dragons (Chinese:味全龍; pinyin:Wèiquán Lóng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Bī-chôan-liông) are a Taiwanese professional baseball team. They are a member of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). The team originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations were held to revive the franchise and return to the CPBL. They played one season of minor league baseball in 2020 and rejoined the CPBL in 2021.[1]
The Dragons have won the Taiwan Series championship five times, in 1990, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2023.
History
Wei Chuan Dragons uniform
Wei Chuan Dragons had a long amateur history when its parent company, the Wei Chuan Foods Corporation, started sponsoring Chinese Culture University's baseball team in the late 1970s. After these student players graduated, Wei-Chuan formed an amateur team to allow them to continue playing baseball in 1978; it was this team that later professionalized to become one of the first four teams of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Due to the club's long history in the amateur era, its matches often attracted large crowds, and games with the Brother Elephants, another popular team, were often sold out. The team played at the now-demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium.
During the 1990s, the club won the CPBL championship four times, in 1990, 1997, 1998 and 1999, and by the end of the 1999 season became the team with the most CPBL championship titles. In 1999, Wei Chuan Food Corporation announced its decision to disband the club,[2] mainly because the Ting Hsin International Group, who became the largest shareholder of Wei Chuan Food Corporation in 1998, did not show interest in supporting the baseball club.
In 2019, 20 years after the disbandment, the club was re-established and played the 2020 season in the minor league, before rejoining the CPBL in 2021.[3] In 2023, the Dragons defeated Rakuten Monkeys in the 2023 Taiwan Series with four wins in seven games to win their fifth championship, 24 years since their last championship.[4]
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