Eastern League (Japanese baseball)
The Eastern League (イースタン・リーグ?) is one of the two minor leagues of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Central League.
History
The league was created in 1955, and contained the minor league teams of the seven professional teams that had their homefields in the Eastern region of Japan. The original teams in the league were, the Yomiuri Giants, , Taiyo Whales, Toei Flyers, , Mainichi Orions, and .
The league was dissolved from 1956-1961, but was restarted in 1962 with five teams. The Seibu Lions minor league affiliate joined the league in 1979, and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles did the same in 2005.
Teams
The league contains the minor league affiliates of seven Japanese professional teams (minor league homefield shown in parentheses):
- Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (Tendō, Yamagata)
- Yomiuri Giants (Inagi, Tokyo)
- Seibu Lions (Tokorozawa, Saitama)
- Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (Kamagaya, Chiba)
- Chiba Lotte Marines (Saitama, Saitama)
- Yokohama BayStars (Yokosuka, Kanagawa)
- Tokyo Yakult Swallows (Toda, Saitama)
Most of the Japanese minor league teams carry the same name, and use the same uniforms as their parent team, with the exception of the the Yokohama BayStars (Shonan Searex), Seibu Lions (Goodwill), and Orix Buffaloes (Surpass) minor league teams.