What do you make of the Asia Series currently being played in Taichung, Taiwan? The tournament, begun in 2005, has gone from an official spectacle featuring the champion teams from the Asian countries where high-level baseball is played, to an exhibition series including non-Asian entrants and where teams are not always featuring their best players.
Flash back eight years when the Chiba Lotte Marines won the Japan Series and served as the host team for the first Asia Series. They were joined by the Samsung Lions from the Korea Baseball Organization, the Sinon Bulls of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan) and the China Stars, an all-star contingent from the upstart China Baseball League, then managed by American Jim Lefebvre.
It made for a compact, four-team competition played at Tokyo Dome, there was official sponsorship by the Konami Corporation, and attendance was listed at more than 25,000 for games played by the Marines.