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The Chinese Northern League saw a major shakeup in 1999. The prior year, the NL had the China Series champion Harbin and the runner-up Shenyang. In 1999, both of those teams fell below .500. Beijing would snap a five-year stretch without a winning season, finishing first at 95-67. Hangzhou finished second, which ended their own eight year playoff drought. The third place spot went to Xi’an at 90-72, edging out Tianjin by three games and Zhengzhou by five. The Attack made it into the playoffs for the third straight year and the fifth time in six years.

Northern League MVP went to Xi’an CF Yunzi Mao. The 26-year old lefty led the league in runs (85), total bases (321), slugging (.568), OPS (.893), wRC+ (205), and WAR (9.7). Mao added 39 home runs and 85 RBI. Beijing’s Jun Tang earned Pitcher of the Year, leading in wins (23-7), ERA (1.24), innings (290), WHIP (0.72), complete games (19), and shutouts (9). Tang also had 8.6 WAR and was second in strikeouts at 324. A torn rotator cuff for him the next fall ultimately derailed any chance of a career in his 30s.



The Southern League saw Guangzhou on top at 94-68, their first playoff spot since their 1987 runner-up campaign. Chongqing was one back at 93-69, giving the Cavaliers repeat playoff berths. Foshan earned the second wild card at 88-74. The Flyers were four games ahead of last year’s first place squad Chengdu, as well as Changsha and Hong Kong. Foshan secured its third playoff appearance in four years.

Guangzhou catcher Jiancheng “Snuffy” Wu was named Southern League MVP. The 28-year old led in slugging at .535 while posting 9.6 WAR, a 205 wRC+, and 31 home runs. The former #1 overall pick would play one more season with the Gamecocks before signing a four-year, $33,600,000 to head to MLB’s New York Yankees. Foshan’s Jinlong Han became a three-time Pitcher of the Year winner and the third CLB pitcher to achieve a Triple Crown. The 29-year old Han had a 21-12 record, 1.33 ERA, and 382 strikeouts while also leading with 31 quality starts and 25 complete games. The 25 CGs was a new CLB single-season record. Among those complete games was a no-hitter against Wuhan with 13 strikeouts and two walks. Han also had 10.6 WAR over 283.1 innings.

Both Southern League wild cards defeated their Northern League opposition to start the playoffs. Chongqing swept Xi’an 2-0 and Foshan swept Hangzhou. Neither held up against the first place teams in the semifinal. Beijing bested the Cavaliers 4-1 and Guangzhou defeated the Flyers 4-2. This gave the Bears their first China Series berth since 1991. For the Gamecocks, their last finals appearance was a 1987 defeat to Beijing.



In the 30^th China Series, the final went all seven games for the fourth year in a row. Beijing outlasted Guangzhou to make the Bears five-time Chinese League Baseball champs (1970, 84, 85, 87, 99). Finals MVP was CF Simok Kommandam, who posted 13 hits, 10 runs, 3 doubles, 4 RBI, and 4 stolen bases over 12 playoff starts.



Other notes: Martin Cui became the 11^th CLB pitcher to 3000 career strikeouts. 3B Feixien Wu, SS Chengxi Erpan, and SS Xuepeng Ye each became seven time Gold Glove winners.

Chinese League Baseball remained the lowest scoring of all of the pro leagues, posting extremely low statistics in the 1990s. The combined league batting average for the decade was around .212 and the ERA was around 2.51. These were both slightly down from the previous decades. The Southern League in 1996 had an ERA of 2.28; the lowest of any league in any season ever. While many other leagues had rule changes and increased offense in the next two decades; CLB kept its low scoring pretty steady for the next 20 years.