[FuzzyRussianHat]

Chinese League Baseball became the ninth of the major professional leagues to reach 50 seasons of play. In part due to more pronounced revenue sharing rules compared to other leagues, CLB showed a remarkable level of parity in its first 50 seasons.



The highest average wins per season was Chengdu at 85.6, while the lowest losses per season by a non-expansion team was Xiamen at 78.0, showing how small the gap was between the “haves” and “have nots.” The Clowns, Tianjin, Beijing, and Xi’an each had the most playoff berths at 14, while four other teams had made the playoffs 13 times.

Dalian had the most overall titles with six, followed by Beijing with five and four apiece from Tianjin, Xi’an, and Changsha. The Bears had been to the China Series the most times with nine, followed by Dalian and Kunming at seven. The Gold Dragons had finished first in the standings the most (10). For many years, CLB’s setup allowed the finals to feature two teams from the same league with the Northern League (54) having more finals teams than the Southern League (46). 30 titles went to NL teams with 20 to SL teams

By team score, the top five teams were Beijing (95), Dalian (93), Tianjin (86), Xi’an (85), and Guangzhou (79). The worst among non-expansion teams was Jinan at 28. All of the original teams had made the playoffs at least six times and each had advanced to the China Series at least once. Seven original teams (Shenyang, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Jinan, Macau, Shenzhen, Chongqing) had yet to win it all.