Lamigo Monkeys

Lamigo Monkeys
Established 2003

Team Logo
Affiliations

Chinese Professional Baseball League (2003–present)

Current uniform
[[Image:|275px]]
Franchise history
  • Lamigo Monkeys (2011–present)
  • La New Bears (2004-2010)
  • First Financial Holdings Agan (2003)
Ballpark
Records
Asia Series titles (0)
Taiwan Series titles (1) 2006
Playoffs berths (4) 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2011
Owner(s): La New Corporation
Manager: Hung Yi-chung
General Manager: Su Ching-hsuan

The Lamigo Monkeys (Chinese: Lamigo 桃猿; pinyin: Lamigo Táoyúan), formerly First Financial Holdings Agan (第一金控金剛, abbreviated 第一金剛) and then the La New Bears (La New 熊), are a professional baseball team in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. Owned and administered by the Kaohsiung-based shoe-producing La New Corporation, the Bears qualified for the playoffs in 2006 for the first time in team history, and by finishing with the best record for the whole season, gained an automatic berth in the Taiwan Series.

The Bears played their home games at Chengching Lake Baseball Field in Kaohsiung County (now part of Kaohsiung City) from 2004 to 2010. In the 2011 season, their home stadium was moved to Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Accordingly, the team's name was changed to the Lamigo Monkeys.

Contents

History

First Financial Holdings Agan

Sometimes known as the First Securities Agan, the Agan was owned and administered by the First Financial Holding Corporation, a government-funded financial holding service. Its then-chairman Chen Chien-lung (陳建隆) was a keen political supporter of President Chen Shui-bian, and, upon the president's request, immediately agreed to take over one of the two former TML teams after TML was merged into CPBL in January 2003. Since Macoto Bank had already decided to take-over the Macoto Gida, Chen Chien-lung took-over the Agan as promised. interestingly, the bulk of Agan's player came from Taipei Gida and Kaohsiung-Pingtung Fala, and not the Taichung Agan which carried the same mascot. Agan played its home games at Chengching Lake Baseball Field.

Without a strong roster plus the management's inexperience and unprofessionalism in running a professional sports club, the Agan performed poorly right from the start of the 2003 season. After Chen Chien-lung's sudden resignation due to allegation of insider trading in August 2003, the First Financial Holding Corporation no longer showed willingness in running the team. The Agan finished its the 2003 season placing fifth overall, and did not win any of the 20 games against Brother Elephants, the Taiwan Series champion of that season.

La New Bears

Just before the 2004 season, Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing invited La New Corporation, a footwear manufacture to sponsor the then-vacant Chengching Lake Baseball Field, which was under the management of Kaohsiung County after the disbandment of Taiwan Major League. La New Corporation eventually agreed and, in addition, offered to buy First Financial Holdings Agan, whose management has been struggling in the past season. On December 16, 2003, La New completed the process with First Financial Holdings and renamed the team La New Bears. In the first two years of their existence, the Bears did not perform well. But after several addition to the roster through drafts and the minor league, the Bears turned the team around, eventually winning the 2006 Taiwan Series title. The Bears did not win any title since then.

Lamigo Monkeys

After several years of futile effort to manage the Kaohsiung market, the team relocated to Taoyuan County and changed its name to the Lamigo Monkeys in January 2011. The Monkeys play their home games at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, and their name in Chinese, taoyuan (桃猿), is a homophone to their new home county. Despite the name change, La New Corporation retained its ownership of the team.[1]

Records

Qualified for playoffs Taiwan Series Championship Asia Series Championship

Regular seasons

Season Wins Losses Ties Pct. Place
First Financial Holdings Agan
2003 20 (9/11) 71 (37/34) 9 (4/5) .220 (.196/.244) 5 (6/5)
La New Bears
2004 40 (18/22) 56 (30/26) 4 (2/2) .417 (.375/.458) 6 (6/5)
2005 42 (16/26) 55 (32/23) 3 (2/1) .433 (.333/.531) 6 (6/2)
2006 62 (30/32) 34 (19/15) 4 (2/2) .646 (.612/.681) 1 (1/1)
2007 58 (26/32) 42 (24/18) 0 (0/0) .580 (.520/.640) 2 (2/1)
2008 61 (28/33) 35 (19/16) 4 (3/1) .610 (.596/.673) 2 (2/1)
2009 61 (33/28) 58 (26/32) 1 (1/0) .513 (.559/.467) 2 (2/4)
2010 55 (31/24) 62 (27/35) 3 (2/1) .470 (.534/.407) 3 (2/4)
Lamigo Monkeys
2011 66 (33/33) 52 (26/26) 2 (1/1) .559 (.559/.559) 1 (2/1)
Total 465 465 30 .500 --

Playoffs

Season First Round Taiwan Series
Opponent Wins Losses Opponent Wins Losses
La New Bears
2006 Seeded first Uni-President Lions 4 0
2007 Seeded first Uni-President Lions 3 4
2008 Brother Elephants 0 3 Eliminated
Lamigo Monkeys
2011 No first round. Uni-President Lions 1 4
Total 8 12

Asia Series

Year Round Robin Championship Round
Wins Losses Standing Opponent Result
La New Bears
2006 2 1 2 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 0 - 1 (L)
Total 2 1 -- 0W - 1L

Roster

Active Roster Coaches/Others

Pitchers

  • 16 Huang Chin-chih(黃欽智)
  • 18 Wang Feng-hsin(王豐鑫)
  • 40 Ken Ray
  • 50 Shane Youman
  • 88 Keng Po-Hsuan(耿伯軒)
  • 92 Hsu Ming-chieh(許銘倢)
  • 93 Treng Chou-hau(曾兆豪)

Roster updated 2008-05-04

Catchers

  • 14 Lin Sheng-kai(林聖凱)
  • 25 Lee Chin-ming(李晉銘)
  • 27 Huang Hao-jan(黃浩然)
  • 28 Liu Chia-hao(劉家豪)
  • 41 Chen Feng-min(陳峰民)

Infielders

Outfielders

  •  8 Chan Zhi-Yao(詹智堯)
  • 24 Chang Min-yen(張民諺)
  • 36 Tsai Chien-wei(蔡健偉)
  • 52 Chen Chin-feng(陳金鋒)
  • 57 Chung Cheng-yu(鍾承佑)
  • 66 Tseng Hao-ju(曾豪駒)

Manager

  •  2 Hong I-Chung(洪一中)

Coaches

  •  9 Chen Kai-fa(陳該發) (hitting)
  • 56 Lin Chen-hsieng(林振賢) (outfield)
  • 59 Liao Kang-chih(廖剛池) (pitching)
  • 61 Wu Fu-lien(吳復連) (fielding)
  • 63 Lu Ming-tsu(呂明賜) (hitting)

Minor league coaches

  • 63 Tsai Yu-hsiang(蔡昱詳) (pitching)
  • 68 Chuang Chih-wei(莊志偉) (pitching)
  • 77 Tsai Jung-chung(蔡榮宗) (head coach)

Trainees

  • 45 Wu Cheng-shun(吳政勳)
  • 55 Lee Chung-jung(李宗融

Notable former players

Retired number

See also

References

  1. ^ Huang, Paul (January 7, 2011). "La New Bears become the Lamigo Monkeys". Taipei Times. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2011/01/07/2003492888. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 

External links