CTBC Brothers

The CTBC Brothers (Chinese: 中信兄弟) or simply Brothers are a professional baseball team in Taiwan. The team was originally established as an amateur team in 1984 by the Brother Hotel located in Taipei City, and later joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 1989. Brother Hotel's chairman Hung Teng-sheng also acted as CPBL's secretary-general from 1987 to 1991. The Brothers are currently owned by CTBC Holding.

CTBC Brothers
中信兄弟
Information
LeagueChinese Professional Baseball League
LocationTaichung City
BallparkTaichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (2015–present)
Year founded1989 (1989)
League championships18 (19921 • 19922 • 19931 • 19941 • 19942 • 20012 • 20021 • 20022 • 20032 • 20092 • 20102 • 20142 • 20152 • 20161 • 20192 • 20201 • 20211 • 20222)
Taiwan Series championships9 (1992, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2021, 2022)
Former name(s)
  • Brother Elephants (1990–2013)
ColorsYellow, navy blue
MascotSean, Albee
Playoff berths15 (1993, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Retired numbers
OwnershipCTBC Financial Holding
ManagerPeng Cheng-min
General ManagerLiu Chih-wei
PresidentChen Kuo-en
Websitewww.brothers.tw
Uniforms
Home
Away

With its long history from the amateur era plus a successful marketing strategy and management, the team has long been one of the most popular Taiwanese baseball teams, winning the CPBL championship on nine occasions.

The team has always worn yellow uniforms. Its current home is in Taichung, with the home field at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.

History
Brother Elephants uniform

On March 17, 1990, the Brother Elephants played the first historical CPBL game against the Uni-President Lions in the now-demolished Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium with a full house of 14,350 in attendance. These two teams are also the only two remaining original teams of the CPBL.

Despite having the best season-long record for the 2004 season, the Elephants were unable to participate in the Taiwan Series because they had won neither half-season. This resulted in the expansion of the playoffs to three teams beginning in 2005, where the team with the best season-long record among non-champions for the season would gain a wildcard berth, thus preventing a similar occurrence in the future.

In mid-2008, general manager Hung Jui-he revealed the possibility of sale or disbanding of the organization if the financial deficit continued after 2009.

In the 2009 season, Brother Elephants were triumphant in winning the second half of the season. However, the team was affected deeply by the match fixing scandal which resulted in expulsion of many team players and the coach.

In October 2013, the team's president announced attempts to sell the team.[1] The announcement drew interest from seven potential bidders.[2] The team was sold to Hua Yi, a subdivision of CTBC Holding, by December 2013 for a price of NT$400 million.[3] The team's name change reflected their new corporate parent, but it was felt that the branding from their previous owners was strong enough to rename the team Brothers, while retaining the elephant mascot.[4] In 2022, the CTBC Holding officially purchased the team from Hua Yi.

Records
Qualified for Playoffs Taiwan Series Championship

Regular seasons
Season Wins Losses Ties Pct. Place
Brother Elephants
1990 34 (17/17) 49 (25/24) 7 (3/4) .410 (.405/.415) 4 (3/4)
1991 38 (21/17) 49 (23/26) 3 (1/2) .437 (.477/.395) 3 (3/4)
1992 51 (27/24) 35 (17/18) 4 (1/3) .593 (.614/.571) 1 (1/1)
1993 52 (28/24) 36 (16/20) 2 (1/1) .591 (.636/.545) 2 (1/2)
1994 64 (34/30) 24 (11/13) 2 (0/2) .727 (.756/.698) 1 (1/1)
1995 48 (25/23) 51 (25/26) 1 (0/1) .485 (.500/.469) 4 (3/3)
1996 52 (29/23) 43 (19/24) 5 (2/3) .547 (.604/.489) 4 (2/4)
1997 45 (23/22) 44 (20/24) 7 (5/2) .506 (.535/.478) 3 (3/5)
1998 33 69 3 0.324 6
1999 37 53 4 0.411 5
2000 38 (21/17) 48 (21/27) 4 (3/1) .442 (.500/.386) 4 (3/4)
2001 44 (17/27) 39 (23/16) 7 (5/2) .530 (.425/.628) 2 (3/1)
2002 53 (25/28) 33 (17/16) 4 (3/1) .616 (.595/.636) 1 (1/1)
2003 63 (27/36) 31 (20/11) 6 (3/3) .670 (.574/.766) 1 (3/1)
2004 54 (26/28) 45 (23/22) 1 (1/0) .545 (.531/.560) 3 (3/2)
2005 47 (25/22) 49 (23/26) 4 (2/2) .490 (.521/.458) 4 (3/6)
2006 40 (20/20) 59 (29/30) 1 (1/0) .404 (.408/.400) 6 (5/6)
2007 49 (24/25) 50 (25/25) 1 (1/0) .495 (.490/.500) 3 (4/4)
2008 52 (24/28) 42 (23/19) 4 (3/1) .553 (.511/.596) 3 (3/3)
2009 54 (21/33) 63 (38/25) 3 (1/2) .462 (.356/.569) 4 (4/1)
2010 61 (25/36) 57 (33/24) 2 (2/0) .517 (.431/.600) 2 (3/1)
2011 60 (28/32) 60 (32/28) 0 (0/0) .500 (.467/.533) 3 (3/2)
2012 60 (26/34) 58 (33/25) 2 (1/1) .508 (.441/.576) 3 (3/2)
2013 55 (26/29) 65 (34/31) 0 (0/0) .458 (.433/.483) 4 (4/3)
Total 1184 1152 77 .507 —
CTBC Brothers
2014 50 (19/31) 66 (40/26) 4 (1/3) .431 (.322/.544) 4 (4/1)
2015 63 (27/36) 56 (33/23) 1 (0/1) .529 (.450/.610) 2 (3/1)
2016 68 (35/33) 50 (23/27) 2 (2/0) .576 (.603/.550) 1 (1/2)
2017 53 (30/23) 64 (27/37) 3 (3/0) .453 (.526/.383) 3 (2/4)
2018 48 (20/28) 71 (40/31) 1 (0/1) .403 (.333/.475) 4 (4/3)
2019 62 (26/36) 56 (32/24) 2 (2/0) .525 (.448/.600) 3 (3/1)
2020 67 (37/30) 51 (23/28) 2 (0/2) .568 (.617/.517) 1 (1/3)
2021 66 (35/31) 49 (24/25) 5 (1/4) .574 (.593/.554) 1 (1/2)
2022 69 (32/37) 47 (26/21) 4 (2/2) .595 (.552/.638) 2 (2/1)
Total 546 510 24 .517 —

Playoffs
Season First round Taiwan Series
Opponent Wins Losses Opponent Wins Losses
Brother Elephants
1992 No playoffs. The Elephants won the championship by virtue of winning both half-seasons.
1993 Did not play Uni-President Lions 4 2
1994 No playoffs. The Elephants won the championship by virtue of winning both half-seasons.
2001 Did not play Uni-President Lions 4 3
2002 Did not play Chinatrust Whales 4 0
2003 Did not play Sinon Bulls 4 2
2008 La New Bears 3 0 Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 3 4
2009 Did not play Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 3 4
2010 Did not play Sinon Bulls 4 0
CTBC Brothers
2014 Did not play Lamigo Monkeys 1 4
2015 Did not play Lamigo Monkeys 3 4
2016 Did not play EDA Rhinos 2 4
2017 Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 3 1 Lamigo Monkeys 1 4
2019 Did not play Lamigo Monkeys 1 4
2020 Did not play Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 3 4
2021 Did not play Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions 4 0
2022 Wei Chuan Dragons 3 1 Rakuten Monkeys 4 0

Roster

CTBC Brothers roster
Players Coaches

Pitchers

  • 11 Liao Yi-chung
  • 12 Nick Kingham
  • 14 Wei Shuo-cheng
  • 15 Wang Kai-cheng
  • 17 Chen Chih-chieh
  • 18 Kuan Ta-yuan
  • 19 Cheng Kai-wen
  • 20 Chiang Chung-cheng
  • 21 Peng Shih-ying
  • 30 Li Wu Yung-chin
  • 33 Cheng Hao-chun
  • 34 Lee Chen-chang
  • 37 Juan Yu-chi
  • 38 Lin Cheng-hsuan
  • 41 Chen Po-chun
  • 46 José de Paula
  • 49 Yu Chien
  • 50 Tsai Chi-che
  • 52 Tyler Viza
  • 54 Wang Yi-kai
  • 55 Shawn Morimando
  • 56 Yang Chih-lung
  • 58 Lu Yen-ching
  • 59 Feng Hao
  • 62 Chen Hu
  • 64 Huang En-sih
  • 71 Lu Meng-yang
  • 79 Hsieh Jung-hao
  • 83 Chen Po-hao
  • 84 Huang Hung-yi
  • 91 Chang Tsu-en
  • 93 Wu Che-yuan
  • 94 Wu Chun-wei
  • 97 Hsu Chi-ling
  • -- Emilio Vargas

Catchers

  •  0 Lin Wu Chin-wei
  •  4 Francisco Peña
  • 42 Chen Chia-chu
  • 48 Chen Tung-en
  • 65 Kao Yu-chieh
  • 81 Pan Hong-kai
  • 82 Huang Chun-sheng

Infielders

  •  5 Li Cheng-en
  •  9 Wang Wei-chen
  • 13 Chen Wei-han
  • 28 Chang Jen-wei
  • 47 Lin Chih-kang
  • 61 Wang Cheng-shun
  • 63 Pan Chih-fang
  • 66 Huang Wei-sheng
  • 68 Ma Kang
  • 74 Hsu Chi-hung
  • 75 Lin Jui-chun
  • 89 Chou Wei-hung
  • 90 Chiang Kun-yu
  • 96 Su Wei-ta
  • 98 Yueh Tung-hua

Outfielders

  •  1 Chen Tzu-hao
  •  2 Lee Sheng-yu
  •  3 Chen Wen-chieh
  •  7 Chang Chih-hao
  • 16 Chou Szu-chi
  • 32 Tseng Sung-en
  • 39 Chan Tzu-hsien
  • 43 Lin Shu-yi
  • 60 Huang Chun-lin
  • 85 Liu Kuei-yuan
  • 88 Sung Cheng-jui
  • 92 Yueh Cheng-hua

Manager

Coaches

Roster updated on 12 July 2023

Retired numbers

Brother Elephants (1990–2013)
No. Name Years Playoffs Championships
1 Tseng Chi-en 1990–1991 0 0
2 Masao Morishita 1992 0 1
3 Toshihide Yamane 1993–1995 1 2
4 Chiang Chung-hao 1996–1998 0 0
5 Toshitake Nakayama 1999 0 0
6 Lin Pai-hen 2000–2001 0 0
7 Lin Yi-tseng 2001–2005 3 3
8 Wu Shih-hsih 2006 0 0
9 Wang Kuang-hui 2007–2009 1 0
10 Shin Nakagomi 2009 1 0
11 Chen Je-cheng 2010–2012 1 1
12 Hsieh Chang-heng 2013 0 0

CTBC Brothers (2014–present)
No. Name Years Playoffs Championships
— Hsieh Chang-heng 2014–2015 1 0
13 Wu Fu-lian 2015–2016 2 0
14 Cory Snyder 2017–2018 1 0
15 Scott Budner 2019 1 0
16 Chiu Chang-jung 2020 1 0
17 Lin Wei-chu 2021–2023 2 2
18 Peng Cheng-min 2023–present 0 0

Notes
^1 First half-season champions
^2 Second half-season champions

References
  1. Lin Hung-han and Sofia Wu (2013-10-19). "Brother Elephants up for sale (update 2)". Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  2. Lin, Hung-han; Jeffrey Wu (2013-10-23). "Funeral services company to bid for pro-baseball team". Central News Agency. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  3. Lin, Hung-han; Y.L. Kao (3 December 2013). "CTBC-sponsored company buys Brother Elephants for NT$400 m." Central News Agency. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  4. "Brief History of CPBL". Chinese Professional Baseball League. Archived from the original on 2015-07-04. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
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