Eastern League (Japanese baseball) Eastern League (Japanese baseball) The is one of the two minor leagues ("ni-gun") of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Teams in the Eastern League generally play an 80-game schedule every year. In 1954 the six teams of NPB's Central League agreed to form their own minor league — the Shin Nippon League (or "New Japan League") — as a complement to the already extant Kansai Farm League, which had begun play in 1952. The minor league affiliates of the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers moved over from
Football in the Philippines Football in the Philippines Association football is a developed and well-known sport in the Philippines, played by amateur and professional Filipino football clubs. The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is the governing body of international football in the country. Football is a popular sport in the Philippines, although it is not as popular as basketball, which is the most popular sport in the Philippines. However, football has a long history in the archipelago, dating back to more than 100 years ago when Paulino Alcántara Riestra became the first Filipino and Asian player to play for a European club. He made his