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
Sport in the United Kingdom divisions above and the lowest-ranking teams in each division are relegated. Previously, many of these teams competed in the BAFL which entered administration in 2010. The national team is known as the GB Lions and represents the United Kingdom in international gridiron. Formed in 1991 the London Monarchs played in NFL Europe. With attendances slumping to an average of 5,944 the Monarchs became defunct seven years later, and with the league making a reported $30 million loss per season the NFL announced the end of NFL Europe in 2007. Despite the minor status of the sport in the United Kingdom,