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 Galway for the team and applied to join the 2012 League of Ireland as a community enterprise, rather than as a private company, which the old club had been. This application was not successful, however. Galway F.C. was formed the following year from a merger of GUST with Mervue United and Salthill Devon, two other clubs in the city, who had competed in the First Division since 2009 and 2010 respectively. The professional team for the province, Connacht Rugby, is based in the city. They play in the Pro14 and as of 2014, in the Rugby Challenge Cup. The team plays