pro baseball The amazing performance of the local teams had built Taiwan into a new global stronghold for baseball. National teams had also begun to shine in the Summer Olympics after the sport was introduced as an event. The Taiwan team won the bronze medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the silver in 1992 in Barcelona. As the sport grew even more popular in Taiwan, especially with the Olympic medals, local baseballers formed the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 1989. The Uni-President Lions and the Brother Elephants played the league's first game at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium on March 17, 1990. In 1997, the Taiwan Major League was founded because of a CPBL broadcasting rights dispute. But after running losses, the two leagues merged and Taiwan's total of six ball clubs were born. Despite some cases of game-fixing that would cause some disillusionment among fans, in the 18 years of its history, the league continued to run and is still the only professional sports league in Taiwan. , the league consists of the Brother Elephants, La New Bears, Sinon Bulls, and Uni-President Lions. In 2002, slugger Chen Chin-feng signed by Los Angeles Dodgers making MLB debut which made him the first Taiwanese to play in the U.S.'s Major League Baseball. Four other Taiwanese baseball players were later drafted to play in the MLB. The most famous Taiwan-born player is the former New York Yankees' ace starter Wang Chien-ming whose 44 wins from the beginning of the 2006 season to May 26, 2008, beat any major league pitcher during that stretch. Wang also holds the record as the Major League's quickest pitcher to reach 50 wins in two decades, earning him the name "Taiwan Glory." Baseball has become so entrenched in Taiwanese culture that it is even depicted on the NT$500 note. Europe A European federation, the Confédération Européenne de Baseball (CEB, European Baseball Confederation) was founded in 1953. The federation organises all international competitions within Europe. These are the European Championships for country teams, divided into two divisions, and a number of club competitions: the European Cup, the Club Winners' Cup and the CEB Cup. All of the European competitions have been dominated by only two countries: Italy and the Netherlands. They share 25 of the 27 European titles between them, the other titles being won by Belgium and Spain, both times in absence of one or