The circuit was founded as the
Taiheiyo Baseball Union (太平洋野球連盟,
Taiheiyo Yakyu Renmei) in 1949 (the name changing to its current form in 1980).
Daiei Stars owner
Masaichi Nagata was the first president of the Pacific League. The league began with seven teams: four holdovers from the previous iteration, the
Japanese Baseball League—the
Hankyu Braves, the
Nankai Hawks, the
Daiei Stars, and the
Tokyu Flyers—and three new teams—the
Kintetsu Pearls, the
Mainichi Orions, and the
Nishitetsu Clippers. In 1954, an eighth Pacific League team was founded, the
Takahashi Unions, to increase the number of teams to eight. Although the team was stocked with players from the other Pacific League teams, the Unions struggled from the outset and finished in the second division every season. In 1957, the Unions were merged with the
Daiei Stars to form the
Daiei Unions (and again bringing the number of Pacific League teams down to seven). In their first season, the Unions finished in last place, games out of first. In 1958, the Unions merged with the
Mainichi Orions to form the
Daimai Orions. This enabled the Pacific League to shrink from the ungainly seven-team arrangement to six teams.
Fujio Nakazawa, a former player and television commentator, became the PL's first full-time president in 1959, serving through 1965. From 1973 to 1982, the Pacific League employed a
split season, with the first-half winner playing against the second-half winner in a mini-playoff to determine its champion; in two of the eight seasons, a team won both halves of the season to simply advance to the Japan Series. Beginning in 1975, the Pacific League began using the
designated hitter (DH), as in the
American League in
Major League Baseball. During
interleague play (adopted in 2005), the DH is used in Pacific League teams' home games. After the
2004 Nippon Professional Baseball season, the
Orix BlueWave and the
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes merged to form the
Orix Buffaloes. A franchise was granted to internet shopping company
Rakuten and the city of
Sendai, forming the
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to fill the void caused by the merger. Also since 2004, a three-team
playoff system was introduced in the Pacific League (Pacific League Championship Series). The teams with the second- and third-best records play in the three-game first stage, with the winner advancing to a best-of-six final against the top team (the Pacific League pennant winner is granted a 1 game advantage in the Final Stage). The winner becomes the representative of the Pacific League to the
Japan Series. Since the Pacific League won every Japan Series after introducing this system, an identical system was introduced to the
Central League in 2007, and the post-season intra-league games were renamed the "
Climax Series" in both leagues. Player statistics and drafting order based on team records are not affected by these postseason games. == Current teams ==