CPBL

Baseball was first introduced to Taiwan during Japanese rule, and gained popularity when the national little league baseball teams won numerous Little League World Series championships in the 1970s and 1980s. The national baseball team also performed exceptionally well in many international competitions. However, the development of baseball in Taiwan was limited due to the lack of a professional league, and therefore many players were reluctant to commit to the sport.

The idea of forming a professional baseball league in Taiwan was first suggested by local Brother Hotel's chairman Hung Teng-sheng (洪騰勝). He formed his amateur Brother Hotel baseball team in 1984, and intended to professionalize his team and form a professional league within a few years. Throughout 1988 and 1989, Hung visited numerous Taiwanese businesses, trying to convince them to form professional baseball clubs. Most of his requests were rejected, but Wei Chuan Corporation, Mercuries Chain Stores, and Uni-President Corporation all supported the idea and formed teams. The Chinese Professional Baseball League was established on October 23, 1989, with Hung Teng-sheng acting as secretary-general. Because of his contribution to professional baseball in Taiwan, Hung is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the CPBL." Chung Meng-shun (鍾孟舜) designed every original logo of the four founding teams.

With the popularity rise in the first few years, the Jungo Bears and China Times Eagles joined in 1993. Later Jungo sold the team to Sinon in 1995 and 1996. The Koos Group Whales joined in 1997. CPBL consisted of 7 teams in the 1997 season which is the maximum in CPBL history.

However, at the same time, TVBS and Sampo Corporation(聲寶企業) founded another professional baseball league, Taiwan Major League. TVBS is ex-broadcaster of CPBL. Sampo Giants had been requesting to join the CPBL since 1992, but was repeatedly rejected by the CPBL for unexplained reason.

Despite there were 11 teams playing professional baseball, the two league compete with each other.

Game-fixing scandals, the Black Tigers Incident in 1995, and the Black Eagles Incident in 1997, resulted in a major popularity decline. The China Times Eagles became defunct after the 1997 season.

The 1999 season, shocked by 921 earthquake, was the first time CPBL cannot finish all regular season games. After the 1999 season, the Wei Chuan Dragons and Mercuries Tigers also became defunct, prior to which the Dragons had made a dynasty (championships from 1997 to 1999).

The 2000 season, CPBL reduced to 4 teams.

After the 2002 season, before the CPBL's 2003 season started, the TML finally agreed to merge with the CPBL.

Four teams from TML reorganized to two and exchanged the team names. First Financial Holdings purchased one of the teams, while Macoto Bank voluntarily took over the other.

Although clash of league solved, game-fixing scandals still haunted baseball in Taiwan: the Black Bears Incident in 2005, and the Black Whales Incident in 2007, the Black Dmedia Scandal in 2008, and the Black Elephants Incident in 2009.

On October 2008, the Black Dmedia Scandal broke out. This was the first time gangsters directly controlled a baseball team for game-fixing. Eventually Dmedia T-REX was freezed its membership and expelled from the league. The rest of the regular season, 2 games against Brother Elephants was cancelled, thouth it didn't matter to the playoff berth.

After the 2008 season, on November 11th, the Chinatrust Whales also became defunct. The 2009 season, CPBL reduced to 4 teams once again.

After the 2009 season, the next day of Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions made a dynasty (championships from 2007 to 2009), the Black Elephants Incident broke out. Brother Elephants was affected deeply by a match fixing scandal involving relief pitcher Wu Pao-hsien which resulted in expulsion of many team players and the coach.

4 game-fixing scandals in 5 years not only break fans' heart, but also destroyed fans' trust. CPBL suffered another major popularity decline in 2010, on the brink of collapse.

At the end of the 2012 season, Sinon Corporation announced its intention to sell the team. By late December, an agreement was reached between Sinon Corporation and E-United Group, and the team was renamed EDA Rhinos (Chinese: 義大犀牛) after E-DA World, a large shopping, entertainment and hotel complex in Kaohsiung operated by E-United Group.

The EDA Rhinos intends to play games at both Li De Baseball Stadium in downtown Kaohsiung and Chengcing Lake Baseball Field in the suburb during the upcoming 2013 CPBL season. The Rhinos also signaled in signing Manny Ramirez for 2013 as its billboard player. Taiwanese former MLB player Chin-lung Hu also signed with the team following 2013 CPBL Draft.

In October 2013, Brother Hotel announced attempts to sell the baseball team. The announcement drew interest from seven potential bidders. Brother Elephants was sold to Hua Yi, a subdivision of CTBC Holding, by December 2013 for a price of NT$400 million. The team's name changed into CTBC Brothers (Chinese: 中信兄弟), reflected their new corporate parent, but it was felt that the branding from their previous owners was strong enough to rename the team Brothers, while retaining the elephant mascot.

In June 2016, it was announced that the E-United Group are willing to sell the team. EDA Rhinos won the second stage of the 2016 CPBL season and qualified to the Taiwan Series, where they defeated CTBC Brothers 4–2 to win their first championship since 2005. In November 2016, the team was renamed as Fubon Guardians (Chinese: 富邦悍將) after Fubon Financial Holding Co. bought the team.

In 2013 WBC Taiwan stepped up to Second round (Quarter Final), one strike away from defeating Japan, was a morale-booster to improve Taiwanese's mood, and a great chance for CPBL revival. Three big companies took over existing teams, meanwhile, a group of companies showed an interest in joining CPBL, whether they have a baseball team or not.

In May 2019, Commissioner John Wu announced that CPBL had reached agreement with Ting Hsin International Group to join the league by reactivating a former team, the Wei Chuan Dragons. The Dragons participated in the minor league in 2020, and returned to the major league in 2021.

After Tsai Chi-chang became commissioner in 2021, he proposed that Kaohsiung serve as the location for a new team since it was the only major city in Taiwan without a CPBL team at the time. In February 2022, Tsai announced that the sixth team would either be formed by Chunghwa Telecom or Taiwan Steel Group. It was later announced that the expansion team would be by Taiwan Steel Group. The proposed team name is TSG Hawks, and their home field would be Chengcing Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening day of the 31st CPBL season on March 14 was delayed. It was originally brought earlier compared to previous seasons to accommodate the final qualifying tournament of 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

On 1 April, the CPBL announced that the season would begin from 11 April as the Rakuten Monkeys hosted the Chinatrust Brothers with the games being playing without live fans. This received international coverage because other major baseball leagues such as the MLB in North America, the NPB in Japan, and the KBO in South Korea, which were still severely impacted by the virus outbreak were unable to confirm the dates of their respective season openings. The annual CPBL All-Star Game was cancelled for the first time to accommodate to the compact schedule.