Baseball Asia Series schedule set

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- This year's Japan Series-winning team will play its Taiwanese, South Korean and Australian counterparts, respectively, Nov. 25-27 in the 2011 Asia Series, a senior Nippon Professional Baseball official said Monday.

NPB secretary general Kunio Shimoda revealed the schedule upon his return from a meeting of the club championship's organizing committee in Taiwan.

The top two finishers of the four-team round-robin round will meet in the final on Nov. 29 for the winning prize of NT$15 million, or about 40 million Japanese yen.

Taiwan will host the series for the first time.

The 2010-11 Australian League champion Perth Heat will represent that country, which is replacing the Chinese all-star team this time.

The four-team Asia Series was played every year between 2005 and 2008 before being replaced by the Japan-South Korea club championship the past two years.

The Japan Series champions have won all of the last six editions.

(Mainichi Japan) August 23, 2011