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Taiwanese Baseball Primer

ByAndrew Wong

Baseball in Taiwan may seem strange to a foreigner. It should. Even thoughit is the same game, it is played in a different country. In Taiwan theconcession stands sell instant noodles instead of hot dogs with mustard.Numerous fan support means the season drags on for more than nine months.Local Taiwanese refer to the matchups as the fight between the tiger anddragon, a traditional Chinese metaphor for intense conflict. And was thereever intense conflict in the early years of baseball in Taiwan.

Baseball was first introduced by the Japanese in the 19th century so, in1990, the ROC Professional Baseball League was born. The electrifying battlesbetween the Brothers Elephants, the Wei Chuan Dragons and the President Lions[the latter two owned, respectively by Wei Chuan Foods Co. and PresidentFoods Co.] succeeded in drawing standing-room-only capacity crowds.

Although baseball is the No. 1 sport, an even superior hobby is gambling.After professional baseball was launched in 1989, gamblers embraced the sport,taking bets from basement offices, over the telephone or even via the Internet.

The CPBL relished in its glory until 1997 when a gambling scandal rippedthe masks off a number of two-faced baseball players. Lured by the temptationof personal profit and turning their backs on Taiwan's baseball tradition,these players plunged Taiwan baseball into a multi-year dark age from whichit has only the last two/three years had the chance to recover.

The infamous "Black Eagles" scandal knocked the CPBL down from its podium.In late January 1997, three members of the China Times Eagles were accusedof fixing games in exchange for bribes. Other players and other teams werealso guilty. The incident led to the demise of the China Times Eagles andthe ban of many top players from the league. Despite playing more games,the league saw the total attendance decline by half.

If you think Central Park in New York is scary, you ain't seen nothing yet.On Aug. 2, 1996, four players from the Brother Elephants were abducted andheld in a hotel room in the city of Taichung. Second baseman Fu-lien Wu wasreportedly roughed up and pitcher Yi-hsin "Knife Thrower" Chen had a pistolbarrel shoved in his mouth. According to prosecutors, the kidnappers werefrom a syndicate that had lost $125,000 on an Elephants game. They believedthe players had intentionally thrown it after being paid off by a rival gang.

Even the 1997 high school baseball championship suffered when five playersfrom the Pingtung High School team had to be taken home by their parentsin the middle of the game because the poor young players had received threatsfrom a group of men, apparently gangsters worried about their bets. Eventually,21 players, a coach and 12 alleged mob men were convicted in September 1997.Also, Weichuan Dragons manager Hsu Sheng-ming was stabbed four times in April1996 after dropping his daughter off at school. Thus the gambling scandalswere finally thought to be put behind the CPBL.

Then when Naluwan failed to aquire the television rights to the CPBL, theyformed the four-team TML that began play in 1997. It took away many qualityplayers from the scandal-plagued CPBL. The CPBL was also extremely displeasedto see the TML raiding college players who were not yet mature enough toplay pro ball.

The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is still the oldest leaguein Taiwan after the Taiwan Major League (TML) merged to begin the 2003 season.The TML was formed in 1997 the rivalry between the two leagues in tiny Taiwanhurt the sport of baseball immensely on the island.

The Future

The average salary is $58,000 US a year while foreigners make about $96,000US a year. The average ticket price is $6 US.

Taiwan won the baseball World Cup in 2001 and has seen its first professionalballplayer, outfielder Chin-Feng Chen, make his debut with MLB's Los AngelesDodgers.

Current Teams (CPBL)

Uni-President Lions
China Trust Whales
Brother Elephants
Makoto Gida
First Securities Agan
Sinon Bulls

What's A Season Like?

Each team plays 50 games a season. In total, there are 300 games a year.In the 2002 season, there were 45 games and once, there were 100 games wereplayed by each team. Each team plays about two or three times a week andthen takes a week off, depending on the schedule. There is usually a weekoff after a three-game series. In 2003, the CPBL merged with the TML to becomethe CPBL, which has six teams and use these stadiums: Taipei Stadium, TianmuStadium, Shingcung, Longtan, Shingchu, Taichung, Hualen, Jayi, Tainan, Kaoshung1 and 2 and Pingtong. The top two teams fight for the CPBL series championship.Here are the2002championship results for both the old TML and the CPBL before the merger.

Awards

The CPBL has a season-ending banquet in which it honours its finest players.The league gives out awards for having the most home runs, RBIs, stolen basesand for being the Best Nine player and best pitcher. It also gives out theMVP award.

Seeing A Game

Games are available for everyone to see. The six teams do not have a homestadium - they rotate, from Taichung to Koahsiung to Taipei and so on. Thatway, everybody around Taiwan gets to experience the game of baseball. Ticketsaverage out at about $6 US. Stadiums usually have a capacity of around5,000-10,000 with crowds of usually 1,000-2,000. The 2003 opener drew 10,000.

Team Histories

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