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Editorial: Baseball as a metaphor for life

Sunday was a wonderful day in Taiwan -- a rare day without unification-independence disputes, ethnic grudges, or wrangling between political parties. It was the final day of the 31st Baseball World Cup, a day in which all the people of Taiwan became fans of the national baseball team and cheered unashamedly.

Even though the team only won the bronze medal, it was gold as far as the nation was concerned. The players are heroes and have been praised for their efforts and athletic spirit. The baseball tournament and the performance of the Chinese-Taipei team became the key to a collective psychological healing during a frustrating period for the nation -- in the same way the Yankees helped New Yorkers emerge from the gloom cast by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Baseball has long been Taiwan's "national" ballgame. Beginning more than three decades ago with the legendary Hungyeh (紅葉) team from Taitung and the Chinlung (金龍) team from Taichung -- which won the first gold medal for Taiwan at the Little League World Series in 1969 -- baseball mania took over Taiwan. The sport grew from from Little League games to professional baseball. The sport provided important shared experiences for the society.

But the sport also provided many dark days as well, as professional baseball split into two feuding alliances and a series of gambling scandals involving players drove fans away from the game and led to the collapse of one of the leagues.

Taipei City's hosting of the Baseball World Cup tournament won back the hearts of Taiwanese fans, who cheered for their team regardless of age, gender, ethnic background or party affiliation. When fans waved the ROC flag at stadiums, no one doubted what the flag represented. During the Taiwan-Netherlands game, some fans even brought out portraits of Koxinga (鄭成功), the leader who drove the Dutch from Taiwan in the 17th Century. During the Taiwan-Japan game, some fans brandished portraits of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). No one criticized those portraits as symbols of alien regimes. The performance of fans and the players was a clear demonstration of Taiwan's ability to lift itself up and triumph over adversity.

The overwhelming interest in the tournament stood in stark contrast to the other major public events being held around the nation -- campaign rallies. Most of the people participating in the rallies have been mobilized by their parties, local factions, their companies or social organizations. The rallies have highlighted the discord in society and threaten to exacerbate it. Mud-slinging by parties, candidates and campaign staffers does not help consensus-building -- it simply demonstrates the moral low to which Taiwan can sink.

The passion for baseball encouraged unity across Taiwan, while election rallies have simply stirred up passions that divide the country. In the run up to the Dec. 1 elections -- an important watershed in Taiwan's political history -- hosting the Baseball World Cup for the first time provided psychological rehabilitation and an opportunity for positive thinking. The people of Taiwan can choose to let politicians manipulate negative emotions or they can be their own masters and make choices based on a rational judgement of the nation's future.
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