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Baseball dreams shattered

Taiwan's all-star baseball team, which included all the elite players from the local pro baseball league and several minor leaguers in the US, finished fifth place at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Despite the nation's love of baseball, fans can hardly be sure about the next step for our national sport, given our mediocre showing at the Olympics.

The message is clear: our baseball players are not yet competitive at the international level. Even players such as Tsao Chin-hui and Wang Chien-ming, now widely regarded as national heros, still have a long way to go in their careers. With no proper facilities and no investment in the development of local baseball, it may be hasty to conclude that Taiwan's Olympic baseball team has achieved nothing. But then again, the team's failure to win a medal does highlight many problems that have plagued local baseball for years.

Taiwan's baseball players were widely renowned for their success in the 1960s and 1970s during the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But so what? Our little leaguers of yesteryear have not improved as well as their counterparts in the US, Australia or Japan. The idea that we could defeat teams from "developed baseball nations," were shattered when our players -- while representing Taiwan in the Olympics -- went face to face against their opponents.

Kids from the US, for example, have fun during the little league games, but ours tend to play serious baseball to live up to "the system's" expectations. For the most talented ones, they'll probably earn good money when they get to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), but won't have much chance to face international opponents. But in the US and Japan, players have access to formal, professional training and have the opportunity to play in leagues worldwide. Our pro baseball players, however, are challenged only at the national level; they don't go any further.

Without a baseball league supported by wealthy investors here, the only way out is to send talented Taiwanese children to Japan or the US to flourish in their baseball leagues. In an era of globalized baseball, I have to admit that Taiwan is not the right place for kids with baseball dreams.

Roger Cheng

Taipei
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