For the country's sports fans, Taiwan's bronze medal in the 34th Baseball World Cup was an almost perfect ending to the 13-day tournament.
Cuba trounced the US in the final game yesterday to win the championship for the seventh time in a row, while Taiwan regained its position as one of the top three baseball powers, a position it last held in 1988.
PHOTO: AFP
During the closing ceremony, International Baseball Federation (IBAF) President Aldo Notari praised Taiwan for hosting a successful tournament and thanked the fans for their support.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Chang also expressed his willingness for future federation games to be held in Taiwan.
Also present at the closing ceremony, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Thanking the fans for their support, Ma also promised to start the construction of the Taipei Sports Dome (巨蛋體育場) soon, to accommodate more fans and baseball tournaments.
In the playoff for the bronze medal yesterday in Tienmu, Taiwan edged its old rival Japan 3-0. Left-fielder Chen Ching-fong (陳金鋒) batted in all the runs with two home runs.
More than 10,000 fans, mostly supporting Taiwan, chanted and waved flags throughout the game. At the end of the game, fans threw out thousands of blue stringers on to the field to celebrate the victory. The celebrations were even more passionate than for Taiwan's previous seven wins in the tournament.
"Such strong and moving support from local fans has been the most important factor leading to our victory," Taiwan's head coach Lin Hua-wei (林華韋) said yesterday.
After the game, thousands of fans took to the street to cheer the Taiwan team as the team bus travelled along Chungcheng Road. Amid the flag-waving, some Tienmu residents set off firecrackers along the road to welcome the victorious team.
"Since Taiwan won the silver metal in the 1992 Olympic Games, Taiwan has done badly in international baseball games, going downhill in a rather sad manner," said famous sports commentator Tseng Wen-cheng (曾文誠).
"It has been a long time since we saw such a moving scene with so many fans welcoming the return of our baseball players, whom we regard as national heroes," Tseng added.
The public were not the only ones to get caught up in the excitement. President Chen Shui-bian (
Though the upcoming legislative election will have a decisive influence on Taiwan's future, the media, the public and even politicians who have spent all their energy trading barbs over the past year, have expressed their support for the national team.
The president, while campaigning for DPP candidates around the country over the past few weeks, told his aides to keep him abreast of the latest information about the games.
"On Friday night, the president was on the road to Hualien County when Taiwan was edging ahead of the Netherlands 2-0," a Presidential Office aide told reporters. "He ordered aides to update him on the situation via mobile phone.
"After receiving news of Tai-wan's victory," the aide added, "he congratulated the team's head coach by mobile phone, then proudly entered the rally to announce the victory."
Last Sunday, the president went to the Cheng Ching Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung County to watch Taiwan play the US, which the visiting team won 6-0.
A close aide to the president told the Taipei Times that, after welcoming the return of first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) from Europe yesterday, Chen rushed back home to watch Taiwan's last game on television.
"While the country is under the cloud of economic depression, the baseball victory has filled all the people with enthusiasm," Chen was quoted as saying after the game.
"It [the passion of the people] proves that baseball is still the most popular sport in Taiwan, therefore the government should do more to cultivate those with a talent for baseball," the president said.
additional reporting by Joyce Huang
See Stories:
Mayor finds the spotlight a drag
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary