After sitting out five games, Tai-wan's Chen Chin-feng (陳金鋒) finally made his major-league debut for the LA Dodgers against the Colorado Rockies and scored a run.
Chen, the first Taiwanese baseball player to join the US major leagues, was one of six pinch hitters sent onto the field Saturday in the first half of the sixth inning, at Coors Field in Denver.
PHOTO: AP
Los Angeles used six pinch hitters in the inning, which ties a major league record last set by the Braves in 1993.
The Dodgers had scored 13 unanswered runs in the first four innings, when Chen went up to the plate to face Sean Lowe of the Rockies.
Chen was walked after three balls, two strikes, one outside pitch and another ball. With support from his teammates, Chen scored the 14th run for the Dodgers and they went on to win the game 16-3. LA is in the hunt for a wild card to the postseason playoffs.
"I imagined the major leagues would be a fiercely competitive battlefield, but now that I've tried it, I have more confidence about breaking into the major leagues," Chen said after the game.
He said he was satisfied with his debut. "I'm very happy to be able to contribute to a victory in the team's effort for the postseason."
Back in Taiwan, baseball officials said they were delighted with Chen's performance.
Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) Secretary Wayne Lee (
"His first at-bat is significant not only for his own baseball career but to fans all over Taiwan, as he is the first Taiwanese to play in the majors," he said.
"Chen's accomplishment will also inspire more youngsters in Taiwan to keep their baseball dreams alive and to pursue a future career in baseball."
Dean Yuan (
"Playing in the majors is a tremendous achievement. It used to be the `impossible dream' but it has now become a reality. It will inspire kids and be a tremendous boost for local baseball."
Yuan said Chen's arrival on the world's center stage for baseball would encourage local youngsters to play the game.
He said that in other sports, size is important and Taiwan is at a disadvantage. But he said Chen's example proved that in baseball, size is not an issue.
"It shows size doesn't matter. A lot of other Taiwan players are around the same build as Chen and it shows that anyone with ability can be a major leaguer."
Some commentators have said that with many of Taiwan's best players going to the US, Japan or South Korea, there will be a drain of talent out of the country.
"Actually, this creates a bigger dream," Yuan said. "In three to five years these players will return and their experience will be invaluable for the development of the game."
Former major-leaguer Jonathan Hurst, who pitches for the Taiwan's Brother Elephants, said Chen would do well with Los Angeles.
"[The] Dodgers is an organization that knows how to take care of young talent," he said.
"Chen will be getting plenty of good advice from people around him and I believe that he will get better and better as he continues his career in the major leagues."
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS