Taiwan's premier baseball trio shine on the world stage

Impressive victories by Taiwan's Kuo Hong-chih (郭泓志) and Wang Chien-ming (王建民) in the US major leagues and Chiang Jien-ming (姜建銘) in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league last weekend will probably be remembered as the greatest 24 hours in recent Taiwanese baseball history.

The unprecedented successes by the new "Prides of Taiwan" have enhanced the nation's reputation as a breeding ground for great baseball players. With talented players at every level from little league to the major leagues, Taiwan has emerged as a legitimate baseball powerhouse.

Kuo led off the first of the three remarkable wins for Taiwan with six shutout innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 5-0 win over the National League-leading New York Mets in New York for his first career major league victory on Saturday morning.

This was followed by Chiang's 2-1 complete-game win over the Yakult Swallows for the Yumiuri Giants in Tokyo on Saturday night for his third career win in the NPB.

Wang then stepped in to cap the weekend off with seven-and-a-third innings of one-run ball, leading the New York Yankees to a 3-2 triumph over the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore early yesterday morning.

Wang's win was his 17th for the year, bringing the Tainan native even with Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana and the Chicago White Sox's Jon Garland for the lead in most wins in the majors.

Kuo, Ching, and Wang are not the only Taiwanese baseball players making names for themselves on the world stage, as more than a dozen budding stars are currently competing at various levels in the US minor leagues.

Most prominent of these is Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝), who is currently on the disabled list for the Colorado Rockies with an elbow injury, but who hopes to join his fellow countrymen in the big leagues soon.