Brothers Baseball Club officials yesterday spoke with reporters in an effort to limit the damage caused by allegations that a number of their star players attended drinking parties and committed other acts of impropriety while they were training for the national team ahead of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) earlier this year.
Brothers general manager Liu Chih-wei (劉志威) said the allegations have damaged the reputation of the club and the players.
“We will conduct an internal investigation to clarify the matter and hand out disciplinary measures, depending on the seriousness of the violations [if any]. If the players have violated the terms of their contracts, then the club can release the players and terminate their contracts,” Liu said.
Photo: Luo Chih-ming, Taipei Times
The firestorm over the club’s benching of five players ahead of the playoffs in Tainan tomorrow erupted into a crisis after reports in yesterday’s Chinese-language Next Magazine and other media outlets that national team players held parties in a room in the Taichung hotel where they were staying while preparing for the WBC.
Next Magazine quoted eyewitnesses as saying that alcohol was served and numerous young women attended the parties.
The club’s decision to bench its five stars was linked to the partying, the reports said.
The announcement led to protests from fans as the club did not give specific reasons for the players’ benching, but said that “disciplinary issues” were behind the decision.
The benched veterans are among the most prominent and highest paid players in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, with a combined monthly salary of NT$3 million (US$99,338).
They are cleanup man Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝), who is also known as Ngayaw Ake, former Boston Red Sox Double-A prospect Chiang Chih-hsien (蔣智賢), All-Star outfielder Chang Cheng-wei (張正偉), who is also known as “The Flower,” 10-year veteran Wang Sheng-wei (王勝偉) and catcher Cheng Ta-hung (鄭達鴻), who is also known as the “Johnny Damon of Taiwan.”
All five played for Taiwan at the WBC in March and according to Next Magazine a few of them attended the parties.
The reports also alleged that Chiang and Chang had extramarital affairs.
Many people expressed their disapproval of the players’ alleged partying when vital WBC games were at stake.
Taiwan suffered three straight losses and were eliminated from the WBC, which lead some fans to question the highly paid players commitment to the national team, with some blaming the late night revelry for the losses.
Meanwhile, Lin been accused of insubordination toward American head coach Cory Snyder.
“Lin is not used to a coach who wants players to follow the rules and he did not play to his full capacity in some games. Lin set a bad example,” Liu said. “He has sustained an injury, so we dropped him from the playoff roster to allow him to recover.”
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