After being disbanded 20 years ago, the Wei Chuan Dragons officially returned to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) after a congress of representatives yesterday approved their re-entry.
The league made the announcement at a ceremony, which was attended by CPBL commissioner John Wu (吳志揚), Ting Hsin Hede Foundation founder Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and Sports Administration Director-General Kao Chun-hsiung (高俊雄).
The Wei Chuan Dragons were one of the four founding teams when the league started in 1990, Wu said, adding that the league has seen teams come and go and changes in rules and regulations over the past 30 years.
Photo: CNA
Efforts over the past few years have paid off, as the league has succeeded in bringing back one of its founding teams, he said.
The league has had four competing teams for the past 10 years and many have been hoping that it would be expanded to accommodate more teams, he said.
However, the league has found it difficult to convince corporations to finance new teams, which cited economic concerns and a lack of transparency for new entrants to join the league, he said.
The league made public the rules for new entrants in 2017 and welcomed all interested parties, Wu added.
With Wei Chuan forming a fifth team, the league would incorporate them into its schedule after the league’s player draft on Monday next week, he said.
“We welcome any corporation interested in forming a sixth professional baseball team,” Wu said.
“My colleagues and I would explain the rules of entry in detail and assist them in formulating a viable plan to join the league,” he added.
The Dragons’ home base would be Yunlin County’s Douliou City (斗六), Wei said.
Kao said the CPBL is also in charge of organizing major international baseball tournaments and training players to compete in them following an agreement it signed on Jan. 30 with the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association, with the aim of assembling the strongest national team possible.
The timing of the Dragons rejoining the CPBL could not be better, as the Sports Administration has helped revamp the facilities of 450 baseball fields or stadiums across the nation over the past five years, Kao said, adding that two new stadiums — one in Tainan and the other in Hsinchu — would soon be in use.
The Dragons won the CPBL championship in 1990, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
The club was disbanded in December 1999 after winning its third straight championship, as Ting Hsin International Group, which took over the management of Wei Chuan Group (味全集團), said it had no plans to finance a professional baseball team.
However, on April 29, Ting Hsin submitted a proposal for the Dragons to rejoin the league.
The move was widely seen as the group’s efforts to reshape its corporate image after its involvement in the tainted cooking oil scandal in 2013.
The league’s board of directors approved the team’s re-entry to the league on May 13.
Aside from paying franchising fees and other obligatory funds, the Dragons would begin by first playing in the minor league next year, but the club can still participate in the player draft session next week.
The team are to start playing in the major league in 2021.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
RSS