The cheers are loud and the spirits high. Taiwan's baseball fans have once again shown zealous support and enthusiasm for the national sport years after a betting scandal threatened to lead to the domestic game's demise.
Regardless of how the 34th Baseball World Cup ends today, the games have indicated that Taiwan's baseball fans are still out there, ready to once again embrace the sport and its players.
The question now is how to keep those fans.
Taiwan has been home to baseball teams since 1905, during Japanese colonial rule. The first all-Taiwanese baseball team was established in 1921.
With the introduction of junior and senior leagues in 1971 and 1973 respectively, Taiwan's three leagues all began to win world championships.
Baseball, however, started to decline in 1982 when Taiwan's performance in the international arena began to decline.
The game got a fresh chance with the inauguration of the nation's first professional league in 1989. But the joy was short-lived after a major betting scandal and the creation of another league resulted in a loss of fans.
Betting scandals
Former Olympian and member of the China Times Eagles (時報鷹) Wang Kuang-hsi (王光熙) was just one of several players sent to jail for his involvement in a widespread betting scandal in which players were caught throwing games. Wang was sentenced to two years in prison on gambling charges in 1998.
"I don't think about it much. The only thing I want is a peaceful life," said the 34-year-old Ami Aborigine from Hualien County. Wang's case is on appeal at the High Court.
After serving his sentence, Wang went back to his hometown to teach high school baseball for 18 months. About a year ago, he returned to Taipei to work as a pavement technician at the city government's Bureau of Public Works.
"It's quite a challenge salary-wise, but as a high school graduate, I don't have any complaints about having a job as a civil servant," he said.
When Wang was a pro his monthly salary was more than NT$230,000. Wang now earns NT$30,000 a month.
Commenting on the government's efforts to take care of exceptional athletes, Wang said that the government should do more than just offer monetary rewards to players.
"There should be a channels made available for athletes to continue their passion and talent," he said. "Take the 1992 Olympic team for example -- each of us received NT$5 million for winning silver, but what happened then?"
Witnessing the enthusiasm of baseball fans at the 34th Baseball World Cup, Wang said that he is both happy and worried.
"I'm glad to see the fans coming back out to show their support, but I'm afraid that their passion might be short-lived," he said.
To lure back more baseball fans, Wang said government agencies should try to host more international games.
"Or if it's financially difficult to do so, they should consider sending out our teams to compete in international games," he said.
An earnest hope
Jen Chih-wei (
"How I miss those days of competing for the glory of the country," he said. "I hope to be able to form a baseball team for the city government and to eventually lead the team to professional competitions."
After leaving the Weichuan Dragons (
"It's taken me awhile to adjust to such a different life, but what can I do? Life must go on," he said.
Jen added that although he misses playing terribly, he is not keen about returning to the major leagues.
"There's no point in going back if those old coaches are still there manipulating the selection of players," he said.
To keep baseball fans interested in the sport, Jen said that the government should not be content with simply holding one world cup championship.
"In addition to making an effort to hold more international baseball events, government agencies should build more baseball stadiums that meet international standards; discover and cultivate more baseball talent; and raise the quality of coaching," he said.
What is equally important is to encourage corporate sectors to support baseball teams, he added.
"Incentives such as tax reduction might not be a bad idea," he said.
`Disunity doesn't lead anywhere'
Unlike Jen and Wang, Hsieh Ming-yung (
Hsieh, 54, was one of the players representing Taiwan in the 1972 Baseball World Cup in Nicaragua. It marked the first time Taiwan ever played in the Baseball World Cup. Hsieh later led Taiwan to the Olympic silver as head coach of the nation's team in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Sitting in his fourth-floor apartment in Hsintien City in Taipei County, Hsieh said that he has seen dramatic changes in baseball over the years.
"I remember playing baseball in junior high -- we were so poor that we had to hand-sew broken baseballs and use tape and nails to fix broken bats," he said.
He added that when the public first began to take notice of baseball in the 1960s and 1970s, the only place where a game could be played properly was the then New Park, where the 228 Memorial Park now stands.
Just as the game began to really take off with the introduction of a pro league in 1989, a gambling scandal and then the creation of the baseball association and the major league prompted fans to turn their backs on the sport.
The Chinese-Taipei Baseball Association (
Many baseball observers attribute a decrease in the quality of play to the establishment of the second league as the creation of many more teams made it significantly easier to go pro.
A lowering in the quality of the games turned some fans off. When the betting scandal later broke, it was a near-fatal blow to an already struggling sport.
"To win back baseball fans, the two organizations must work together and the two leagues must integrate," Hsieh said. "Disunity doesn't lead anywhere."
Hsieh added that he was also upset about the political disputes over the venue for the world cup's opening and closing ceremonies.
Taipei and Kaohsiung cities engaged in a political tug of war when Kaohsiung City tried to change the venue of the award and closing ceremony from Taipei to Kaohsiung.
The dispute, however, was finally resolved when the International Baseball Federation rejected Kaohsiung's proposal.
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
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)