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Organizers aim to foster carnival-like atmosphere

Hoping to inject the country with baseball fever, the Cabinet's National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports will hold two carnivals on the sidelines of the of the XXXIV Baseball World Cup.

The carnivals -- to be held in Taipei and Kaohsiung -- were announced at a press conference yesterday and former Taiwan baseball stars were on hand to talk up the events.

"We'd like to make the carnival as cheerful as possible for all participants, stirring up fervent enthusiasm for the game," said Brady Liang (梁功斌), general manager of the Far East International Sports Agency Corp, at yesterday's press conference.

The highlight of the carnivals will be a traditional lantern ceremony (放天燈) in which paper lanterns will be released into the sky to pray for blessings and good luck for the games' participants.

A sticker-treasure hunt is also planned for children and sticker-lovers. Participants will have to solve small riddles in their quest to collect stickers of the 16 participating countries' emblems from various booths at the carnival.

Extending Liang's welcome to all baseball fans, the council yesterday also presented the games' three dinosaur-like mascots at the press conference.

Former Taiwan baseball greats Kuo Tai-yuan (郭泰源) Chao Shih-chiang (趙士強) and Wu Fu-lien (吳復連) were also on hand at the press conference yesterday to show their support.

"We are more than willing to help with the event, in the hopes of bringing back the sport's glory," Chao said on behalf of the other players in attendance.

The council said that the money raised from the auctions is to be donated to charity.

The carnivals will be held at Kaohsiung County's Chengching Lake Baseball Stadium (澄清湖棒球場) on Nov. 10 and at Taipei County's Hsinchuang Baseball Stadium (新莊棒球場) on Nov. 11, both at 10am.
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