Recent discussions over the potential conversion of the existing Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and the Taiwan Major League (TML) into a single professional baseball organization are intended to preserve professional baseball in Taiwan.
It is just the latest of numerous attempts taken by various parties to overcome the long-standing financial crisis that has troubled both leagues since their inceptions in 1990 and 1997 respectively.
It is widely recognized that the Taiwan market can barely support six professional baseball teams, let alone the current eight.
So why haven't any of the past efforts to consolidate the two leagues materialized, despite the sea of red ink that surrounds them both?
TML Deputy General Manager Huang Ing-po (黃瑛玻) said forming one league is essential to the wellbeing of baseball in Taiwan.
"We, at the TML, are hopeful that a reasonable compromise can be struck to help the long-term cause of this great game of baseball.
"Even if it means one or two seasons of rough going under the new system. We all realize that doing nothing will lead both leagues into further financial burden and make the overall quality of play and level of competition suffer even more."
It is the CPBL that has primarily resisted a merger to this point, most TML staffers believe. They say the CPBL has vetoed TML proposals for inter-league competitions -- ranging from an All-Star game to a full-blown championship series -- because it claimed the TML did not have an acceptable governing structure.
The real reason lies in the CPBL's reluctance to face the fact that actual inter-league play may contradict the notions of superiority that the CPBL has been claiming over the TML since it began.
Over 85 percent of the people polled in two recent surveys conducted by the National College of Physical Education and the National Taiwan College of Physical Education favor the idea of any sort of inter-league play. People are in favor of inter-league matchups because they would be the most direct way of settling the issue of superiority and they would also have potentially massive media and financial implications.
Instead, the CPBL insists on avoiding the issue by placing further unreasonable demands in its list of conditions for a proposed conversion plan, the TML says.
Commenting on the CPBL's attempt to prevent any competing leagues from having control over baseball, TML consultant Dean Yuan said earlier this week, "We must look beyond the next season or two because free market and open competition is the only way to improve the level of play.
"We are looking at making professional sports a legitimate alternative to other forms of entertainment.
"How we can work together to increase the popularity of this great sport should be the question that we ask ourselves, not the immediate interest of certain ball clubs or individuals," Yuan said.
Also, there are certain practices the CPBL is reluctant to take on.
It has no home-city designation system for its teams and this has led to an uneven distribution of player talent and fan base.
The TML's four teams represent four different regions to promote "bonding" between each team and the residents in its region, thus creating an evenly distributed source of support for each team.
The TML believes the regional designation policy, consistent with the mainstream school of thought in managing professional sporting teams, would also convert the existing sense of provincial pride into so-called "team pride" and cultivate support from people who would otherwise turn away from the game.
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