Pro baseball is born again in Taiwan

The wait was finally over and the baseball season's opening game in Taipei yesterday saw the Brother Elephants vanquish the Chinatrust Whales 3-2, to mark the beginning of a new era.

Unification of two rival leagues into the newly formed six-team Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is expected to lead to a resurgence in the local game.

Leading a slew of government officials that took part in the opening ceremony were President Chen Shui Bian (陳水扁) and Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

Ma welcomed a crowd of over 10,000 screaming fans with a remark regarding the limited capacity of Tienmu Stadium and stressed the urgent need for the Taipei Dome, scheduled to open in 2005.

While Ma took the opportunity to promote the dome, President Chen called himself "just a fan of this great game of baseball." and referred to the recent merger of the two leagues -- after six seasons of bitter rivalry -- as a symbol of Taiwan's ability to overcome adversity and strive for excellence and international recognition.

After all the pre-game speeches and photo sessions ended, attention shifted to the main event of the night: a rematch of last season's one-sided championship series between the visiting China Trust Whales and the Brother Elephants.

The Whales entered the contest without the service of their ace hurler Sooh Chao-jee (宋肇基) due to unspecified reasons, and sent newly acquired Dominican native Geraldo Guzman to the mound in search of revenge for last season's embarrassing three-game sweep in the Championship Series by the Brother Elephants.

The Elephants, having lost their own pitching ace, 16-game winner Jonathan Hurst to the US Major Leagues, countered with Japanese native Nakagomi Shin.

The game began with the Whales threatening to score in the second inning with runners on first and second with no outs.

However, some poor base-running decisions and a great throw to the home plate by Elephant pitcher Nakagomi ended the Whales' second inning.

Then the Elephants showed why they are the champions by striking with right fielder Lee Chih Jeh's (李志傑) two-run blast over the left field fence off Guzman.

The score remained at 2-0, in favor of the Elephants until the top of the sixth, when Whales second baseman Lin Yueh-liang (林岳亮) sacrificed home the runner from third to make it 2-1.

The Whales failed to put any more runs on the board, thanks to some great defensive play by Elephant shortstop Chen Rue-cheng (陳瑞振) and a key strike out by Nakagomi that ended the innings.

After giving up two runs in the third inning, Guzman seemed to be on top of his game as did well to keep the Elephant hitters at bay before being relieved on the top of the ninth by ace closer Kuo-lee Jien-fu (郭李建夫).

By then, the Whales had tied the game at two runs apiece on another RBI by Lin Yueh-liang (林岳亮) in the eighth.

The scoreboard read 2-2 after nine hard-fought innings and the game was sent into extra innings.

While the Elephants were able to put runners in scoring position in the ninth and 10th inning, Whales closer Kuo-lee, managed to escape the offensive threats of the Elephants in both innings with close calls.

The 11th inning proved to be one close call too many for Kuo-lee, as he gave up an RBI-single to Hsu Chih-wei (許誌為) to end the game 3-2 in favor of last year's champions. Kuo-lee took the loss, while Hsiao Ruen-wen (蕭任汶) worked a perfect 11th for the win.