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Threatening letters to players raise fears of corruption

Shia Jia-shen, center, is congratulated by teammates. PHOTO: LIU HSIN-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES

Merging the two former professional baseball leagues earlier this year helped revive the game after years of public apathy -- but the specter of corruption is clearly still hovering.

News of threatening letters to three Makoto Gida players -- following their team's series sweep against the Brother Elephants last month -- has revived talk of the bad old days in the mid- to late-1990s when corruption and gang- land activity in baseball nearly destroyed the game.

Though it was suspected underworld figures may have been responsible for the letters to the three players -- star hitter Hsieh Jia-hsian (謝佳賢) and outfielders Chen Pao-hung (陳保宏) and Wu Cheng-han (吳承翰) -- most pundits believe they might have come as a result of fights that broke out between fans following a game between the two teams in Hsinchuang on March 16.

All three letters were said to be from a single source and warned the players to be careful, "or face the consequences" if they continued to perform well.

"We are always very concerned whenever something like this takes place," CPBL Secretary General Lee Wen-pin (李文彬) was quoted in a local Chinese-language newspaper as saying.

"We wish Gida had reported the incident to the league sooner than it did, so that we could take more aggressive countermeasures."

Earlier this week, in the first meeting between the two teams since then, the league beefed up security at the grounds they were playing and requested several undercover police officers to mix with the crowd.

CPBL founder and Brother Elephants owner Hung Rei-ho (洪瑞 河) said whoever sent the letters was threatening the future of the sport in the country.

"Whoever you are, please leave the way clear for the development of professional baseball in Taiwan. We really can't afford another blow to this great game," Hung said.

CPBL club owners will address the threatening letter issue on Monday.

Round Up

The league's top two teams did what they were expected to do last week against weaker opponents and swept their series.

In a four-game affair between the league leading President Lions and the weaker First Securities Agan in Kaohsiung, the Lions took advantage of a poor pitching performance from Agan and won all four contests.

Rookie pitcher Pan Wei-luen (潘威倫) of the Lions earned his fifth consecutive victory of the season -- one victory shy of the record set by last season's rookie of the year winner Sinon Bulls pitcher Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南).

Pan held the Agan to two runs over five innings of play en route to a 8-6 victory.

Pan's fellow teammate Joe Davenport, a five-game winner in the league, also recorded a win for his team against the Agan in the same series.

Davenport pitched seven strong innings, while yielding three runs[only one earned] on six hits.

The three-game series between the Sinon Bulls and Makoto Gida in Hsinchuang and Hsinchu also resulted in a series sweep by the stronger Bulls.

Led by their foreign starters, Osvaldo Martinez and Jeff Andra, plus local ace Tsai Chung-nan, the Bulls took all three games by an overwhelming combined score of 31-to-9.

Offensively for the Bulls, the series belonged to left fielder Lou Soong-yeon (羅松永), whose 9-for-11 performance with five RBI's turned many previous doubters of his hitting ability into loyal believers.

The Brother Elephants were one-against-three in their four-game series against the ChinaTrust Whales in Hsinchu and Tienmu.

The Elephants avoided a series sweep against the Whales by taking the game at Tienmu last Saturday to remain perfect in games played at Tienmu on Saturdays.

The hard-earned win went into extra innings, before designated hitter Peng Cheng-ming's (彭政閔) solo blast in the eleventh won it for his team.

Upcoming Games

CBPL action will take place in the central and southern cities of Taiwan this weekend, where the Lions were set to host the Whales in Tainan on Thursday, today and Sunday.

This is a much anticipated series between the two teams, because the Whales, three-and-a-half games behind the Lions in the league standings, can make up three games with a sweep against the league leader.

The Elephants will finish Game 3 and 4 of the four-game series against the Gida down in Kaohsiung, today and tomorrow, with the series tied at one game apiece.

It is a battle for fourth place in the league standings between two teams that have had tough breaks against them thus far this season.

Game 2 and 3 between the Bulls and the Agan will take place in Taichung tomorrow and Sunday.

The Agan pitchers really have their work cut out for them as they face tough hitting from the Bulls in Taichung Stadium -- also known as "hitter's heaven."
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