Sitting in a skybox at the Taipei Municiple Stadium, Richard Wang scans the crowd of 8,000 rowdy fans blowing whistles, singing songs and cheering every pitch, and he recalls the recent dark days of Taiwan's favorite sport.
"A couple years ago, there would have only been half as many people here," said Wang, a spokesman for the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
He was referring to when the game seemed close to extinction in Taiwan. A gambling scandal drove away fans, and a nasty feud between team owners led to the creation of two rival leagues. Both lost money in a market barely big enough for one league.
But now, the stadiums are filling up again and as the playoff season approaches, there's a new baseball buzz in the nation. Things are going so well that one of the teams, the Elephants, plans to make history this season by being the first Taiwanese professional baseball team ever to make a profit.
Wang said a key factor in the game's comeback was the end of the "two-league war" that began in 1997. Disputes over TV rights and expansion teams led to the schism that created two four-team leagues. The leagues finally called a truce last January and merged into the CPBL.
"They were suffering. We were suffering," Wang said. "Baseball talent is limited here. It certainly wasn't a wise decision to run two leagues with only eight teams."
Now the league is reporting that average attendance for games this season is 3,241 -- a 42 percent increase from the dismal 2001 season, which drew an average of 1,876 fans per game.
The average gate income per game this year is up 33 percent to NT$485,235 (US$14,356) compared with last season, the league said.
Attendance and gate revenue would likely be higher if the games weren't all televised live on cable.
Taiwan got hooked on baseball while it was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945. The Japanese, who learned the game from American missionaries, taught the Taiwanese how to play.
When the Japanese left after World War II, Taiwanese continued playing baseball, and the nation became famous for being a little-league powerhouse that won 17 world championships from 1969 to 1996.
The first professional season began here in 1990 with four teams sponsored by major corporations. Average attendance at games during the first season was 5,000 and the number climbed to 5,954 in 1994 at the height of the game's popularity, according to the league. Three teams were added and the season swelled from 180 to 300 games.
But baseball began declining in 1996 when gangsters and gamblers infiltrated the sport and began pressuring players to throw games. The next year, 18 players, one coach and two bookmakers were convicted and jailed in a game-fixing scandal.
Jaded by the scandal, fans fled in droves and average attendance in 1997 declined by more than 50 percent to just 2,041, according to league statistics.
Standing outside the Taipei stadium before a recent game, ticket scalper Huang Jin-ying says that memories of the gambling scandal seem to be fading and this is crucial for the game's recovery.
Chang Lee-shuan is one of the new fans. The 20-year-old coffee shop worker caught the baseball bug this season when a girlfriend brought her to the game. Now she tries to go to every game played by her favorite team, the Whales.
"The players are so cute," said Chang, as her head bobbed along with chanting fans at a recent game in Taipei. "First we get interested in the guys and then we get interested in the game."
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS