Taiwan's Major League Baseball (MLB) star Tsao Chin-hui (
Officials from the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA, 中華民國棒球協會) announced they received a letter from the Rockies yesterday which said Tsao could not be released to represent Taiwan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
An MLB rule prevents players who sign up to play in the league before the Aug. 31 deadline from playing extra games during the close season for their countries. This stands in the way of Tsao's participation at the November tournament in Japan.
But, as Tsao was on the disabled list on Aug. 31, it looked as though an exception might be made in his case.
An informed source said the government and the MLB had worked out a deal that would have allowed Tsao to play for Taiwan if the government agreed to let him skip his military service and thereby keep playing for the Rockies.
But Dan O'Dowd, the Rockies' general manager, said in the letter that even though the Rockies understood Tsao's importance to the national team, the MLB had eventually refused the Rockies' request in order to maintain a "level playing field" policy in regard to the eligibility of other countries' players.
Local Chinese-language media reported that the MLB had originally been given permission to allow the 22-year-old to play for Taiwan's national team. But it changed its mind after South Korea and the Asian Baseball Committee lodged protests.
South Korea wanted equal treatment from the MLB and permission for its players to join up with the national team for the match.
Hsu Sheng-ming (
The Asian Championship will be held in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7. This year's tournament is especially important because it will determine who will represent Asia at the Athens Olympics next year.
The "Big Three" Asian baseball countries -- Taiwan, Japan and South Korea -- will take on either the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Pakistan in the tournament. The top two teams secure berths in the Athens Olympics.
The Asian Championship has been held 21 times, with Taiwan winning four times, in 1983, 1987, 1989 and 2001.
For more information, see the CTBA Web site (http://www.ctba.org.tw/) or http://asia-baseball.org/en/athens.html
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