Tsai Kuen-shiang's (蔡昆祥) lazy fly to center found its way into the glove of Agan centerfielder Huang Lung-yi (黃龍義) to give the home team a 5-3 victory and conclude regular season play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
In one of the most eventful years in the CPBL's 14-year history, the year began with the merger of two rival leagues.
Then came the disastrous 3-10-1 start for the defending champions that had Brother Elephants fans scratching their heads.
Sinon Bulls slugger Chang Tai-shan (
Chang's record-setting season continued as he claimed the double-century mark (100 home runs and 100 stolen bases), the fastest to reach the 500 RBI plateau, the most homers in a single season, and the 20-20 mark (20 homers and 20 stolen bases in the same season).
Following their miserable start, the Elephants regained their composure, finishing the first half of the season in a second-place tie in the standings with the Chinatrust Whales.
They then won the second-half title in one of the league's most dramatic turnarounds.
Four-time defending base-stealing champion Huang Kang-lin (
But the season had its share of misfortunes as an automobile carrying four players in April ran into a tree that led to one player being hospitalized for over a month.
And off-field trouble struck in August when the Elephants' team bus got into a highway race with a truck, ending with four hot-tempered players breaking the leg of a truck driver.
The postseason will begin this weekend in Kaohsiung, where the Elephants will host the Bulls in Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven 2003 Taiwan Series.
It will be the highest rated championship series matchup ever, since no two teams have ever had a closer regular-season record.
Adding to the excitement, this year's batting champ Peng Cheng-ming (
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
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The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, after she and German partner Mark Wallner defeated Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Briton Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets, despite temperatures exceeding 32°C in Paris, while Taiwan’s top men’s doubles player Ray Ho also reached the second round. Hsieh, who made it to the semi-finals in the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, and Wallner defeated Klepac and Glasspool 6-3, 7-5 in just more than an hour, converting three of five break points, while holding their opponents to just one conversion
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