CPBL All Stars to play Taiwan National Team

For those diehard faithfuls who want to see their favorite baseball icons play one last time before next season, this weekend's exhibition games between the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) All Stars and the Taiwan National Team will be the perfect opportunity.

In preparation for the upcoming Asian Championship, to be held in Sapporo, Japan next month, the league has invited the foreign pitchers from the Brother Elephants and the Sinon Bulls to join local All Stars who will not be competing in Sapporo to play a pair of tune-up games against the national team, that is made up of primarily local CPBL players.

Game 1, to be held at Hsinchuang County Stadium, will begin at 6:35pm tonight. Game 2 will be played in Tienmu on Sunday and will begin at 2:05pm.

"We all know how important this tournament is to Taiwan, so we will do our part to make sure that the national team will be ready to face the South Koreans and the Japanese," Elephants right-hander Jonathan Hurst of the US said.

The top two winners from Sapporo will represent Asia in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Hurst will join his teammates, Yokota Hisanori and Nakagomi Sin of Japan, and the three foreign pitchers from the Bulls -- Jeff Andra, Osvaldo Martinez, and Ramon Morel -- plus Elephants greats Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠), Peng Cheng-ming (彭政閔) and the Bulls' record-breaker Chang Tai-shan (張泰山).

Despite the late withdrawal of Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝), the projected pitching ace of the Taiwanese staff because of Major League Baseball regulations that prohibit players on the 25-man roster from competing in any foreign competitions, this year's national team boasts depth in the skilled positions and offensive fire power.

Heroes of the national squad that won the Bronze Medal in the 2001 World Cup Tournament, Chang Chih-jia (張誌家) and Hsu Ming-jeh (許明傑) of the Seibu Lions and Wang Chien-ming (王建民) of the New York Yankee AA affiliate, will lead a pitching staff that looks to avenge a loss to Japan in Seoul, Korea four years ago that denied Taiwan a chance to play in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"As long as we can build momentum going into Sapporo, it's anybody's game, even if we don't matchup particularly well against the other two teams at every position," pitching coach of the Chinatrust Whales and head coach for the national team Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明) said.

This year's Japanese team will feature an All-Star lineup from the Nippon Professional Baseball League, while the South Koreans assemble their best possible club from the eight professional teams in their Korean Baseball Organization.