Hsieh Jia-shian (
PHOTO: MACOTO COBRAS
The Cobras premier power hitter, nicknamed "the Ugly," is only the sixth player in the league history to accomplish such feat -- and he has done it in 454 games, the fewest of any player.
The record had previously been held by former Mercury hitting specialist Luis Iglesias of Panama, who reached the 100-homer mark in 477 contests.
tml numbers
Even though many would argue that Hsieh does not quite deserve the level of recognition as those who achieved this milestone entirely in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), referring to the 75 homers that he blasted during his six-year tenure with the "lesser" Taiwan Major League (TML) from 1997 to 2002, Hsieh and his supporters recognize this amazing achievement just as well.
The 28-year-old native of Taipei County has plenty of reason to feel confident about his home-run-hitting capability, because 11 of the 18 long balls that he crushed last season came against CPBL pitchers.
He's tied the Brother Elephants' hitting tandem Peng "Chia-Chia" Cheng-ming (彭政閔) and Chen "the Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan (陳致遠) for second in the home run total behind the league's Most-Valuable-Player winner Chang Tai-shan's (張泰山) 28.
30-day wait
The 100th homer for Hsieh came after he blasted a pitch from La New Bears' Iriki Satoshi over the centerfield fence exactly one month ago.
Hsieh's coaches and teammates all came out of the dugout to give him a heroic reception as he rounded the bases.
"I am glad it finally came," Hsieh said after the game.
"It's like a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders."
Now that he is over the "100" plateau, Hsieh has his eyes on the home run and RBI title for the season.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB