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Saturday washout highlights need for indoor venue

Wet weather limited the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) action to two incomplete games that were suspended early on Saturday evening.

The first game of the doubleheader between the league's top two clubs, the La New Bears and the Sinon Bulls, was scratched due to a late-morning downpour, while the night game was called off at 5pm because of heavy rain during the third inning with the Bears leading 4-0.

Meanwhile, the clash between the Brother Elephants and the Macoto Cobras in Sinjhuang was suspended in the fourth inning with the Elephants clinging to a 1-0 lead, courtesy of veteran second baseman Fong Sheng-shien's first career homer off Macoto starter Robert Averett of the US in the top of the first.

Saturday's three weather-related game postponements brings the total for the year to 50, slightly more than one-fifth of the 270 scheduled games for the season thus far, underlining the need for a closed-roof indoor facility.

While plans for such a stadium have been discussed on numerous occasions, disagreements among various interest groups that stand to gain or lose hundreds of millions of NT dollars have nixed its construction.

"[Concerns over perceived] uneven distribution of resources is the main reason we haven't seen [an indoor baseball facility] built," Kevin Huang, associate professor of sports management at the National Hsinchu University of Education said in a recent interview with the Taipei Times.

"Inability to fill a 40,000 plus-seat indoor stadium on a regular basis is another issue," Huang added.
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