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HANCOCK'S GAMES: Tired Taiwanese make China look good at baseball

Fans in Taipei cheer as they watch Taiwan’s Olympic baseball team play against China at the Beijing Olympics yesterday. Moments later their joy turned to grimaces of disappointment as China won 8-7. PHOTO: WALLY SANTANA, AP

The sun shone for China yesterday as Taiwan made it look good at baseball in Beijing.

On a rare blue-sky day the home team earned a historic 8-7 victory after 12 innings.

There will probably be complaints that Taiwan’s players were overstretched because of a tight schedule, but they looked tired at the end of the Japan game the previous night, losing 6-1 — and it’s easy to make excuses.

“It’s truly a big shame,” said Taiwan Olympic delegation leader Tsai Szu-chueh (蔡賜爵), sidestepping questions about players’ performances and team strategy by saying “those are professional questions.”

China had never beaten a ranking Taiwan team and only seriously developed baseball after 2001, when it was handed the Olympics.

There was disbelief when the winning run was scored and tears from the Taiwan players and fans after the game.

“I was crying quietly. It’s a historic loss. It’s the first time a first-class team has gone down to China. And it’s the first time the two teams have met in the Olympics,” said Richard Wang, director of strategic planning and international affairs for the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

“I was crying quietly.”

— Richard Wang, director of strategic planning and international affairs for the CPBL

He said some of Team Taiwan’s players were close to tears getting on the bus back to the Olympic Village and crying fans were shouting out to them, in an effort to encourage them for the coming games.

Taiwan now faces an uphill task. Basically it has to win at least three of its next four games, against the US, Canada, South Korea and Cuba.

“Today we looked bad, we are better than this. The strategy seemed to be a bit off,” Wang said. “Obviously, we have to play better. Simply put, we have to win more games against stronger opposition.”

It was tough getting in to the ballpark yesterday as the Cuba-USA game was in the larger stadium, while the Taiwan-China match was relegated to the smaller ground nearby.

Just 3,000 fans were allowed in and ticket prices were high because of scarcity and demand. Five innings into the game tickets were still going for 800 yuan (US$116). Before the game they were fetching from 2,500 yuan to 4,500 yuan.

As a result many Taiwan fans were locked out and milled around, passing on the bad news as their team failed to live up to expectations.

The baseball is being broadcast on local TV, but the preliminary games have not been generating much excitement.

Unlike Taiwan, China has no baseball pedigree and there were no great expectations for its team — until now.
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