The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Taiwanese relief pitcher Kuo Hong-chih returned home yesterday and urged local fans to support Taiwan's beleaguered Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) as it fights ongoing allegations of game-fixing.
Speaking to reporters after arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Kuo voiced support for his good friend Tsao Chin-hui — the first Taiwanese pitcher to play in the US Major Leagues and one of those implicated in the recent game-fixing scandal — saying he believed Tsao did not do anything he should not have done.
“I remain fully supportive of him and trust him,” Kuo said.
PHOTO: CNA
He also called on local baseball fans not to turn their backs on the scandal-tarnished CPBL.
“It may take time for the four-team league to resurrect itself and regain momentum. The unswerving support of fans is the most important driving force in the league’s survival,” he added.
As for his own situation, Kuo was in good spirits upon his return home and said he was very pleased to return to Taiwan for a vacation.
The 28-year-old left-hander, who has been beset with injuries throughout his professional career, has become a trusted member of manager Joe Torre’s bullpen over the past two seasons as a middle reliever and set-up man, appearing in a total of 77 games and striking out 128 batters in 110 innings pitched.
Kuo also excelled in the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies that his Dodgers lost 4-1. He appeared in four of the five games of the best-of-seven series, allowing only one run while striking out six in four innings pitched.
Kuo was also credited with the Dodgers’ only win of the series, a 2-1 victory in Game 2, but despite his postseason success, he declined to grade his performance, saying he did nothing more than any other teammate.
“Every player wanted to help the team win, and we were all prepared to achieve our goal,” he said.
Although the Dodgers were thwarted in their bid to reach the World Series by the Phillies for the second consecutive year, Kuo said he has not lost his confidence.
“After not winning a World Series ring this year, I will work hard again next year. Every year the goal is the same, to win a ring,” Kuo said.
On reports that the Dodgers coaches would openly welcome another Taiwanese Major League star — New York Yankees right-hander Wang Chien-ming — to join the team, Kuo said it would be perfect if Wang became a Dodger.
Wang’s contract with Yankees expires at the end of the year, and as an arbitration-eligible player, he must be offered a contract for at least 80 percent of his US$5 million contract for last year.
With Wang coming off shoulder surgery and unlikely to pitch before July, the Yankees are likely to balk at that price and release him in the hope of signing him back at a lower number. That would create an opening for other teams.
Still mindful of the 46 games Wang won for the Yankees between 2006 and June last year when he was the manager, Torre might be willing to take a chance on the Tainan native, who will turn 30 next March and who, like Kuo, has been plagued by injuries throughout much of his career.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier