The LA Dodgers are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan tomorrow for three exhibition games over the weekend against a Taiwan All Star team, 17 years after their first trip to Taiwan.
Star slugger Manny Ramirez and first baseman James Loney are two of the team’s high-profile players scheduled to travel to Taiwan this time, while the Dodgers’ Taiwanese duo — starting pitcher Kuo Hong-chih and shortstop Hu Chin-lung — are also making the trip.
Dodgers team manager Joe Torre, who was the manager of the New York Yankees when Taiwanese star Wang Chien-ming was at the club, will accompany the team.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Lu Wen-sheng, the manager of the Taiwanese team, said the list of starting pitchers will be finalized tomorrow.
The potential candidates include Lin Ying-chieh and Yang Chien-fu from the Sinon Bulls and Pan Wei-lun of the Uni-President Lions.
EVA Air will fly the 69 LA Dodgers’s players and staff on a special flight. The airline dispatched a Boeing 777 to carry the players between Phoenix, Arizona, and Taipei.
EVA Air has also prepared special large meals for the players.
They will be served 10-ounce (283g) steaks, for example, three times the size of steaks served to regular passengers.
Co-pilot Lee Kuo-chi is a long-time fan of the Dodgers, whose dedication stretches to his use of “Dodger” as his English name.
The first game will be played at the Tienmu Baseball Field on Friday at 6:30pm. The second will take place in Tienmu on Saturday at 2pm, with the third game to be played in Kaohsiung at 2pm on Sunday.
The games will be shown on Formosa TV (民視) or Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand (MOD) system as well as its hichannel and emome networks.
Fans can also listen to the games on the radio on the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) and ICRT.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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