Chen Chin-fong marked his place in local baseball history by going deep for the 100th time in his career with a blast to left off Brother Elephants reliever Luo Guo-hua in an 11-1 win for the Lamigo Monkeys at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium last night.
The much anticipated shot came only two games after the first Taiwan-born to play in the MLB took a ball out of the park to help his club beat the Uni-President Lions 3-2 on Saturday night. The 6,000-plus fans present last night were rewarded with the distinction of having been there when “it” happened.
With last night’s homer, a two-run shot that came after a teammate was beaned by the opposing pitcher in retaliation for an earlier home run in the game, Chen became the fastest player in league history to reach the century mark in total homers, needing only 453 games to accomplish the feat.
That was 25 games fewer than the previous record holder Luis Iglesias of the former Mercury Tigers.
“I’d like to thank the fans for their support. Without them I could not have done it,” Chen said after the game.
Chen now joins an elite club of 11 players who have surpassed the century mark homers, headed by the Lions’ Chang “OEO” Tai-shan, who, over 16 seasons, has hit 244.
Also starring for the Monkeys was slugger Lin Chih-sheng, who went deep twice to give him four for the season. Lin has led the league in total homers in the last two seasons with 31 and 21 respectively.
Earning the victory for the Monkeys was Lin Jing-ming (2-0), while Elephants starter Yeh Ding-ren took the loss (2-2).
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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