Hsu Ming-chieh became the oldest Taiwanese player in the Chinese professional Baseball League to pitch an entire game and complete a shutout earlier this week when he went the distance on a four-hitter to lift the Lamigo Monkeys past the Chinatrust Brother Elephants at the age of 37.
The Greater Kaohsiung native, who began what has ended up being a 14-year career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2000 with the Saitama Seibu Lions (from 2000 to 2011) and the Orix Buffaloes (in 2012 and last year) before returning to Taiwan to play out his career with the Primates, has finally found his groove after a rocky beginning in his first five starts that saw him go 1-2 with a 5.18 earned run average (ERA) over 33 innings pitched.
Even though he has not been dominating opposing hitters like he did in the past — his velocity is lower than it was in his heyday — he is still painting the corners of the plate and getting the hitters to swing at pitches in the dirt as well as anyone has done.
“I know I can’t blow the pitches by people like I used to be able to do, but with what I’ve learned over the years in Japan, I hope I can still compete effectively and show some of the younger guys what this game is all about,” Hsu said after signing with the Monkeys during the off-season to show his desire to give back to the game.
Hsu’s rediscovered success will undoubtedly give the top-ranked Primates a big boost in a staff that boasts three of the top-five hurlers in total wins, including Miguel Mejia (4), Ken Ray (3) and Chen Yu-hsun (3).
Meanwhile, the results for the Most Valuable Players of the Month last month were announced this week, with Andy Sisco of the EDA Rhinos and teammate Lin Yi-chuan being named the MVPs in pitching and hitting respectively.
Sisco went 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA in six starts, while Lin batted 29-for-78 (.372) with 15 RBIs and one home run in 21 games.
Sisco and Lin are the main reasons that the third placed Rhinos managed to salvage a 10-11 mark in their 21 games last month after starting off with a dismal 3-8 record to drop to the cellar in the standings midway through the month.
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
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