Fans cheered their heroes at the Legends Games this weekend, which saw retired players from the President Lions defeat the Brother Elephants 5-2, while the Mercury Tigers battled for a 11-11 draw with the Weichuan Dragons.
Proceeds for the event are to be donated to two high-school teams in Taitung County.
Hundreds of spectators, evenly divided between the blue-clad fans of the Tigers and the Dragons’ red army, filled Taipei’s Tianmu Stadium for Saturday’s game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Legendary power hitter “Brother Chiu” Lin Chung-chiu, pitcher Kang Ming-chuan and outfielder Chen Kai-fa led the Tigers’ all-star cast, while the Dragons featured Huang Ping-yang, Yang Chieh-jen and Lo Shih-hsin.
People after the game clamored for player autographs, which are hard to come by, since the teams disbanded in 1999. Lin and Kang were especially popular for their contributions the Tigers’ glory years in 1991 and 1992, when Lin won back-to-back home run titles.
“It is great to see these teammates and friends back together. We all have our family lives and seldom see each other after the team disbanded. I am just happy to see these old friends are healthy and can still run around the bases,” Lin said.
Tigers fans tossed blue ribbons at the end of the game to commemorate the first half-season title the team won during the CPBL’s first season in 1990.
Yesterday’s event recreated the first CPBL game, which was played between the Lions and the Elephants on March 17, 1990.
The Lions’ starting pitcher Tu Fu-ming faced off against the Elephants’ Chang Yung-chang to start the game just as they did 27 years ago.
However, due to their age and past injuries, Chang only threw against one batter, while Tu, now the Lions’ pitching coach, threw an impressive three outs to finish the first inning.
The Lions went ahead 1-0 in the first and maintained their lead throughout for a 5-2 victory.
Lions supporters found it to be an appropriate outcome, because during that first game, Tu yielded only one run and outlasted Chang through seven innings.
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