Hung Teng-sheng, the “father of Taiwanese professional baseball,” has revealed how his family’s disillusionment and bitter experience with players’ involvement in a game-fixing scandal led to the decision to sell the Brother Elephants.
“More than half of Brother Elephants players were embroiled in the illegal betting and throwing of games. My family and I were very disappointed,” Hung said earlier this week.
He was referring to one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Chinese Professional Baseball League: players colluding with underground gambling syndicates to fix game results in exchange for huge payoffs and other benefits.
Several Brother Elephants players were implicated in the scandal in 2009.
Hung is the chairman of the Brother Hotel and its associated businesses, which are owned by his family, with the ball club deriving its original name from the hotel.
‘PUBLIC SERVICE’
“My family was embittered by the news. We plowed profits from the hotel business into operating the baseball team,” Hung said. “We put in at least NT$60 million [US$2.05 million at the current exchange rate] into the team each year.”
“The dark forces of underground gambling syndicates and their associates were very strong. We still do not know how they got to our players,” he said.
“My family operated the Brother Elephants as a public service. We were the most popular team, so it was beyond us why the players would collude with gamblers and throw games, and we still do not know what really went on at the time,” Hung said.
“Later, we felt that if we still had to spend NT$60 million each year, then it would be better to sell to a buyer willing to operate the team,” he added.
CHANGING HANDS
Several Taiwanese corporations lined up for talks to buy the team after the Hung family publicly announced that it would be put up for sale in October 2013.
In a deal confirmed in December 2013, CTBC Financial Holding Co reached an agreement to purchase the franchise for NT$400 million.
The team’s new management, led by Jeffrey Koo Jr, changed the team’s name after the sale to Brothers Baseball Club, although many fans continue to refer to it as the Brother Elephants.
It was a difficult decision to sell the team, “but we had no choice. There were circumstances beyond our control,” Hung said.
‘BLACK ELEPHANTS’
The 2009 game-fixing, now known in local sports circles as the “Black Elephants Scandal,” was the latest of seven episodes of collusion between players and gambling syndicates that had plagued the league since 1995.
A total of 23 members of the Brother Elephants, mostly players, but also coaches and staff, were implicated and investigated for the 2009 scandal, with former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tsao Chin-hui, star outfielder Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan and slugger Tsai Fong-an among the most prominent names to receive a lifetime ban from the league.
Many Chinatrust Whales and La New Bears players were also implicated in the scandal, leading to the Whales being disbanded and a change of management at the Bears, who were later renamed the Lamigo Monkeys.
In the 1980s, Hung was a driving force for the creation of the league, negotiating and soliciting support from the government, corporations and sports associations.
The league’s inaugural season featured four teams: the Brother Elephants, the Uni-President Lions, the Wei Chuan Dragons and the Mercuries Tigers.
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