More than 45,000 fans packed New York's Yankee Stadium for Thursday's home game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, most of them oblivious of a group of 600 Taiwanese watching the game 28,000km away.
The Taiwanese were packed into the auditorium of the Taoyuan County Hall to watch local hero Wang Chien-ming (
New York lost 9-4 as Wang registered one of his shakier outings of the season and fell to a record four wins against three defeats.
But Wang's legion of suppor-ters refused to be discouraged.
"Even though he lost today I still think Wang pitched a good game," said Wang Chia-wei, 14, a baseball player on the Guan Ying Junior High School team, who is no relation to his Yankees namesake. "I will always support him."
Wang, 25, has become an icon for many of this nation's 23 million people, captivating them with his sizzling fastball and his improbable success as a starting pitcher on what is one of most famous baseball teams in the US.
All of his appearances are televised nationwide and many -- like the game against the Devil Rays -- are projected onto giant screens before hundreds of cheering fans -- part of an effort to tap into the "Wang-mania" that is sweeping Taiwan.
Introduced during Japanese colonial rule in the 1920s, baseball is an immensely popular sport among Taiwanese, with six teams competing in a local professional league.
But interest in the local league and its players has largely been supplanted by Wang, whose feats on American pitching mounds are shown over and over again on the nation's six cable television news stations, and chronicled in depth in its national newspapers.
Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝), chief executive officer of Public Television Service, which screens live broadcasts of Wang's starts, said he feels an obligation to bring the pitcher's exploits to as many Taiwanese as possible.
"Many Taiwanese want to see Wang playing in the major leagues. He's a very good player," he said.
By 6:30am on Thursday -- 12 hours ahead of New York time -- hundreds of young baseball fans were packed into the auditorium of the Taoyuan County Hall, waving banners and chanting.
When the game began 35 minutes later, they were on the edge of their seats, cheering when he retired Devil Rays batters, and groaning when he conceded hits.
Chen Kai-lun, 16, of the Taoyuan Agricultural School team, said he wanted to emulate Wang.
"I want to be just like him," he said. "I want to be in the major leagues. I want to say to Wang Chien-ming, `one day I will be just like you.'"
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