A Sports Affairs Council (SAC) official said yesterday that the nation’s professional baseball league would not fold over the latest match-fixing scandal.
“Professional baseball is the engine of baseball in Taiwan, so we will not let the professional baseball league fold,” SAC Deputy Director Tzeng Tsan-pao (曾參寶) said at the legislature.
Lee Wen-pin (李文彬), secretary-general of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), said he was not aware of any plans to shut down the CPBL.
“We will continue to prepare for next year’s games. As for whether some teams might disappear because of the scandal, I cannot speak for them,” he told reporters.
The CPBL was founded in 1989 and has four teams.
In recent years, it has been mired in repeated match-fixing scandals.
The latest of these erupted on Monday, a day after the Brother Elephants lost 5-2 to the Uni-President Lions in the CPBL championship.
Prosecutors have questioned more than a dozen players from three teams in the scandal.
On Wednesday, prosecutors listed Brother Elephants players Wu Pao-hsien (吳保賢), Wang Jing-li (王勁力), Wang Chun-tai (汪竣泰), Liu Yu-chan (柳裕展), Li Hao-ren (李濠任) and Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝), along with La New Bears pitcher Chang Chih-chia (張誌家) and Hsieh Chia-hsien (謝佳賢) of the Sinon Bulls, as defendants in a game-fixing case under investigation by Banciao District prosecutors.
The Banciao District Court yesterday ruled against detaining Wu and Wang Jing-li after prosecutors requested their detention.
Cheng Hsin-hung (鄭鑫宏), a spokesperson for the district prosecutors’ office, said prosecutors had sought to detain Wu and Wang because they might otherwise collude with witnesses.
However, prosecutors respect the district court’s decision, Cheng said.
Prosecutors said they did not request to detain the other six baseball players because the defendants had cooperated with investigators and agreed to return for questioning whenever necessary — not because prosecutors believed the six were not involved in game-fixing.
Prosecutors said they had telephone records proving that Tsao, Chang and the others were in contact with Tsai Cheng-yi (蔡政宜), the alleged head of a criminal gang nicknamed the “Windshield Wipers,” and his middlemen.
The players allegedly met Tsai or a middleman before throwing a game.
The players have denied fixing games, although Tsao admitted to meeting the Windshield Wipers. Some reports claimed Tsao and other players accepted bribes in the form of drinks with female escorts.
Although the district court released Wu and Wang without bail, the eight defendants are prohibited from leaving the country to ensure they do not flee the investigation and legal proceedings.
Prosecutors yesterday questioned four more baseball players, including Elephants catcher Kuo Yi-feng (郭一峰).
They are planning to question more people as they continue their probe into the case.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DPA
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS