Young Taiwanese baseball players won the inaugural International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Under-12 Baseball World Championship trophy on July 17, but they were unable to keep their baseball equipment.
Speaking to TV reporters yesterday, He Chun-yu (何俊佑), a student of Bei Nan Elementary School who played catcher in the games, said he would rather keep his glove than be treated to steak.
“We won the championship. For us, baseball gear is important. I would rather not have steak. I would like baseball gear,” he said.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) treated the players to steaks to celebrate winning the championship on July 18 after they met President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) expressed concern over the matter following a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday that the baseball players were disappointed because they were asked to return businesses-sponsored baseball gear to the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTAB), the organizer of the tournament.
In a press release, Wu demanded that the Sports Affairs Council provide the baseball players and coaches with baseball gear so that they can continue training.
Later yesterday, Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) told the press that the council would appropriate money from a NT$1.025 billion (US$35.5 million) fund set up in 2009 to implement the country’s four-year plan to reinvigorate baseball to buy the baseball players the needed baseball gear.
In response, the CTAB issued a statement saying that it has been standard practice for 12 years that national team athletes return baseball gear they use during tournaments once the games are over.
“Baseball players and coaches of national teams keep their own uniforms. The baseball gear returned to the CTAB is to be reserved for training for other national teams and competitions,” it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching