As the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) opened to an influx of fans whose passion for the sport was rekindled by the national team’s performance at the World Baseball Classic last month, the government has been pushing for a fifth team in the league, officials said.
“We need to seize the opportunity to vigorously promote the sport and hope that a fifth team can be formed by the end of this year,” Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) said yesterday on the sidelines of a baseball field.
Several conglomerates have been in talks with CPBL president Huang Cheng-tai (黃鎮台) over the possibility of sponsoring a professional baseball team and there has been “great interest,” Chiang said, without revealing the names of the firms.
Chiang yesterday was the starting pitcher for a team composed of Cabinet officials, called Chunghwa Lao Bang (中華老棒隊), in an exhibition game against Dong Yuan Elementary School’s baseball team.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Chiang put the team together after Taiwan were ranked fourth in the International Baseball Federation’s world rankings, the best ranking in their history, mainly due to the national team’s performance at the World Baseball Classic in Japan.
The Executive Yuan’s team was defeated 12-5 by Dong Yuan Elementary School.
Chiang said the team was formed as a show of the Cabinet’s determination to spur the development of baseball in Taiwan.
“The performance of the national team at the World Baseball Classic made people zealous for baseball and we wanted to take this opportunity to encourage more children to play baseball to cultivate young talent and to develop baseball into a real national sport,” Jiang said.
The CPBL was founded in 1989. At its peak in 1997, Taiwan had two leagues and 11 professional teams.
The Taiwan Major League, formed in 1996, ran at a loss and was absorbed into the CPBL in 2003. The CPBL had nine teams, but after a series of game-fixing and corruption scandals, the number of fans attending games fell and the league now has only four teams.
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
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
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