Mon, Dec 20, 1999 page8

• Baseball should be more than just a memory

  • Lin Kuan-miao
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  On December 12, 1999, Taiwan's baseball fans for the first time left a stadium and went out onto the streets for a demonstration. They shouted -- "Give us back clean professional baseball" and "Oppose the power struggle between the two leagues."

  The parade went from the Legislative Yuan to the Control Yuan in downtown Taipei. The demonstrators marched in an orderly procession as they made their way through the busy traffic. Although baseball fans hate the Taiwan Major League (台灣?j聯

  盟), they still called the chairman of the league, Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Chin-ping (?y揪鬙-), "dearest Speaker Wang" as a mark of respect in their written petition.

  However, the demonstration was actually a funeral procession lamenting the death of Taiwan's baseball games. The baseball supporters put on a skit in front of the Legislative Yuan. They mocked the prosecutors who indicted baseball players but set free the gangsters who used guns and knives to coerce the players into cheating on games.

  As a matter of fact, the demonstrations came too late. Long before the gambling scandal broke out and before the China Times Eagles (時3躝N) dissolved, we should have come out to request that prosecutors and elected officials intervene in professional baseball and to call for a clean and healthy baseball environment. Perhaps Taiwan's baseball fans must go through a series of power struggles and protests, just like the fighters for demo-cracy, in order to draw a little attention to their cause.

  As professional baseball teams dissolved one after another, the chairperson of the National Sports Council (NSC, 體委會), Nancy Chao (趙麗?), much to our surprise, said that "there is no way to manage the problem." She then uttered a series of symbolic slogans such as "Call on the two leagues to feel pangs over the failure" and "Re-build fair and reasonable game rules."

  Doesn't Taiwan's profession baseball have game rules? When the Taiwan Major League violated the game rules and destroyed the baseball environment by recruiting amateur players, where was the NSC? Has the NSC ever tried to take any action?

  Don't confuse irresponsibility with neutrality. The NSC claimed that it has been lobbying for sports subsidies and appropriated NT$400 million to local governments for the improvement of baseball stadiums around the island. Without baseball teams or fans, what do we want a large dome stadium for? As we face professional baseball's chaos, is uttering slogans the only measure that the NSC can take? As the highest supervising organization for national sports, can't it regulate the game rules for professional baseball? Can't the NSC request the two leagues to abide by the game rules?

  The recent dissolution of the Weichuan Dragons, one of the most popular teams of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL, ??華職棒聯盟), is not a random isolated case; on the contrary, it rings the deathknell for Taiwan's professional baseball. The hearts of hundreds of thousands of baseball fans were broken on the day the Dragons dissolved.

  Have the CPBL authorities noticed the seriousness of the problem? When the fans went out on the streets to appeal for justice, where were the league officers? Where were the baseball team managers? Where were our star players? Without any support from the league, teams or players, many loyal fans' hearts have died with the dissolution of baseball teams.

  The CPBL still has four teams, but how long can they survive? As the once-popular contests between the Dragons and the Elephants head into history, how many baseball fans are left? The dissolution of the Dragons is a significant step marking the loss of fans and one the CPBL definitely cannot afford.

  Baseball is not just a game to the Taiwanese people. It is a collective memory and an important culture asset. When the "wave," cheering slogans and fans' shouts appear in a demonstration, rather than at a baseball stadium, it is the responsibility of the government, leagues, teams and players to escort them to back to the stadium.

  Let us work together to preserve Taiwan's national treasure -- sports -- and continue our baseball culture.

  Lin Kuan-miao is a supporter of the Brother Elephants.
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