The Banciao Prosecutors’ Office yesterday launched an investigation into the Brother Elephants Baseball Club after some of its players were alleged to have engaged in game-fixing. This marked the fifth time in the past 20 years that local professional baseball players have been investigated for allegedly throwing games.
Elephants general manager Hung Jui-ho (洪瑞河) confirmed that investigators had searched the houses, dorm rooms and lockers of players Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝), Liu Yu-chan (柳裕展), Wu Pao-hsien (吳保賢), Wang Jing-li (王勁力), Wang Chun-tai (汪竣泰) and Li Hao-ren (李濠任) and confiscated mobile phones from three of them.
The search came a day after the team lost 5-2 to the President Lions (統一獅) in the final Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) Taiwan Series championship match.
Meanwhile, investigators went to Kaohsiung yesterday to arrest a suspected gang member that may be involved in game-fixing.
Hung said the six players were scheduled to talk to investigators tomorrow. However, Hung said that he had attended every game this year and had not heard anything about game fixing.
“If the prosecutors find something wrong, we hope they can present evidence, not just rumors,” he told a press conference yesterday. “If they determined that some players were at fault because their names appeared in some recorded conversations, it would be unfair to the players.”
Hung said the players had denied the accusation.
“Tsao said he found the investigation odd and swore that he was innocent,” Hung said. “I told him that if he did not agree with the accusation, he should just go ahead and talk to the press. You are all welcome to interview him.”
Hung added that the club would punish any players that are found guilty.
“Neither the law nor our baseball fans can forgive us if this is indeed true,” he said. “If that is the case, the club considers it pointless to continue operations.”
Hung said someone offered to bribe the players last year. Once discovered, the club had informed investigators.
Tsao, a former Major League pitcher, said in a statement that he felt angry and disappointed about the investigation.
“I am angry because I have been trying to keep everything clean,” he said. “I never thought that one day I would be questioned by investigators. Having no substantial evidence, they misunderstood me and other players who are serious about playing ball. I wonder if I made the wrong decision coming back [from the US].”
The club’s legal consultant, Huang Hung-hsia (黃虹霞), criticized the Banciao Prosecutors Office for disclosing details to the press even though the investigation is still in its early stages.
The CPBL issued a statement yesterday that said: “We have not heard about any professional player betting on a game for about a year, nor have we noticed anything unusual.”
“The league has been working with investigators to crack down on organized crime, but this time they conducted a massive search immediately after the championship game without confirming details with the CPBL in advance. This has tarnished the reputation of professional baseball. We feel sorry that this has happened,” it said.
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