Friends and associates of EDA Rhinos manager Hsu Sheng-ming, (徐生明) who died on Saturday from a heart attack after an evening jog, remember him as a leader who oversaw the most wins by a manager in Taiwanese baseball history.
Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) president Huang Cheng-tai (黃鎮台) offered condolences to the family of the 54-year-old, praising him for bringing teams to victory a record 715 times over his career.
“Hsu was an exceptional baseball player and manager, and his sudden death is saddening. I have expressed the deepest condolences to his family on behalf of the CPBL,” Huang said early yesterday morning after visiting Hsu’s family at a hospital in Taipei, where the baseball legend had been pronounced dead hours earlier.
Hsu’s death came as a shock to the baseball world and the Greater Kaohsiung-based Rhinos observed a minute’s silence before yesterday’s game against the Brother Elephants in New Taipei City (新北市).
Hsu was known as a strict leader who was good at using his team’s advantages to the full, baseball analyst Tseng Wen-cheng (曾文誠) said.
“During a game, he knew what ingredients he had in hand and could always make them into different dishes,” he said.
Tseng said that one of the most impressive things about Hsu was his insistence that the future of Taiwanese baseball had to be based on locally sourced talent.
Earlier this year, the Rhinos recruited Dominican-American star Manny Ramirez, whose presence on the team helped boost CPBL ticket sales before he left in June.
Hsu repeatedly said that local baseball should not rely on Ramirez alone, calling instead for a return to the basics.
Since the iconic manager’s death, Rhinos players and fans have flocked to the team’s Web site and Facebook page to leave messages of condolence.
Hsu became Taiwan’s youngest professional baseball manager at age 32, when he was placed in charge of the now-disbanded Wei Chuan Dragons.
During his impressive career he also led First Financial Holdings Agan, the Chinatrust Whales and the Sinon Bulls.
In 2004 he led Taiwan’s national baseball team to a fifth-place finish at the Athens Olympics, despite battling kidney disease.
Hsu also played for the national team as a pitcher before beginning his managerial career.
Hsu’s daughter told reporters yesterday that he was always open about his feelings.
“We did not get to spend much time together, so he would often call me to say he missed me and loved me,” she told reporters.
Hsu suffered from gout, high blood pressure and kidney disease and underwent a kidney transplant in 2004.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS