The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was originally set to open its new season on Saturday last week at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium. Since the CPBL is the world’s first professional baseball league to open a new season this year amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the game, held behind closed doors, has attracted much global attention.
Although the opening game between Rakuten Monkeys and CTBC Brothers was in the end postponed by heavy rain, the Monkeys caused a sensation by using robots and mannequins to replace fans. Since Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center has recommended suspending indoor gatherings of over 100 people and outdoor gatherings of over 500 people to prevent coronavirus cluster infections, the Monkeys cooperated with the Sha Yang Ye Robot Wonderland to put robots in the stadium to imitate cheering fans during the closed-door game.
The new season is also the team’s first season after the three-time CPBL champion Lamigo Monkeys was officially resold to Japanese enterprise Rakuten Group in September last year.
Photo: CNA
照片︰中央社
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
中華職棒（CPBL）的新球季原定上週六在桃園國際棒球場登場，受武漢肺炎疫情影響，中職是今年全球最先開打的職棒聯盟，這場閉門賽因此備受國際矚目。
雖然樂天桃猿出戰中信兄弟的開幕賽最終因大雨延期，樂天桃猿仍因使用機器人及假人充當球迷而造成轟動。據台灣「中央疫情指揮中心」指出，室內群聚一百人以上、室外五百人以上的集會活動建議停辦，以避免病毒群聚感染。因此樂天桃猿特別和祥儀機器人夢工廠合作，在球場裡擺放機器人，並在閉門賽中模仿歡呼的球迷。
而新球季也是中職三屆冠軍Lamigo桃猿隊，於去年九月正式轉售給日本企業樂天集團後，化身為樂天桃猿的第一個球季。
(台北時報張聖恩)
A: Apart from Taiwanese-language pop diva Jody Chiang’s comeback, South Korean girl group (G)I-dle is also performing in Taiwan this weekend. B: I know. They have concerts at the Taipei Arena on Saturday and Sunday. A: Actually, to meet their fans’ high demand, they’ve added one more show on Friday. B: They’re even adding a show? That shows how popular they are. A: My favorite group member is Taiwan’s Susan Yeh, known by her stage name “Shuhua.” Let’s go cheer her on. A: 本週末除了江蕙復出，南韓熱門女團(G)I-dle也將開唱唷。 B: 我知道，他們本週六、日將在小巨蛋開唱。 A: 應粉絲的要求，他們本週五還會加場。 B: 還加場？不愧是韓流人氣女團。 A: 我最喜歡台灣團員葉舒華！我們快去幫她加油吧。 （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
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