The first-half of the CPBL 2002 season ended with the Elephants clinching the half-way title with a record of 25 wins, 17 losses and three games drawn.
Early in June, Elephants fans threw yellow ribbons from the stands and rushed onto the field to celebrate after defeating the Bulls in front of more than 10,000 fans at Taichung Stadium.
Entering the third week of the second half of the season, the Whales, Bulls and Lions are all eyeing the remaining spot in the Fall Classic.
But the Elephants are working hard on taking both half-season titles. If they do, the Fall Classic will be played between the Elephants and the second-placed team (determined by the full-season winning percentage).
The Fall Classic is a best-of-seven format. The championship series starts Oct. 12 and carries though to Oct. 13, Oct. 15, Oct. 16, Oct. 17 (if necessary), Oct. 19 (if necessary) and Oct. 20 (if necessary).
On June 22, the mid-season draft was held with almost a dozen amateur players aiming to turn pro.
However due to a lack of pitching talent the four CPBL clubs only picked one player each from the draft.
The last-placed Lions were able to pickup Shen Buo-tsang, the only pitcher in the draft.
The Bulls selected catcher/first baseman Fred Anson, the first-ever Chinese American entering the draft with a ROC passport. Anson was drafted by the Mariners in 1994 and later released due to an injury.
The second-placed Whales selected outfielder Guo Dai-yong and the season's half-way champions, the Elephants picked infielder Ju Hong-sen.
The Lions are known as a club that nurtures pitching talent but had a disappointing start to the season.
John Burgos of the Lions was the only pitcher to accumulate more than four wins (Burgos went 8-3 in the first-half), while Joe Davenport had the second-most winners with a 4-3 record since joining the club in late April.
The Bulls played well at the beginning of the season and stayed on top of the rankings for more than two months, until ace pitcher Tsai Chung-nan failed to get his seventh consecutive win, leading to three straight losses.
Overall Tsai and his southpaw teammate Ho Chee-shien combined for 21 wins. Huang Chung-yee, who achieved his 1,000th career hit in June, batted 0.344, got nine home runs and became the backbone of both the Bulls' offense and defense.
The Whales have been the biggest disappointment so far, given talents they have in both batting and pitching departments.
Many pundits, however, say the Whales are the team who have the best chance of making a run to the title at the end of the second half of the season.
In the game yesterday at Tienmu, it was Elephants 9, Whales 1, where a CPBL photographer was injured by a foul ball. Today: Bulls vs. Lions in Tainan.
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