Most people would agree baseball is the most popular sport in Taiwan and the Brother Elephants is the most popular team.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Founded in 1984 as an amateur club, the Elephants are backed by Brother Hotel Inc and the five Hung brothers -- who were said to love the game so much they started their own team.
The Elephants' first generation roster featured baseball legends such as Huang Guang-chee (黃廣琪), Chiang Jung-hao (江仲豪) and Lee Chu-ming (李居明), all of whom had starred for the national team in various competitions.
The Hung brothers constructed Lung-tan (
Hung Tung-sheng (
Despite its excellent amateur track record, the Elephants made a disappointing start in the professional league.
But, from 1992 to 1994 the Elephants proved to be unbeatable and won the championship three years in a row.
It was the beginning of what fans would call the "Brother Dynasty." During this time the average attendance at games exceeded 8,000 and in 1993 and 1994, the 10,000 mark was broken.
Then, professional baseball was hit by a series of gambling scandals and attendances began to plummet as fans grew disenchanted with the game.
The Taiwan Major League (TML) poached players throughout the CPBL, but it was the Elephants that were hit hardest, losing many star players.
They were dark days for the Elephants, who soldiered on with young talent but never climbed up from the bottom of the rankings.
The wilderness years only ended last season when the Elephants clinched the second-half season title for the first time in seven years.
With Japanese pitching sensation Yofu Tetsu getting two wins and two saves in the best-of-seven playoff against the President Lions, the Elephants won their first championship since 1994.
The Elephants clinched the first-half season title earlier this season and won the second-half title on Sept. 21, for a record of three consecutive half-season titles.
They will play the Chinatrust Whales in the Championship Series, after the Whales compiled the second highest winning percentage of the season.
With the Elephants having booked their place in the playoffs and looking for a second consecutive title, the glory days are back again.
It is also to be hoped that the problems that dogged their team during the bad old days of match fixing in the mid-1990s will never be repeated.
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