Team Cuba is in town to defend its title at the 2006 XVI Intercontinental Cup Baseball Championship, which opens in Taichung today.
Eight squads from around the world are competing in the 10-day competition, with the winners to rule the amateur baseball world for the next four years.
The championship is the first international baseball tournament to be hosted by Taichung, where a brand new baseball stadium named after the competition has been built to seat more than 20,000 spectators per game over the next 10 days of play.
The eight teams -- Australia, Cuba, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan, will play a seven-game, round-robin preliminary round before they play through a double-elimination to determine the final winners in the medal round next weekend.
In preparation for the tournament, which was first held in 1973 in Rome, Italy, and where Team Japan claimed the first title, several of this year's teams have arrived in town early to play exhibition rounds against each other.
Team Taiwan managed to take two of the three games it played in the exhibition round, with a 4-2 win over Italy and a close 2-1 victory over Cuba. Taiwan suffered a 6-4 loss to a tough Australian squad.
While solid outings by the pitching staff put a faint smile on skipper Yeh Chih-shien's face over the three-game exhibition round, his hitters' inability to produce runs against probably the second-line pitchers of the opposing teams sparked some serious concern.
"We will definitely need to get our bats warmed up in a hurry if we want to stay competitive," Yeh said after the narrow win over the Cubans on Tuesday.
"That [extra batting practice] will be our focus for the next couple of days," Yeh added.
Standing in the way of Yeh's quest to win in front of the home crowd are South Korea, Japan, Cuba and Australia, four countries with rich baseball traditions and frequent top finishers in international competitions.
Making the job to win at home even tougher is the fact that the top players from the La New Bears, Chen Chin-fong, Lin Chih-sheng and lefty ace Wu Si-yo, will not be taking part in this year's tournament, as the Bears will represent Taiwan in this year's Asian Series in Tokyo, Japan. At the series, which opens this weekend, the top teams from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and China will compete for the bragging right of being crowned Asia's best.
The pressure was already on Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso before their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League raised further questions about his future. Arsenal remain perfect in this season’s competition and three points clear at the top of the standings after a 3-0 win against Club Brugge, while defending champions Paris Saint-Germain were held 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao. The clash between Madrid and City was the standout game of the round amid reports this week that Alonso had lost control of the locker room. Speculation over his position is likely to intensify after the latest
‘HIGH STANDARD’: The Thunder are on track for a Finals-Cup double after they scored 22 three-pointers in equaling the best 25-game start to a season in NBA history The Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday bagged a 16th straight victory, thrashing the Phoenix Suns 138-89 to romp into an NBA Cup semi-final clash with the San Antonio Spurs, who stunned the Los Angeles Lakers 132-119. NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points to lead the reigning NBA champions Thunder, who improved to 24-1 to equal the best 25-game start to a season in league history. They dominated from start to finish to book their place in the final four of the in-season tournament in Las Vegas, where they are tomorrow to take on the Spurs. The New York Knicks and
TOP OF THE TABLE: Evann Guessand put the visitors ahead early in the game and Flavius Daniliuc equalized before Youri Tielemans got the winner in the second half Aston Villa on Thursday extended their winning streak to eight games in all competitions with a 2-1 victory against Basel in the UEFA Europa League to secure at least a playoff spot. Villa were tied with Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Go Ahead Eagles 2-1, and Midtjylland, 1-0 winners over Genk, atop the standings of the second-tier European competition on 15 points with five wins from six games. They have bounced back from a poor start to the season and are third in the Premier League, including a 2-1 victory over leaders Arsenal on Saturday. At St Jakob-Park in Basel, summer signing Evann Guessand
Tony Jefferson intercepted a Jalen Hurts pass in overtime to give the Los Angeles Chargers a 22-19 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday in an NFL thriller between playoff contenders. Justin Herbert, playing a week after surgery on his broken left (non-throwing) hand, withstood a career-high seven sacks to throw for 139 yards and a touchdown for the Chargers. Cameron Dicker kicked five field goals, including the 54-yard game winner in overtime. The Chargers defenders forced Hurts to throw four interceptions and surrender a fumble for a career-worst five turnovers as the Eagles fell to 8-5 with a third
RSS