The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association yesterday released a list of 37 players for the Olympic baseball qualifiers to be held here next month.
The qualifier is Taiwan's last chance to compete in the Olympics, as the nation failed to progress through the Asian Baseball Championship last year.
The list released yesterday includes 18 pitchers, four catchers, eight infielders and seven outfielders. Some of the players are familiar to baseball fans, including Tsao Chin-huei (曹錦輝), Keng Po-shuen (耿伯軒), Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝), Hsieh Jia-shien (謝佳賢), Chen Chin-feng (陳金峰) and Lin En-yu (林恩宇).
The majority of the players were drafted from the Chinese Professional Baseball League, while others play in the US Major Leagues, the Minor Leagues or the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
Wang Chien-ming (
Chinese Taipei Baseball Team manager Hung Yi-chung (洪一中) said the team previously chose just 30 players for the qualifiers. After intensive training in Puerto Rico last month, however, the team decided to add seven more players because of their excellent physical condition.
Hung said that while Tsao is included on the list, talks are still underway with the Kansas City Royals about drafting him for the qualifiers. A few other players are in a similar situation.
"We hope we can get all the overseas Taiwanese pro-ball players together no later than the 20th of this month," he said.
Hung said Taiwan had high hopes for the qualifiers, where eight countries will compete for three spots.
Taiwan is scheduled to play against Spain, Mexico, Germany, Australia, South Africa and South Korea.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so