The national baseball league said yesterday it has suspended a team over match-fixing claims that may also force the closure of the side.
“The dmedia T-Rex has been suspended and its remaining matches have been cancelled,” Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) said in a statement.
“We offer our deepest apologies to fans and we appreciate prosecutors’ efforts to prevent gangsters from getting involved in professional baseball,” it said.
The league, founded in 1989, is reduced to five teams after dmedia’s suspension.
The announcement came after the league fired three players and the team coach after they were questioned by prosecutors over the allegations this week.
The four were identified as US pitcher Cory Bailey, team-mates Chen Ke-fan, Chen Yuan-chia and coach Wu Chao-hui, the CPBL said.
“From now on, the four will be banned from playing in the league permanently,” a league spokesman said, adding that they were facing a fine.
The move came a day after prosecutors searched 22 locations and questioned 15 suspects including the three players, the coach, two team officials and members of a notorious bookies group.
The three players were released on bail while Wu, the aide to the Media chief executive officer, and four bookies were arrested for further questioning.
The prosecutors said they suspected T-Rex management officials had colluded with players and bookies to fix league games.
According to the prosecutors, Wu and Lin Bin-wen, the head of a gambling ring who is also the head of the group that owns the team, gave instructions to the pitcher and other players on how to play in order to produce game results according to their plans, so that the ring could net huge winnings from their bets.
T-Rex was formerly called Macoto Cobras but was renamed earlier this year after it was taken over by dmedia Corp.
Sports analysts warn the scandal could deal another blow to the nation’s professional baseball league, which has already suffered a sharp decline in attendances after a string of game-rigging scandals.
A scandal that erupted in 1996, the worst in the history of the sport here, led to the disbanding of the China Times Eagles.
Also See: EDITORIAL: A withering base for ball
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
RSS