More than 10,000 screaming fans are expected to flock to the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu this afternoon as the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) opens its 23rd season with a showdown between the Uni-President Lions and the Brother Elephants at 5:05 pm.
The highly anticipated rematch of the 2009 Taiwan Series that saw the Lions rally from a 2-3 deficit to blow past the Elephants with back-to-back victories in Game 6 and Game 7 will feature a pair of fresh starting arms as the Lions send newcomer Jon Leicester to the mound to take on local rookie sensation Lin Yu-ching of the Elephants.
“It’s a dream come true for me to be able to start off the season for my favorite team,” Lin said during the opening day press conference at the Brother Hotel in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
Photo: CNA
Lin has been an Elephant fan all his life and will try to give his club a leg up on the rest of the league with a good start this afternoon.
“You’d think that we would go with a more experienced player to start the season, but [Lin] is really our best starter at this moment, with the foreigner [Leicester] still trying to adjust to our system,” Elephants manager Chen Rei-chen said about his decision to start a rookie.
Leading the offense for the Elephants will be team icon Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, who hopes to celebrate his multiyear contract that includes a guaranteed NT$500,000 a month with a promising season at the plate.
The Big Cats, who went through an eventful offseason with veteran manager Lu Wen-sheng abruptly stepping down after he admitted to tipping off sports gamblers prior to games, will look to put their woes behind them.
Replacing Lu on an interim basis will be Terushi Nakashima of Japan, who could not wait for the season to begin in order to put the off-field distractions behind him.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
TECH ISSUES: Before Sinner’s match against Diallo the lights went out at the courts, and during it the electronic line-calling system partly failed and an alarm sounded Jannik Sinner on Monday ignored technical issues interruptions and a blaring alarm to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) on a day of distractions at the Cincinnati Open. The top-seeded defending champion got down to business against the 35th-ranked Canadian, who was plagued by eight first-set double faults and 49 unforced errors in the match as he faced the best in the world. Sinner recovered smoothly from an early break down and had his hands full on his way into the fourth round, sending over an ace on match point after saving a set point in the tiebreaker. Play was stopped briefly with
RSS