The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) announced the creation of a new semi-professional summer baseball league named the Popcorn League in Taipei earlier this week with the aim of improving the quality of amateur-level play.
Top amateur teams Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Topco Scientific, Veetime, National Sports Training Center and Chii Lih Coral of Taitung are to take part in the inaugural season for reportedly 150 games that will run from late next month to early September, with a post-season series to follow.
With five of the top amateur teams already committed to joining the league and a sixth, Taiwan Power, seriously considering following suit, this summer promises to be an exciting one for local baseball fans as there will be two baseball leagues playing at the same time for the first time in nearly 15 years, following the merger between the former Taiwan Major League (TML) and the current professional league, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
Joining the CTBA as the main sponsors of the new league will be local sports broadcaster Videoland Sports, which recently lost the bid to carry CPBL games on its local cable network for the first time in 18 years.
“This is by no means a way to protest the loss of our bid to carry CPBL games,” Videoland Sports president Wen Da-pei said at the press conference, saying that instead, it expressed his company’s commitment to improving the level of play in local amateur baseball.
“We would consider even carrying both leagues’ games if the right opportunity comes along,” Wen added.
The move by Videoland Sports is undoubtedly a way for the broadcaster to keep its foothold in the business, with other broadcasters, such as Fox Sports Network and to a lesser extent, Formosa Television, aggressively looking to expand their market share.
While the new league’s attitude toward the CPBL appears to be a benevolent one, it does openly acknowledge that the creation of the new league has a lot to do with the CPBL’s refusal to send its players to represent Taiwan in the upcoming Asian Games, after the CPBL said it needs to protect them, as the CTBA is expected to assemble a national team without the help of the CPBL for the first time in long time.
“We are in no way in competition with the CPBL, as our mission is clearly to improve the amateur play in the game,” CTBA commissioner Chen Tai-cheng said at the press conference with several of the sport’s top officials backing his statement.
“In fact, we see ourselves as a means to provide a steady stream of talented players for the CPBL,” Chen added.
To achieve that goal, the Popcorn League will work in collaboration with Major League Baseball in the US by allowing up to four foreign players and one coach on each team to enhance the level of its play, with the imported players likely to be from the 3A level.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
Jemimah Rodrigues on Thursday hit an unbeaten 127 as India pulled off a record chase of 339 against Australia to set up a Women’s World Cup final against South Africa. Rodrigues and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who hit 89, put on 167 runs for the third wicket as India won with nine balls and five wickets to spare at DY Patil Stadium, on the outskirts of Mumbai. The hosts finished on a total of 341-5 in reply to Australia’s impressive 338 and ensured there would be a new name on the 50-over trophy tomorrow. Amanjot Kaur hit the winning boundary to trigger wild celebrations
Jannik Sinner on Thursday eased past Francisco Cerundolo 7-5, 6-1 at the Paris Masters to set up a quarter-final clash with Ben Shelton, while reigning champion Alexander Zverev earned a straight-sets win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the third round. A maiden crown in the French capital would return Sinner to No. 1 in the world rankings after current incumbent Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock early exit at the hands of Britain’s Cameron Norrie. The Italian four-time Grand Slam champion is yet to drop a set in the tournament as he hones in on what would be a fifth title of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
RSS