The Brothers Baseball Club, fielding a depleted lineup, yesterday survived a late rally by the Uni-President Lions to win 9-6 and take a 1-0 lead in their Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) best-of-five playoff series.
Off-field developments continued to overshadow the playoffs, as former Brothers owner Hung Rei-ho waded in on the controversy centering on veteran players reportedly partying late with young women while they were members of the national squad for the World Baseball Classic preliminary round earlier this year.
“Many baseball players are young and inclined to go partying, but they should know the boundaries and should not create problems for the team,” Hung said.
The remarks by Hung, still a highly respected figure in the nation’s baseball community and regarded as an elder statesman of the CPBL, were seen as a stern warning to players who are well-paid and should set good examples for young people, but have been caught engaging in improper or questionable activities, which creates negative impressions and damages the sport.
Hung, whose family owns the Brother Hotel in Taipei and other businesses, in 1984 founded the Brother Elephants, who would go on to be one of the four teams in the CPBL’s inaugural season in 1990.
During his tenure, the Brother Elephants won seven league championships between 1990 and 2010.
Hung sold the club to CTBC Financial Holding Group in 2013, reportedly for NT$400 million (US$13.2 million at the current exchange rate).
At the start of the 2014 season, the team was renamed Brothers Baseball Club.
Hung was well-known for imposing tough rules and demanding strict discipline from his players, as he followed a Japanese style of management
Over the past few days, the Brothers Baseball Club announced that they had dropped slugger Hsu Chi-hung and pitcher Chen Hung-wen from the roster, which sparked speculation about the future of both players with the team.
Brothers executives said the team is transitioning toward relying more on the speed, defense and team chemistry of younger players, while some veterans need training with their farm team.
Earlier this week, the Brothers officially announced that they had benched five veteran players for the post-season, the most prominent being Lin Chih-sheng, also known as Ngayaw Ake, who has been the league’s best-paid star with a monthly salary of NT$1.2 million.
Lin and the other four, known as the “Five Tigers,” reportedly formed a clique led by Lin that clashed with the Brothers’ American manager, Cory Snyder.
Local media later in the week reported that some of the five were involved in extramarital affairs and had been spotted partying late at night with women other than their wives while training with the national squad.
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