English-language commentary is to soon be available for all four Taiwanese professional baseball league teams to meet increasing demand from non-Chinese speaking fans, as the CPBL is the only league hosting games worldwide amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The games are being held behind closed doors with just the players, coaches, referees and cheerleaders due to social distancing rules.
The Taoyuan-based Rakuten Monkeys began offering English-language commentary on Wednesday last week through their broadcaster, Eleven Sports, in addition to their existing Chinese-language broadcasts on local cable TV channels and online.
The English-language service, featuring World Baseball Softball Confederation Asia correspondent Richard Wang and Web site CPBL English founder Wayne McNeil is available on the network’s Twitter account.
The service, originally scheduled for just five games, has been extended to all 60 of the Monkey’s home games this season, thanks to funding from the Taoyuan City Government, the team said.
The Monkeys said that the five games they have broadcast with English commentary have been viewed more than 7 million times.
The three other teams said that they would start English commentary services soon.
The Tainan-based Uni-President Lions said that they are preparing to livestream their three consecutive home games against the Monkeys from today to Sunday, with English commentary on the Eleven Sports network’s Twitter account.
The New Taipei City-based Fubon Guardians said that Wang and McNeil would provide English commentary on their games as of today via the team’s official Twitter account.
The team said that it would also have its adviser, Chen Chin-feng, the first Taiwanese to play in US Major League Baseball, participate in today’s broadcast as a special guest.
Taichung-based Brothers Baseball Club said that they would offer English commentary on their home games starting on May 5.
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