Buck Showalter, manager of the Baltimore Orioles, has slammed the use of “Chinese Taipei” as a name for the Taiwanese national baseball team and has given his support to the use of “Taiwan” at international tournaments.
Watching the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games, Showalter told Taiwanese media to call the team “Taiwan.”
“Don’t use ‘Chinese Taipei’ anymore,” he said.
Showalter has a strong connection with Taiwan after guiding Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-yin (陳偉殷) to a winning 12-11 record in Chen’s rookie season in Major League Baseball last year.
Given his outstanding performance as a regular starting pitcher for the Orioles last year, the lefty pitcher has replaced Wang Chien-ming (王建民) as the nation’s biggest star in the US major leagues, and has become a focus of local fans’ adulation.
Many Taiwanese sports journalists and TV networks went to Baltimore last year to cover Chen and have become familiar with Showalter.
While watching the WBC games, Showalter was impressed by the Taiwanese squad, as well as other national teams.
In a team practice session at the Orioles’ spring training ballpark in Sarasota, Florida, on Monday, Showalter met with Tim Lin (林為鼎), an interpreter for Chen Wei-yin, and asked: “Are you ‘Taiwanese’ or are you ‘Chinese Taipeinese?’”
“Of course, I’m Taiwanese,” Lin replied without hesitation.
“Very good, that’s what I thought. Taiwanese are Taiwanese. From now on, your baseball team jersey should show the word ‘Taiwan.’ Don’t use ‘Chinese Taipei’ anymore. Your guys did well in the WBC, and advanced into the second round,” he said.
A former manager for the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, Showalter does not like confusion on nationality issues.
Last season, several journalists mistook Chen Wei-yin to be a Chinese national. Showalter was quick to rectify that.
“I know this very clearly. China is China and Taiwan is Taiwan. They are different countries,” he said.
VOTERS’ CHOICE: The DPP’s Chen and independent candidate Huang conceded defeat before 7:20pm, with Chiang pledging to remain humble and do his best Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday won the Taipei mayoral election, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate defeating the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) pick, former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), and former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), an independent. After polling stations closed at 4pm, the Taipei Election Commission issued a preliminary estimate that voter turnout in the city was about 64 percent, slightly lower than in 2018. Chiang, 43, is to be the youngest Taipei mayor ever, with the KMT regaining the capital after eight years. Chen had an exceptionally high national approval rating when he was head
In the last few days before the local elections on Saturday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it is focusing on 10 regions it considers highly contested areas, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said it is stepping up campaigns across the nation. The DPP considers Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, and Maoli, Yilan, Nantou, Penghu, Changhua and Yunlin counties as areas where its candidates are facing fierce competition, a party source said. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) plan to visit those areas again this week, the source said. The night before the elections,
A naval landing craft on Thursday sank near Kinmen County after wet weather and rough seas flooded its cabin, the Naval Fleet Command said. The vessel, called Landing Craft Mechanized 1326, had completed transport and replenishment missions in the county and was returning to Taiwan proper when surging waves flooded the cabin, the navy said in a statement. The craft’s five crew members tried to bail out the water to no avail, the Navy said. The landing craft eventually sank off Kinmen’s Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) at 5:18pm, although all crew members rescued, it said, adding that the precise cause of the sinking
TOURIST HOTSPOT: The air charter services would drastically cut travel time to the world-renowned beach with its service to Caticlan, instead of Kalibo Royal Air Philippines is to launch next month direct flights between Taiwan and the Philippine city of Caticlan, a closer entry point to tourist hotspot Boracay. The airline will initially offer six charter flights between Dec. 26 and Jan. 15, with the flight frequency increasing to one per day during the Lunar New Year and winter holidays from Jan. 19 to Feb. 8, it announced at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The charter flight services will drastically cut travel time to Boracay to about two hours and 45 minutes. Before the new route is launched, travelers from Taiwan who
RSS