The CPBL’s Fubon Guardians yesterday demoted captain Hu Chin-lung (胡金龍) to its farm team and apologized to its fans for a message allegedly posted by Hu’s brother urging the players to oust manager Hong I-chung (洪一中).
“Though the message was not posted by Hu himself, it was on his [Line] account and it has harmed the club. Hu is being demoted to the farm team effective today. The club will mete out punishment according to its internal regulations,” the statement said.
“All players should follow instructions by the coaching staff, and totally dedicate themselves to fight and win games at the ballpark,” the statement added. “The Fubon Guardians hereby apologizes to all our fans and friends, and our club will strive to make better efforts to improve and grow in all facets of the game.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Let’s get big wins against Fubon so that they replace the manager,” said the message, which was posted to a Line group of baseball players who are alumni of Nan Ying Vocational High School in Tainan, including Hu.
The message, originally posted by “clhu15,” allegedly Hu’s Line account, was widely circulated on social media on Thursday.
The Guardians captain is an eight-year veteran of the team and a Taiwan international. He also played with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB.
The message sparked a furor among fans of the Guardians, as it seemed to imply that Hu, among the highest-paid players at the club, was inviting other players to attempt to defeat his own team so that Hong would be sacked.
The head coach of the Nan Ying school baseball team said that the message had been written by Hu’s younger brother, who wrote it when he was playing with Hu’s smartphone late at night.
Hu and his representatives issued an apology, saying that Hu had apologized to Hong in person, while condemning whoever had “leaked” the message for the purpose of inciting disputes among Guardians teammates.
Many fans said that they did not believe Hu’s explanation, with some referring to the resulting furor as “a tempest in teapot,” while others called it “a big scandal which could undermine integrity of the game and drive away CPBL fans.”
However, for most fans it seemed to confirm the rumors of infighting among different factions on the Guardians team, and that many of the players are unhappy with Hong’s disciplinarian style of management.
While most castigated Hu for unprofessional conduct and for wanting his own team to be beaten to oust the manager, others pointed to the Guardians’ awful record this year — they are bottom of the CPBL standings — and that many of their defeats have been by large margins.
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