The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) hopes to resume this year’s Taiwan pro baseball season with a proposal to play games in strict “bubbles” in the south of the country.
CPBL officials have drafted a plan to submit to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) next week for review, sources said.
CPBL games were suspended on May 15, along with amateur baseball and school leagues.
Due to an increase in the number of domestic COVID-19 cases, the center on May 15 imposed a level 3 alert on Taipei and New Taipei City, and four days later it was expanded to the entire nation. The alert has been extended to June 28.
Indoor gatherings of more than four people and outdoor gatherings of more than nine are banned, while schools and many public venues have been closed and people have been advised to stay at home.
The CPBL is hoping to resume games at the end of the month or in the first week of next month if the plan is approved, sources said.
Under the plan, all games in Taipei and New Taipei City would be canceled, as the two municipalities remain COVID-19 hotspots.
The CPBL’s plan would have each team moving together as one group, with their own buses taking them from their hotel to the ballpark, sources said, adding that no visitors would be permitted and outside contact would be minimized.
The plan proposes that games be played without fans, with workers and grounds crews kept to a minimum, and no members of the media allowed, sources said.
As there is no restart date yet for this season, Uni-President Lions Manager Lin Yueh-ping (林岳平) on Friday said that the players’ main concern is that the playoffs would be pushed to November or December.
“That would take quite a heavy toll on the players’ bodies... Normally when we get into November, players are resting, to get ready for next season,” Lin said.
The Lions are this year’s defending champions.
In the absence of the CPBL, Taiwanese fans have turned to Major League Baseball, as well as pro baseball games in Japan and South Korea.
Fans and pundits have said that Japan, South Korea and the US are also combating COVID-19 outbreaks, but are playing baseball with different restrictions.
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