Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs.
Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday.
They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game.
Photo: AFP
The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with early losses to Australia and Japan, but they stomped the Czech Republic 14-0 for their first win yesterday.
Mark Ling, a 46-year-old dentist who had tickets for two of Taiwan’s games, said that baseball enjoyed “insane” popularity in Taiwan.
“It was very difficult to buy any tickets for this series,” he said, after a home run against the Czechs drowned the stadium in cheering.
Photo: AFP
“It’s what I expected, that everyone would come to Tokyo and cheer for the Taiwan tea,” he said. “I’m not surprised.”
More than 40,000 fans watched Taiwan’s opening game against Australia on Thursday, with the vast majority supporting Taiwan.
All games in Pool C are being played at the Tokyo Dome, where Taiwan has a storied past.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
They won their first international title there when they triumphed at the Premier12 in November 2024, beating Japan in the final, sparking wild celebrations at home.
Fighter aircraft flew as an honor guard as the team returned to Taiwan, where a parade was held through the streets of the capital Taipei.
“Every newspaper reported the event for maybe a week,” said 41-year-old Sun Chun-chieh. “Every athlete came back like a hero.”
Baseball came to Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule in the late 19th century and is considered to be the national sport.
The island has produced some notable players, including the legendary Sadaharu Oh, an ethnic
Taiwanese who was born in Tokyo and holds the world record for career home runs.
The World Baseball Classic team includes US-born Stuart Fairchild of the Cleveland Guardians, whose mother was born in Taiwan.
“The fans have been incredible, they’ve travelled in droves,” said the 29-year-old. “Even though the first couple of games didn’t go the way we wanted to, they still came today and have shown us nothing but support.”
Taiwan went into the tournament ranked number two in the world, although few believe that is an accurate ranking.
They lost 3-0 to Australia in their opener before being thrashed 13-0 by Japan in a game that was cut short under the mercy rule because Japan were so far ahead.
Taiwan kept their hopes of a quarter-final place alive with a formidable win over the Czech team, which also ended early under the mercy rule.
Ling said the World Baseball Classic was “the highest level in baseball” and promised to enjoy the party regardless of the result.
“We love to see the competition between the teams,” he said. “Winning or losing is maybe not the most important thing we care about.”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS