Taiwan, which calls baseball its national sport, is facing yet another professional baseball game-fixing scandal. What future does professional baseball have? Will the scam destroy it?
The earliest recorded game-fixing scandal in the US occurred in 1865. Three members of the New York Mutuals accepted US$100 each for throwing the Sept. 28 game to the Brooklyn Eckfords. Two of them were suspended for life.
In 1877, the Louisville Scandal took place. The scandal nearly destroyed professional baseball in the US. Eventually, the Louisville team folded and four players involved were suspended for life.
A similar gambling scandal happened in Taiwan in 1997. At that time, Kuo Chien-chen (
Then Taiwanese player Chen Chin-feng (
Today, professional baseball is facing another gambling scandal, eight years since the last one. Will the sport be able to revitalize its fans' trust in the same way US professional baseball did after the 1905 and 1908 scandals involving the New York Giants, and even the 1920 Black Sox scandal, in which media discovered that the 1919 World Series had been fixed?
Perhaps Taiwan can make it, and we certainly hope that it can. But there is nothing that can work as an injection to revitalize the sport at present.
Besides, compared to the relatively healthier system of US professional baseball, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) only passively accepts judicial investigations, and has never taken any active moves.
Fans would rather believe that the players and staff involved in the scandal are absolutely innocent. But if the current suspicions turn out to be true, there is reason to worry and wonder how the CPBL will go about bringing back the passionate support of its fans.
Wang Chao-yu is a student in the Graduate Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University.
Translated by Eddy Chang
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were born under the sign of Gemini. Geminis are known for their intelligence, creativity, adaptability and flexibility. It is unlikely, then, that the trade conflict between the US and China would escalate into a catastrophic collision. It is more probable that both sides would seek a way to de-escalate, paving the way for a Trump-Xi summit that allows the global economy some breathing room. Practically speaking, China and the US have vulnerabilities, and a prolonged trade war would be damaging for both. In the US, the electoral system means that public opinion
RSS