Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) got the win for Taiwan -- and his major leagues team, the Colorado Rockies -- with a debut performance that had local baseball fans watching on live TV celebrating yesterday morning.
The right-handed Aboriginal from the Amis tribe was the first Taiwan pitcher to start a game in Major League Baseball and only the second local player to make it to the majors.
He is now poised to become the country's highest profile sporting ambassador, with a Nike deal in the bag and fervent home support, as shown by the appearance of Premier Yu Shyi-kun at the family home yesterday in Hualien.
PHOTO: AP
He allowed three runs on eight hits in six-and-one-third innings in the 7-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, but got off to a bad start when his second pitch was hit over the wall at Coors Field in Colorado.
"When that happened, I thought that's my welcome to the big leagues," Tsao said in a telephone interview after the game. "It was really good to learn."
Though clearly a little rattled, the 22-year-old responded with a mix of fastballs and change ups that kept the Brewers' offense on the back foot. He left the game in the sixth inning with the score 4-3 in favor of the Rockies.
"I just hoped that the guy following me wouldn't blow the victory," Tsao said.
"After the home run I felt empty and nervous, but I slowly calmed down and now I'm very happy. I just patted myself on the chest and told myself, `It's alright,'" Tsao said, who rated his performance as "70 percent."
Tsao said Rockies manager Clint Hurdle had advised him to avoid throwing curveballs and to stick to his fastball, which turned out to be a winning strategy.
"He told me after the game I played well, especially after being hit and said I would likely play again in four or five days."
Tsao was given his chance at the big time when the first-choice Rockies' pitcher was ruled out with an elbow injury. Tsao was called up from the AA league Tulsa earlier in the week, where he is 11-4 with a 2.46 ERA and a Texas League high of 125 strikeouts this season.
"The treatment is very different in the big leagues, compared with the minors. There's no need to share with others, we get a good hotel," Tsao said, adding the number of fans in the stadium and their passionate response to the game had impressed him.
When Tsao first walked up to the plate, supporters cheered, some waving Taiwanese flags and he was also given a standing ovation when he left the field.
Tsao picked up a US$2.2 million bonus when he was signed up by Colorado in 1999, but underwent surgery on his elbow two years later.
ERA baseball commentator and Naluwan consultant Yuan Ting-wen (袁定文) said Tsao's achievement was particularly satisfying because "rehabilitation after surgery is one of the most difficult things."
"The fact that he worked so hard to make himself better shows that he has a lot of personality. The fact that he skipped the AAA league and went straight into the majors, just shows how much promise he has and how highly he is regarded."
Sporting agent and IMG representative Eric Shih (施宣麟) said Tsao was set to become Taiwan's biggest sports personality. He said Nike had already signed up the pitcher (though he would not give a figure) and other endorsements were likely.
"We will have to see what kind of response he gets, but it all looks good. We are all very happy. He [Tsao] has done well with his English and seems to be fitting in well in the US, so they have confidence in him."
Also see story:
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS