A full-house is expected at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu this afternoon as the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s (CPBL) 20th season starts with a showdown between the Uni-President Lions and the Brother Elephants.
The highly anticipated rematch of last year’s Taiwan Series that saw the Lions needing to go the full, seven-game distance before capturing their second straight title will feature the Lions ace Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen, who has won at least 10 games in all of the six seasons he has spent in the league and his counterpart Kobayashi Ryokan of the Elephants, who picked up 10 wins in his first season with the Elephants last year with a solid 2.67 earned run average.
Leading the potent attack for the Lions will be Pan Wu-hsiung and Chen Lien-hong, who averaged .346 and .314 with 13 homers apiece last season. The Elephants will try to counter with their own bashing trio consisting of Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan and Chen Guan-ren, who all finished the year with above .300 averages.
Also making a grand appearance on Opening Day will be President Ma Ying-jeou, who is scheduled to toss the ceremonial first pitch at 5pm to cap a fun-packed pre-game program at the Tienmu ballpark that includes a batting cage and pitcher’s challenge for the youngsters.
Meanwhile, with the admittance of the local professional baseball league into the legalized sports gaming system, all eyes will undoubtedly be focused on how well the players and the league officials fare in the upcoming season, given the longstanding match-fixing problem that has troubled Taiwanese baseball.
Even though the Elephants have openly banned their players from joining the newly established players’ association and taken the heat for being the “odd ball” among the four remaining teams in the league (down from six after the dismantling of the dmedia T-Rex and Chinatrust Whales in the off-season), players from the Lions, the Bears and the Bulls have all agreed to a new self-disciplinary policy instituted by the association that will place 10 percent of each of the three team’s players’ monthly earnings in a league-designated account for as long as they are involved with professional baseball.
A player can only claim his escrowed fund after retirement and after receiving a league-issued certificate clearing him of any involvement with gambling.
“We hope this new policy will make those temped to break the rules from doing so, because a large sum of money could be at stake,” Players Association president Yeh Jung-chang said.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
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