Taiwan is set to host a professional winter baseball league, the head of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) said on Monday.
Hwang Jenn-tai said it was very likely the nation would host winter league games in central and southern Taiwan at the end of this year.
CPBL secretary-general Liang Kung-pin said that details on how the teams would be organized and how many teams would take part had not yet been finalized.
The plan is for each team in the league to play 50 games and for the league to be open to players from other countries.
“Japanese and South Korean teams have expressed an interest. We also have our minor league teams and we still need to find players for one more team. We might approach North American clubs,” Liang said.
Japanese and South Korea teams have wanted to send players to Taiwan to play winter baseball in the past, Liang said, but they did not want to join a league formed by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association because that would have meant playing against amateurs.
They are much more receptive to the idea of the CPBL taking charge of the new league, Liang added.
Hwang is also hoping that a winter league would help boost tourism.
“We’re not thinking of breaking even this year in hosting the winter league. If there were a tourism boost, it would be the CPBL fulfilling its social responsibility,” Huang said.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946