Andy Sisco set a new mark in strikeouts through the first eight games of a season earlier this week, ringing up 10 against the Lamigo Monkeys to bring his strikeout total for the season to a staggering 67, topping the previous mark of 66 set by former Brother Elephants great Hisanori Yokota in 2004.
The American southpaw, whose well-traveled baseball path includes stints in the Majors with the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago White Sox, has been a steady force in the EDA Rhinos rotation over the past two seasons with a solid 2.70 earned run average (ERA) in 133-1/3 innings pitched over 21 starts last year and a 1.73 ERA in his eight starts thus far this year to lead the league in total wins, with four to his credit.
To put things in perspective, the 67 K’s by Sisco is so far above and beyond the rest of the league that the next-best strikeout total is a minuscule 29 by the Elephants’ Cheng Kai-wen, followed by Sisco’s teammate Huang Sheng-hsiung’s 27.
His lead over Cheng is so big that barring an injury, Sisco could have the inside track to win the strikeout title by a windfall.
STRUGGLING ELEPHANTS
While the Rhinos are enjoying a 7-3 run over their past 10 contests to climb out of the cellar in the standings, the Chinatrust Brother Elephants are continuing their slump with only a pair of victories in their past 10 tries to drop to a league-worst 8-18-1 for the year (through Wednesday).
Wednesday night’s 5-3 loss to the Uni-President Lions was the latest of six straight defeats that the men in the golden uniforms have suffered recently, due to a lack of offense that is most evident in their worst-in-the-league .238 batting average.
Other than Chang Chih-wei’s team-best .339 batting average, no other Elephants hitters in their regular lineup have a batting average above .250.
Skipper Hsieh Chang-han has already demoted sluggers Chou Si-chi and Wang Sheng-wei to the minors to tweak their swings, not to mention implementing a massive roster change that includes the demotion of starters Cheng Hung-chi and Tseng Song-wei.
Also contributing to the Elephants’ offensive woes at the plate is the cooling off of swinger Lin Wei-chu, who has gone hitless in his past six games off the bench to see his average drop below .200.
The former star of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League was expected to bring even more power to an Elephants lineup that already has the services of Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min (with a .250 average) and Chou (with a .167 average).
Taiwan won a back-and-forth match at the Unions Cup in Singapore yesterday, but the hosts claimed the trophy due to a better points differential over the tournament. Singapore’s players celebrated with the cup, despite losing a match in which they seized the lead three times, but ultimately fell to a 19-16 defeat. Their points advantage was due to their strong opening game against the other team in the competition, Thailand, who they beat 30-8 on Saturday last week. Taiwan narrowly lost to Thailand on Tuesday and went into yesterday’s match facing a steep challenge. They responded well, opening the game with sustained pressure
An “outstanding” 17-year-old Chinese badminton player died of cardiac arrest after collapsing on court during a tournament in Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Zhang Zhijie was playing a match late Sunday against Japan’s Kazuma Kawano at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The score was 11-11 in the first game when Zhang fell to the floor between points. The teenager received treatment at the venue and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, but passed away later that night after repeated efforts to resuscitate him failed. “Medical conclusions ... indicated that the victim experienced sudden cardiac arrest,” Broto Happy, spokesman for
A buzz of excitement crackled through the hushed arena as the rider gripped the reins of her stuffed steed. Welcome to the strangely exacting world of hobby-horsing, the Finnish sport guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Immaculately coiffed equestrians leap athletically over fences just like in horse jumping, going as fast as they can against the clock straddling their stick steeds. Things are more stately in the dressage, with riders trotting their stick horses with intricately decorated stuffed heads before the discerning eyes of the judges. About 260 riders from 22 countries — most women and girls aged 10 to 20 —
Taiwan’s men’s national basketball team is set to upgrade its depth in the paint after signing Brandon Gilbeck of the P.League+’s Formosa Dreamers to a naturalized player’s contract. The 27-year-old big man from the US landed in Taoyuan early on Monday, where he was welcomed by Chinese Taipei Basketball Association deputy secretary-general Chang Cheng-chung. The two signed the deal, which still has to be approved by the Sports Administration and the Ministry of the Interior. Chang said he is confident that “the proceedings would go smoothly.” If approved, Gilbeck would become the third naturalized basketball player in Taiwan, following the New Taipei Kings’ Quincy