EDA Rhinos captain Hu Chin-lung (胡金龍) became the 10th player in CPBL history to hit for the cycle in a game against the Lamigo Monkeys.
On Thursday last week, Hu smacked his 11th homer, helping the Rhinos thrash the Monkeys 14-5 at Kaohsiung’s Cheng Ching Lake Stadium.
He registered a double in the first inning, later adding a triple and a single, then completed the cycle with a home run in the eighth frame.
“The hit in the sixth inning was first ruled as an error, but later a teammate told me that officials had changed it to a hit single. I am elated about the record, but it is more important that the team won,” Hu said.
Hu’s teammate Lin Yi-chuan was the first Rhinos player, and the eighth in CPBL history, to accomplish the feat, on May 10, 2012. The Chinatrust Brothers’ shortstop Wang Sheng-wei also achieved the stunt, on July 31, becoming the ninth CPBL player to do so.
Thursday’s other encounter between the Uni-President Lions and the Brothers made the record books for its longevity. It was tied up at five runs each in the sixth inning, but there was no further scoring through extra-innings.
The game was ended after the 12th inning at 12:12am on Friday, 5 hours, 38 minutes after it started at 6:34pm on Thursday, becoming the longest game this season and the third longest in league history. It was the latest finishing time for a game in CPBL history.
Also last week, the CPBL players’ union called for a boycott of the Premier 12 international competition organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, which is scheduled to be held in November and co-hosted by Taiwan and Japan.
As head of the players’ union, Hu issued the call, a direct challenge to the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association.
The main issue was said to revolve around financial demands, with the players’ union calling for guarantees of increased appearance fees, portraiture rights and better insurance policies to protect against injuries.
“We do not have good insurance programs for players compared with the US and Japan. So an agreeable system for insurance should be set up for the national squad. We must also receive guarantees from Premier 12 organizers and sponsors regarding appearance fees,” Hu said.
Games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday were canceled due to Typhoon Soudelor, which resulted in flooding of several ballparks. The contests have been rescheduled.
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