The Lamigo Monkeys are to hold a victory parade in Taoyuan tomorrow to celebrate winning the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s Taiwan Series, team officials said yesterday, while announcing a series of special events and sales at corporate parent Lamigo’s core businesses and participating stores.
The Monkeys on Thursday crushed Brothers Baseball Club in Game 5 of the best-of-seven, season-ending series at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, a 20-3 blowout victory that secured them a third consecutive championship.
The Monkeys have been the league’s most dominant team over the past decade, winning the championship five times in the past six years, and their ferocious batting lineup set several new records in this season’s final game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
In Game 5, the Monkeys cranked out 21 hits, including a record five home runs, and their 20 runs set a new record for the Taiwan Series, surpassing the previous high of 19.
The 17-run winning margin was also a new record for the series.
The Monkeys also became Taiwan’s fourth professional team to win the championship title in three consecutive years, joining the now-defunct Weichuan Dragons, the then-Brother Elephants and the Uni-President Lions.
After the game, Lamigo general manager Justin Liu said: “I am proud to say that our team can be considered a powerhouse with the three-peat.”
“This is a wonderful accomplishment. It is a perfect ending, just like in the movies. I wish time could be frozen at this moment forever,” he said, referring to the game being the last for the club as the Lamigo Monkeys.
Earlier this year, the ball club was purchased by Tokyo-based e-commerce giant Rakuten. They are to be renamed the Rakuten Golden Eagles starting next season, but would continue to play home games at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.
Head coach Hung Yi-chung was modest about the victory.
“We were more fortunate in these games — luck was on our side,” Hung said.
“But it was not easy, as heading into the post-season, our coaching staff had lots of work, from helping players recuperate from injuries to tuning their conditioning from our late-season slump,” Hung added.
Second-year Monkeys player Lin Li was voted Most Valuable Player for the finals after recording 13 hits, three home runs and 11 RBIs for a 0.520 batting average over the five games.
Separately yesterday, Taiwan were as of press time last night leading South Korea 7-1 through the seventh inning in the medal round of the Asian Baseball Championship at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
In the afternoon contest at the stadium, Japan trounced China 11-1.
South Korea are to face Japan at noon today at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, followed by Taiwan taking on China at 6:30pm.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB