New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) said yesterday that the government should pool its resources to help support grassroots baseball because potential stars are identified and begin their development during childhood.
Wang made the suggestion during a meeting with Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), along with nine other recipients in this year's 10 most outstanding young men and women awards.
Wang was selected for the award in recognition of his outstanding performance in US Major League Baseball. He won 19 games in both 2006 and last year, setting a new record for wins by an Asian pitcher in a Major League season.
Baseball must take root at the elementary school level if Taiwan is to produce good players, Wang told Liu.
Liu said he would coordinate efforts by government agencies to improve the nation's Chinese Professional Baseball League, a league that has been plagued by match-fixing scandals in recent years.
“The nation's baseball scene developed from youth baseball. I think everyone can remember watching the successes of our youth baseball teams over the past decades, but now we have lots of problems with professional baseball,” Liu said.
Approached by the press after the meeting with Liu, Wang said he would donate the NT$7,200 in consumer vouchers he and his wife will receive as part of the government's plan to boost the economy to groups dedicated to grassroots baseball.
Another awardee, Lin Liang-jung (林良蓉), was honored in recognition of her appointment in July to the Advisory Center on WTO Law, a Geneva-based intergovernmental organization that was established in 2001 to provide legal advice on WTO law.
As the first Taiwanese to hold such a position, Lin said she hoped her performance could inspire more young Taiwanese to devote themselves to international trade negotiations.
Juan Hsueh-fen (阮雪芬), an associate professor at the Department of Life Science at National Taiwan University, was honored for her dedication to research into the medicinal applications of Ganoderma lucidum, a kind of fungi.
Juan said she hoped to prove that the substance was effective by means of systematic biology.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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