Most Taiwanese will cast aside their differences of opinion to rally behind the nation’s star players at major international sports tournaments — especially when it comes to baseball — and many fans have long desired to give their full, unbridled support by uniting behind “Team Taiwan.”
That enthusiasm and loyalty can be seen in the fervor and passion with which fans supported the national baseball team during last year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), the Asia Professional Baseball Championship and the Taipei Summer Universiade.
Baseball is the most popular game in the nation with over a century of history. It started taking root at schools and social institutions when organized baseball was introduced to Taiwan by the Japanese in 1906.
Photo: Fang Bin-chao, Taipei Times
Leaders and officials of the nation’s different political parties are divided on many issues, but they will unite as one for baseball, cheering for the national team at international competitions.
However, the continued use of “Chinese Taipei” as the team’s title is increasingly at odds with people’s perception of a Taiwanese identity as distinct from a Chinese one, and it also diverges from the nation’s political environment as it has changed over the past decades.
The main reasons for the use of “Chinese Taipei” are inertia and conservatives forces within the two main baseball bodies, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA), which together enjoy a virtual monopoly over the game.
The CPBL and CTBA are known to be ruled at the top by oligarchies of mostly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians — whose families and lackeys use their positions to reap benefits and business contracts — and through nepotism and cronyism, according to sports reform activists.
This kind of tight control by KMT politicians who want to increase their power and benefit their businesses is prevalent across Taiwan’s sports bodies, according to publications by the “Fair Game! Taiwan!” (台灣改革聯會) alliance of campaigners.
The gridlock in which power in sports is held by pan-blue politicians was in full display when KMT Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) met little opposition on his way to obtain a second term as head of the CPBL, in which position he was confirmed at a general assembly on Jan. 17.
Wu is to serve another three years as CPBL commissioner, the unofficial czar of the nation’s professional baseball, an office that he has held since 2015.
Meanwhile, former KMT legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), who has been leading the CTBA since 2015, can reportedly expect a tough battle next month.
Liao is seeking a second three-year term as the association’s chairman, but it has been reported that he faces a strong challenge from Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), who owns the Brothers Baseball Club and is a major shareholder in CTBC Financial Holding Co, which is controlled by his family.
“We will strive with all our effort to restore Taiwanese baseball to its former glory through revitalization plans,” Wu said as he officially entered his second term as CPBL commissioner. “The priority is to expand the league by adding fifth and sixth teams to the current format.”
Wu also unveiled a platform illustrated with an image of five interlocking rings, representing the CPBL’s five focal themes for the next three years: consolidating the grassroots, professional training, business expansion, international participation and deepening friendships with other “baseball nations.”
However, the majority of baseball fans and netizens expressed disappointment at the news of Wu taking up another term as CPBL commissioner.
Some fans said that as long as Wu leads the league, there would be no hope for progress in baseball and it would be impossible to rectify the national team’s name to “Taiwan,” as the league is responsible for organizing the national baseball team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Some netizens wrote that over the past three years with Wu in charge, they could not remember many highlights, positive developments or noteworthy advances.
Instead, they said the quality of Taiwanese baseball had declined, judging by the CPBL players’ performance in the national team as it stumbled from perceived failures to calamitous results at the WBC, the Universiade and other major tournaments last year.
Fans also said that at the start of his first term, Wu made plenty of promises about improvements and new initiatives, but he achieved little and he came up empty on most of his promises.
Some fans said that Wu, who is the eldest son of former KMT deputy chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), is a typical “princeling” politician, climbing the political ladder by riding along on his family’s political influence and using its local Taoyuan power base.
It is said in baseball circles that when John Wu was out of a job in the aftermath of the November 2014 nine-in-one election, in which he lost the Taoyuan mayoral race to Democratic Progressive Party candidate Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Wu Po-hsiung used his KMT clout to get John Wu the CPBL commissionership.
When starting on the job in February 2015, he talked about pushing for reform by reviewing the league’s charter and easing its requirements, to pave the way for a new franchise to join as the league’s fifth team.
In August 2015, he announced that a new ballclub was soon to join the league with the financial backing of a big Taiwanese corporation, and also said two companies would sponsor junior teams to play in the CPBL’s farm league beginning in 2016.
He spoke in glowing tones about the “upcoming CPBL expansion, which will be coming in the next two years,” presenting it as an important achievement of his office.
Many baseball fans have castigated John Wu for doing a poor job as commissioner, as they do not believe the CPBL has made much progress and he eventually failed to attract any corporation to help new teams join the league.
Looking back at the past three years, many fans have said that the CPBL under John Wu would continue to talk big and paint rosy pictures, but all of this would lead to more unmet expectations, disappointing results, finger-pointing and calls for change from fans.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
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