The Wei Chuan Dragons became the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s (CPBL) fifth team following a unanimous vote by the league’s executive council at a meeting yesterday afternoon.
The Dragons have selected Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Chiayi County and Pingtung County as possible home bases, league commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) said, adding that the club must meet with officials in each locality and make a final decision as soon as possible.
The league’s teams agreed to change the rules for drafting players given the addition of another team, Wu said, adding that under the new rules, a team can draft one or two players from each team in the league, but cannot recruit players on teams’ 30-man roster or rookies drafted this year and next year.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The league has only had four baseball teams since 2008, when the Chinatrust Whales and dmedia T-Rex disbanded.
The Dragons, started in 1989, were one of the four founding teams in the league before they disbanded in 1999. To regain their league membership, the team must comply with new league rules that require a five-year royalty of NT$360 million (US$11.58 million), a NT$120 million franchise fee and a NT$100 million contribution to a baseball development fund.
The Dragons are to play in the minor league for one year before competing in the major league.
The league also convened a meeting to select a national team manager for the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier 12 tournament, which has games in Taichung and Taoyuan in November.
Winning the tournament would qualify the nation to compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
Lamigo Monkeys manager Hung Yi-chung (洪一中) turned down an invitation to lead the national team, despite being recommended by three other league managers, Wu said.
Hung might have rejected the offer because he already served as the national team manager and wished to leave the opportunity open for other talented people, he added.
“Hung is still our top pick, but we will consult other qualified individuals, including current and former professional baseball team managers,” he said.
The Sports Administration’s regulations stipulate that the national team manager for a Premier 12 tournament must undergo a national selection process conducted by a selection and training committee, Wu said.
Yesterday’s meeting decided that the selection and training committee would consist of the four CPBL team managers, one CPBL representative and three representatives from the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association, he said.
The committee would start work as soon as possible, Wu added.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we