Several star baseball players, gang members and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan County Council speaker Wu Chien-pao (吳健保) were yesterday found guilty of having played a part in the match-fixing scandal that rocked the domestic league in 2009, but critics said the punishments they have received do not fit their crimes.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday announced that it has determined that the defendants conspired to fix Chinese Professional Baseball League games by colluding with various illegal gambling syndicates, starting from the 2006 season.
Of the 35 players charged in 2010 in the case, three high-profile figures were found guilty yesterday: former Brother Elephants power hitters Chen Chih-yuan (陳致遠) and Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安), and former La New Bears ace pitcher Chang Chih-chia (張誌家).
Photo: CNA
The High Court’s ruling reduced the trio’s original jail terms from one to two-and-a-half years, to between four and six months. Chen and Tsai can commute their jail terms by paying a fine of NT$162,000 (US$5,400) each, while Chang can do so with a NT$120,000 payment.
The 2009 game-fixing scandal was the fifth to have erupted in the league and is known as the “Windshield Wiper” (雨刷) baseball scandal because Tsai Cheng-yi (蔡政宜), the alleged mastermind behind the main gambling syndicate, is nicknamed “The Windshield Wiper.”
Tsai Cheng-yi got a jail sentence of three years and eight months in yesterday’s verdict, which cannot be commuted to a fine.
Photo: CNA
In the ruling, the court also found Wu guilty of financing Tsai Cheng-yi and his “Windshield Wiper” gambling syndicate and sentenced the former council speaker to three years and two months in jail.
Another key figure named in the ruling is Brother Elephants pitcher Chuang Yu-lin (莊侑霖), who the court says was the gambling syndicates’ main contact. He received a three-year term that can be commuted to a fine.
Tseng Han-chou (曾漢州), former slugger for the Chinatrust Whales, was also found guilty and, in addition to his original one-year jail sentence, received a separate one-year and 10-month term that can be commuted through paying fines.
The High Court’s ruling drew condemnation from sports circles, fans and experts yesterday, who said the light sentences are detrimental to the sport’s development because the guilty players have gotten away with committing major criminal offenses without having to serve prison sentences.
CPBL deputy secretary-general Wang Hui-min (王惠民) expressed regret over the verdicts on behalf of the league.
“We are worried that the sentencing will not deter other players from undertaking such actions in the future and thus damage pro baseball in Taiwan,” he said.
“This ruling shows that the presiding judges do not understand professional baseball very well. It also shows that they do not appreciate the serious harm this scandal has inflicted on the sport and on society,” Wang said.
Chinatrust Brothers manager and former CPBL secretary-general Wayne Lee (李文彬) said he was disappointed with the verdict, adding that he is concerned that criminal syndicates will once again try to infiltrate the nation’s ballparks to entice players to throw games.
The “Windshield Wiper” scandal broke in 2009, when a judicial probe was launched a day after the finale of the CPBL championship series in October.
Before the scandal broke, Chen, Tsai Fong-an and Chang were popular players, as well as members of the national squad at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Chang was a starting pitching for Japan’s Seibu Lions from 2002 to 2006, before getting released and returning to Taiwan in 2008.
“Our society must revamp baseball in the education system,” baseball broadcaster and former national team player Yang Ching-lung (楊清瓏) said. “The student players are focused only on athletics, and we neglect their proper education in ethics and morality. Some baseball players do not understand that they must keep clean and refrain from bribes and criminal activities.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS