Taiwan’s 7-1 loss to Cuba at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Sunday was hugely disappointing, dashing the team’s hopes to reach the quarter-finals in Tokyo, but their 2-2 record in the opening round was still better than many expected.
Baseball America only ranked Taiwan 14th among the 20 WBC teams, but the Web site said that Taiwan could still be competitive in Pool A, “especially playing in front of the home crowd as a host nation.”
That comment proved prescient, because Taiwan’s two wins in Taichung over Baseball America’s No. 8 the Netherlands and No. 12 Italy might have had as much to do with the group of people chanting and dancing on the home team’s dugout than the players.
Photo: CNA
Often given celebrity status in Taiwan, the cheerleaders gained global attention as they entertained local fans who packed the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
“They sing songs, they stomp on the dugout, they are the source of all the energy in the ballpark for sometimes four hours at a time,” Matt Monagan wrote in an article on the MLB’s Web site titled “The art of being a Chinese Taipei cheerleader.”
One of those cheerleaders, who goes only by Travis and is normally a captain of the P.League+’s Taipei Fubon Braves basketball team, told Monagan that the cheerleaders had to stay positive for the home team.
“When we’re down 10 runs, I know we’re down, but I’m not a fan anymore,” Travis said. “I’m down inside, but as a vice captain, I have to put a smile on my face and say: ‘My job is to cheer the fans up.’”
Another of the all-star squad in Taichung was 24-year-old Seulgi, who cheers for the P.League+’s Hsinchu JKO Lioneers.
“When we’re down, I know that the game is still going on and we have to still support the team... I know we have to go even harder,” Seulgi said.
The cheers do not guarantee victory, as shown in Sunday’s loss and Taiwan’s 12-5 defeat to Panama on Wednesday last week in their opener. Great pitching (which Taiwan lacked), and timely hitting (which Taiwan showed occasionally) are usually more effective.
Prior to his team’s 9-5 loss to Taiwan on Saturday, the Netherlands’ manager, former major leaguer Hensley Meulens, said that the raucous crowd and “Taiwanese cheering” could be challenging for his players, only two of whom had experienced it before.
“I think it’s not gonna stop, but we’ll stay focused and do what we can do... We’ll strive to win and try not to be influenced by the fans as much as possible,” he said.
Italy’s manager, former MLB star Mike Piazza, had similar sentiments following his team’s 11-7 loss to Taiwan on Friday night.
“The environment, I was very surprised with, with the cheerleaders and the noise throughout their offensive at-bats,” Monagan quoted Piazza as saying, adding that the team and the crowd in attendance created “a whole different experience” in the stadium.
The popularity of the cheerleaders has not gone unnoticed by the MLB, which has been directing the broadcasts of the WBC games.
ELTA TV’s play-by-play commentator Wu Sheng-fu said on Sunday that the broadcasts of the Taichung games devoted an increasing amount of time to the cheerleaders as the week went on.
The nonstop pace of the noise and cheers might seem novel to baseball fans from outside Taiwan, but cheerleaders have been icons on the domestic sports scene for years.
A few days before Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera threw out the first pitch for Pool A, the New York Mets announced that six cheerleaders from the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys would perform at Citi Field at the annual Taiwan Day.
Taiwan’s cheerleading culture has, at times, taken a wrong turn.
In a Super Basketball League game between the Taiwan Beer and the Changhua BLL on Feb. 26, two BLL cheerleaders (nicknamed the “Luxy Girls”) twerked in front of the Beer’s Su Po-chang as he was taking foul shots.
Videos of the sexual provocative moves soon went viral online, with many commenters vilifying the move as “indecent,” “lewd” and “improper for the game,” despite the cheerleaders’ saying that their “pure and simple” motivation was to cheer on their team.
What remained unquestioned after five days of the WBC is that the all-star cheerleaders gave Taiwan an edge.
Taiwanese slugger Yu Chang thought highly enough to mention them in a Facebook post after Sunday’s loss.
“I would like to thank our fans and friends who supported us along the way... We believe our good performance and the cheerleaders’ passion have been seen around the world,” he wrote.
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