Ngayaw Ake of the Wei Chuan Dragons made history on Sunday as he hit his 300th CPBL home run, becoming the first player to do so in the league’s 34-year history.
Ngayaw Ake was not in the starting lineup in Taoyuan, but as he came to the plate as pinch-hitter at the top of the eighth inning, the crowd jumped to their feet.
With two baserunners on first and second base, the 41-year-old CPBL legend blasted a three-run homer into left field, off a 141.6kph fastball by Bradin Hagens, extending the Dragons’ lead from 1-0 to 4-0 and sending the crowd and his teammates wild.
Photo: CNA
Ngayaw Ake attributed his luck to a phone call he had received from his son before the game.
“He plays basketball and doesn’t watch baseball anymore now, but he surprisingly cheered me up today,” Ngayaw Ake said. “I thought I was not going to play today, and it just happened.”
Now in his 20th professional season, Ngayaw Ake has weathered many ups and downs, setting records along the way.
He scored 31 home runs in the 2009 season, becoming the first Taiwanese player in the league to pass 30 in a single season.
In the 2012 season, he hit 24 home runs, topping all other players in the CBPL for a third time, but a year later he ended the season with only five homers, due to a knee injury sustained in a car accident.
However, he came back stronger in 2015, sending the ball over the fence 31 times and recording 31 stolen bases, to become the first CPBL player to rack up more than 30 home runs and 30 steals in one season.
He scored his 289th home run in November 2021, tying with Chang Tai-shan for the highest number of dingers in the CPBL, then broke the record on April 3 last year.
Ngayaw Ake said he was indebted to numerous people, including his family, fans, teammates and Brothers owner Jeffrey Koo Jr.
“There are really too many people to whom I’m grateful,” he said. “I owe a lot to each person who reached out to me when I was down. I could not have achieved what I did today without them.”
Ngayaw Ake is unlikely to see his CPBL home run record broken any time soon.
The closest active players to his tally are Lin Yi-chuan of the Uni-President Lions with 205 homers and Lin Hung-yu of the Rakuten Monkeys with 196.
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