BASEBALL
Lions, Monkeys to face off
The CPBL is to open its post-season on Saturday when the Uni-President Lions begin a best-of-five series against the Rakuten Monkeys at home in Tainan. The Lions are to start with a 1-0 lead in the opening round of the five-team league’s playoffs, a perk they received for winning the first half of the season. They also have the advantage of playing all of the series’ games at home except for the second game, to be staged in Taoyuan on Sunday. The Monkeys earned their playoff berth on Sunday by outlasting two-time defending champions the CTBC Brothers 11-9. The Wei Chuan Dragons advanced automatically to the Taiwan Series because they had a better full-season record than the Lions. The winner of the Lions-Monkeys series would face the Dragons in the best-of-seven Taiwan Series, which starts on Saturday next week.
BASKETBALL
US player attacked in Poland
An American player with a professional Polish women’s club was beaten and left with a head injury last week with a suspect later detained, officials and reports in Polish media said on Sunday. Mikayla Cowling, who plays for VBW Arka Gdynia, was attacked late on Wednesday in a music club in Gdansk, said the RMF FM broadcaster, which also quoted the club as saying the “brutal beating” left her with a fractured eye socket, among other injuries. “I am outraged that such a shameful situation has occurred. Violence and aggression are unacceptable and must be opposed,” Gdynia Mayor Wojciech Szczurek wrote on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The attack happened after a EuroCup women’s match where Gdynia defeated Swiss rivals the BCF Elfic Fribourg, 77-47. Cowling scored 7 points. Gdynia president Boguslaw Witkowski said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency that the player was attacked near the women’s restroom by a security guard. The state-run agency also quoted a police spokesperson who said the suspect, a 48-year-old man, was arrested on Friday.
CRICKET
Australia’s Healy bit by dog
Australia acting captain and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy was rushed into surgery at the weekend after injuring her right index finger trying to separate her dogs as they were fighting. Healy was a late withdrawal from the Sydney Sixers ahead of their 42-run defeat to the Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League on Sunday. The Sixers said Healy had hand surgery after a “domestic accident at home,” but her Australia teammate Phoebe Litchfield later revealed the injury was due to a dog attack. Healy yesterday said she sustained an injury after putting her hand between her two Staffordshire bull terriers. “The positive sign out of it is there was no bone or tendon damage, or a rupture,” she told reporters in a videoconference. “I think there was an artery involved which probably made it look more like a crime scene than it needed to be. It was quite gory.” Healy, who is now in doubt for the rest of the season, is to meet with surgeons on Thursday. “When I pulled my finger out initially, I thought I was in strife, but it’s all gone smoothly at the moment,” she said.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946