Baseball legend Sadaharu Oh (王貞治) is to throw the first pitch at the newly completed Taipei Dome on Saturday next week before the 30th Asian Baseball Championship begins the following day, the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) said on Wednesday.
Oh would be joined by World Baseball Softball Confederation president Riccardo Fraccari, CTBA president Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) during a ceremony for the championship held by Baseball Federation Asia (BFA), the association said in a statement.
The guests would also be given a tour of the new baseball stadium, where two test games were held on Tuesday and Saturday last week, the statement said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
A news conference is to be held on next Saturday afternoon to announce the start of the baseball championship, with hosts Taiwan facing South Korea at 6pm in the tournament’s opening game the following day at Taipei Dome, it added.
The eight-day tournament is to take place at the Taipei Dome, Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and New Taipei City’s Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, the BFA said.
Tickets for the first round of the tournament are to go on sale tomorrow at 2pm on the tixCraft platform, the association said yesterday, adding that CTBC Bank cardholders may purchase advance tickets from today at noon to tomorrow at noon.
Ticket prices for games in which Taiwan is playing would be NT$600 for infield seats, while infield tickets for matches without Taiwan would be NT$200, it said.
Taiwan and South Korea are in Group A, along with Hong Kong and Palestine, while Japan, the Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand compete in Group B before the super round scheduled on Dec. 8 and 9 and the finals on Dec. 10, a schedule released by the BFA showed.
After South Korea, Taiwan are to travel to Taichung to play Palestine on Dec. 5 at 6:30pm, then Hong Kong the next day at 6:30pm.
Additional reporting by Kayleigh Madjar
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