Professional Baseball League Opens Its Season in Taiwan


Lamigo Lions Cheng Kai-wen hit the first home run of the season off of Ariel Miranda of the ChinaTrust Brothers.

Some of the victims of the Great COVID-19 Lockdown of 2020 are millions of rabid sports fans around the world. With the National Basketball Association (NBA) shutting down before it really got started, and NCAA sports getting cancelled before the Final Four, there were many disappointed fans. The 2020 Summer Olympics may be postponed or cancelled. Sports, in general has taken a big hit. All of a sudden, there seems to be nothing to watch on ESPN. I am not a big basketball fan, but I do enjoy watching competitive sports on occasion.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a news article announcing, Amid pandemic, Taiwan first to restart baseball. According to the article, in the first game of the 2020 season for the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the visiting Uni-President Lions beat the home team, the Chinatrust Brothers Baseball Club, 4-1 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. The CPBL is the only professional baseball league playing in the world right now, with the MLB yet to decide on a starting date. The opening dates of the Korean, Japanese, and Mexican baseball leagues have been postponed until later dates.
The opening game had robots, mannequins and cardboard cutouts to liven up the game.

To prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, there were no spectators allowed into the 20,000-seat stadium, but there were about 200 attendees including players, team personnel, umpire crew, ground staff, cheerleaders, and journalists. There were even dummies and robots in the stands. There were journalists from Japan and other countries in attendance. The CPBL received good international PR as the first professional baseball league to open its 2020 season. You can view articles about the baseball league's opening in CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, and the Olympic Channel.

Since most people outside of Asia know nothing about the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), I will offer a little introduction to the league and the teams.

Taiwanese people have had a passion for baseball since it was introduced to Taiwan during Japanese rule. It is easy to find MLB games broadcast in Taiwan, and with Taiwan's high level of home-grown talent, it makes sense that Taiwan has its own professional league. The league currently has former MLB players and the league is a source of MLB players. The CPBL was established in 1989, and it currently has five teams located in metropolitan areas, with each of the teams named after their primary corporate sponsors. People can watch video of the Chinese Professional Baseball League games on their official web site.


Rakuten Monkeys
Location: Taoyuan City
Stadium: Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium
Owners:  La New Corporation (Kaohsiung) and Rakuten (Japan)


Fubon Guardians
Location: New Taipei City
Stadium: Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium
Owner: Fubon Financial Holding Co.


Chinatrust Brothers
Location: Taichung City
Stadium: Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Owner: CTBC Holdings

 
Uni-President Lions 
Location: Tainan City
Stadium: Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Owner: Uni-President Corporation

Location: Hsinchu City
Stadium:Hsinchu CKS Baseball Stadium
Owner: Wei-Chuan Food Corporation

I share this post as a ray of sunshine in the gloom of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Hopefully it gives us hope that life will return to a state of normalcy.

FOLLOWUP

As Taiwanese baseball games continue, they are being broadcast by Eleven Sports Taiwan, and they added an English-language broadcaster for their newfound global audience. Check out the Eleven Sports Twitter Feed.

This development has been shared by different media outlets:

Time Magazine: Missing Baseball? Taiwanese Games Are Now Broadcasting in English. Here's How to Watch Live.
CNN: Taiwan plays ball -- and broadcasts live games to the world
Diplomat: Taiwan's Baseball, Basketball Leagues Back in Action as the World Watches



Comments

  1. Califaztlan31April 14, 2020 at 12:56 PM

    When I was living in Taiwan, my favorite thing to do was get some 18 days beer and go watch the Fubon Guardians. It was awesome that you can go in with beer from outside. What surprised me were the cheerleaders and the bands. There was the home team band and the away team band. Every batter had their own dance song that the cheerleaders and crowd alike would dance to. It was like a dance party and good baseball, why not?! Do a little dance and drink some fresh Taiwan beer. Oh and the cheerleader man as well going up on the airplane!!! I miss those times! Go Dodgers and Guardians!

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