Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/26/2020
By: Hsieh Ching-wen and Joseph Yeh

New Taipei, April 26 (CNA) A junior high school baseball team from Taitung County in southeastern Taiwan beat its rival from northern Taoyuan Sunday to win the county's first championship title in the Hsieh Kuo-cheng Cup for 21 years, gaining a berth to represent Taiwan in the Little League Baseball's (LLB's) Junior League Baseball Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament scheduled to be held in July.

Taitung's Pei Nan Junior High School triumphed over Taoyuan's Hsin Ming Junior High School with a 3-1 score at New Taipei's Sanchong Baseball Stadium in a game that was played behind closed doors on account of fears over the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The team's head coach, Huang Kuei-yu (黃貴裕), attributed the hard-earned victory to the joint efforts of the team's two left-handed pitchers, Huang Yu-yao (黃宇耀) and Huang Chin-hao (黃錦豪).

Starting pitcher Huang Yu-yao gave up one run in five innings, with four strikeouts and four hits, while Huang Chin-hao, meanwhile, had two scoreless innings as a reliever, giving up one hit and no runs.
[FULL  STORY]

Fubon FLOURISH: The Guardians hit three homers to edge out the CTBC Brothers 5-4 yesterday, with closer Chen Hung-wen chalking up a save in the final inning

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 27, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwanese and international sports media lauded slugger Chu Yu-hsien of the Rakuten Monkeys, dubbing him “the new Babe Ruth” and “the world’s home run king” after he blasted another shot out of the ballpark to bring his season total to eight in eight games, but their pitching woes continued as they lost two to the Uni-President Lions over the weekend.

Although Rakuten’s first baseman has had hot hands to start the season, he cooled off somewhat last night, picking up only one hit in four at-bats as his team slumped to second straight defeat to the roaring Lions.

The Monkeys on Friday had made history with their seventh consecutive win, breaking their own 2011 record of six wins to start a season, behind a pitching gem by starter Wang Yi-cheng in a 14-4 rout of the Lions in Tainan.

However, the Lions have awoken from their early-season slumber, scoring 20 runs over the weekend against Rakuten pitching staff and winning 12-5 yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 26, 2020
By: AP, New Taipei City

When Wang Wei-chen had a base hit for the CTBC Brothers, no one booed or cheered from the stands at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City, no one hurled insults at the umpires, and no one yelled the Chinese-language line of encouragement “add oil” to either team.

The 12,150 blue plastic seats on Friday night were devoid of fans for the game between the CTBC Brothers and the Fubon Guardians, down from the average crowd of 6,000 at local professional baseball games. No fans have come to any local games since play started on April 11.

The five-team CPBL is barring spectators over concerns of spreading COVID-19 in a crowded space, but the league decided it was safe to let in players, coaches, cheerleaders, costumed mascots, mask-wearing batboys and the media, as the nation has relatively few cases of the coronavirus.

“We’d like to have fans coming into the stadium to cheer us on, yet due to the outbreak, they can’t,” said Wang, an infielder for the Brothers. “We are still lucky, since we have not stopped our season and people can still see us in this way.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 25, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwan’s top hoop stars last night were the focus of basketball fans around the world as Taiwan Beer rebounded from a seven-point halftime deficit to beat the Yulon Luxgen Dinos 94-74, evening up their Super Basketball League (SBL) Finals series 2-2 at the Hao Yu Sports Center in New Taipei City.

The International Basketball Federation has made the SBL Finals available for an international audience starved of live-court action due to lockdowns and shuttered seasons amid the COVID-19 pandemic by livestreaming all of the games on its YouTube and Facebook channels.

The Yulon Dinos took Pauian Archiland in the first-round playoffs with a three-game sweep to advance to the finals, where they faced Taiwan Beer, who finished the regular season in first place thanks to their 25-7 record.

Taiwan Beer forward Kentrell Barkley of the US led the team with 23 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double, while his partner up front, Huang Tsung-han, had 17 points and three rebounds.
[FULL  STORY]

CNN
Date: April 22, 2020
By: Leah Asmelash, CNN

(CNN)With sports largely on hold because of coronavirus, this can present a problem for many fans.

Namely, what is there to watch now? Where to turn to get that beloved adrenaline rush?

Have no fear. There are still (yes, still!) some sports available for sports fans. We may not have NBA playoff games, but at least we can get something.

Darts. Yes, darts

Hear me out.

Professional darts games have been able to proceed where other sports have not, though without fans.

Darts may be easy to dismiss at first. It's not as fast paced as some of America's favorite sports, like basketball, doesn't have the same regional alliances as football, or the institutional history of baseball.

But what the sport may be perceived to lack it far makes up for in other ways.    [FULL  STORY]

Taoyuan government spends big on Eleven Sports' CPBL broadcasts up to end of season

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/22
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is the only league in the world playing, so the Taoyuan government said on Wednesday (April 22) it would stump up NT$2 million (US$66,500) for English-language broadcasts until the end of the season.

The CPBL started giving trial English commentaries after the baseball season started April 11. Games are played behind closed doors and broadcast live on Eleven Sports Network and Twitter, for the first time since the league began in 1989.

Due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, most sports have shut up shop. This includes baseball, which is not being played professionally anywhere else in the world but Taiwan.

The English broadcast is by Richard Wang (王雲慶) and fellow commentator Wayne McNeil. They have done five English-language broadcasts, as of April 22, and the games mainly take place at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium.    [FULL  STORY]

British soccer star asks Taiwanese fans for advice on productive things to do during quarantine

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/20
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — British soccer star David Beckham on Saturday (April 18) asked Taiwanese fans for advice on productive ways to pass the time while under quarantine as the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to ravage the UK and much of the world.

In a Facebook post uploaded on Saturday, Beckham posted a photo of himself playing with Legos as he holds his dog in his lap. In the caption, Beckham wrote that he was in week four of home isolation in the UK and that he and his family have tried numerous things to past the time, including playing with Legos, cooking, watching films, exercising, and trying to get work done.

He then wrote that he is aware that Taiwanese are very creative and asked if fans in Taiwan had any tips on how to "stay fit, stay positive and how to keep little people entertained." He then prompted fans to leave their tips below.

The post soon gained 4,800 likes, 530 comments, and 368 shares. Examples of suggestions included making pearl milk tea, watching Taiwan-based Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) games, tuning in to Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) reports, making a cardboard slide, playing Nintendo Switch, painting with his children, and planting flowers, fruits, or vegetables.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/19/2020
By: William Yen

Taipei, April 19 (CNA) Former major leaguer Hu Chin-long (胡金龍) on Saturday reached the 1,000 hit milestone in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) faster than any player in league history.

The 36-year-old Hu, who was with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2007 to 2010 and the New York Mets in 2011, reached the milestone with a line drive hit to center in the top of the eighth in his Fubon Guardians' 12-9 loss to the Rakuten Monkeys in Taoyuan.

After recording his 1,000th hit, Hu took off his helmet and bowed to the empty stadium in thanks, reflecting the reality of Taiwan's pro baseball season opening without fans because of social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.    [FULL  STORY]