PLANET WATCHING? Rakuten’s performance may have boosted its global standing, with online polls indicating that global fans back them over other Taiwanese clubs

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2020
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

The Rakuten Monkeys are the early season leaders in Taiwanese professional baseball after they swept their three-game series against the Fubon Guardians with a 3-1 victory in Taoyuan last night, showing their opponents that they can win in a pitching duel.

The defending champions have sustained their form from last year’s Taiwan Series triumph, the Monkeys’ third consecutive Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) title, after starting the season with five wins from five games.

Rakuten manager Tseng Hao-chu started second-year right-hander Weng Wei-chun to close out the series. Veteran pitcher Henry Sosa of the Dominican Republic took the mound for the Guardians.

The Monkeys got a run in the first inning and Fubon in their second to make the score 1-1 early on, before Weng settled down to limit the Guardians’ batters, while his teammates scored in the fifth and seventh.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/18/2020
By: Lin Hung-han and Matthew Mazzetta

Los Angeles, April 17 (CNA) As the COVID-19 pandemic shutters sporting events around the world, the English broadcasts of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) emerged this week as a lifeline to deprived fans, with the veteran American sports commentator Keith Olbermann among them.

On Friday, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) tweeted Eleven Sports Taiwan's English broadcast of the CPBL game between the Fubon Guardians and Rakuten Monkeys, saying that she welcomed "friends from all over the world" who were "staying up late or getting up early" to watch the game.

Addressing Olbermann — who tweeted his enthusiasm for the broadcasts on Thursday — she added, "I hope you're joining us live bright & early for today's game, I heard you're a Cornell alum a

s well, what a small world!"    [FULL  STORY]

Journalist semi-corrects himself by tweeting, 'It’s a Chinese baseball league in Taiwan'

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/13
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hailed as the world's first professional baseball game in 2020, Taiwan's league went ahead with its regular season and played its opening game in Taichung behind closed doors on Sunday (April 13).

Unfortunately, the game was mistaken by a baseball writer as having occurred in China, due to the misleading first word of the league's name: the "Chinese" Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

The season opener in Taiwan has attracted heavy international media attention, as all the world’s sporting events have come to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, of Tainan, beat the home team Chinatrust Brothers, 4-1, according to CBS Sports.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/16/2020
By: Flor Wang and Yang Chih-fang

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) The sixth game in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was watched by some 650,000 viewers around the world Wednesday, according to Eleven Sports, which broadcast the commentary in English.

Due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the game between the home team the Rakuten Monkeys and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions was played to empty stands at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium but was broadcast live on the Eleven Sports network and streamed live on Twitter.

According to the network, about 650,000 people tuned in to watch the CPBL game, which was the sixth in the only baseball season open anywhere in the world right now.

The first game of the CPBL season was played last Sunday, also to empty seats, at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium between the Lions and Taichung-based Chinatrust Brothers, after the first two scheduled games were postponed the previous day due to heavy rains.
[FULL  STORY]

MESSAGE OF HOPE: Richard Wang said in addition to highlighting Taiwan’s success in halting contagion, the broadcasts would show that the pandemic can be beat

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 16, 20208/
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwan’s baseball season, the only one scheduled anywhere in the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was from yesterday to include English-language broadcasts to showcase the nation’s baseball to a wider audience, broadcaster Eleven Sports said on Twitter.

The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Sunday held its first game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium after the first two games were postponed a week earlier due to bad weather, making it the first professional baseball league in the world to start this year.

However, the season — or at least the beginning of the season — is to be played without fans due to the nation’s social distancing regulations designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The English-language commentary, which is to be provided for Rakuten Monkeys home games, would be part of the broadcasts to come from the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium from yesterday to Sunday, said World Baseball Softball Confederation Asia correspondent Richard Wang, one of the commentators.    [FULL  STORY]

Mannequins and cardboard cutouts of fans wearing the home team's colours sat in seats where spectators normally watch the games.

Sky News
Date: 12 April 2020
By: Isobel Frodsham, news reporter

Taiwan launched its baseball season, with mannequins and cardboard cutouts of fans wearing face masks, after spectators were banned from attending games during the coronavirus pandemic.

While other nations have cancelled sporting events for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the country has decided to buck the trend and hold games.

Photographs from Taoyuan International baseball stadium, in Taoyuan city, showed the mannequins and cardboard cutouts sat in seats where spectators normally cheer from.

They were dressed in the colours and merchandise of the home team Rakuten Monkeys, as well as surgical masks.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/11/2020
By: William Yen

Taoyuan, April 11 (CNA) Heavy rain on Saturday caused the postponement of the highly anticipated opening game in Taiwan's baseball season, the only one scheduled anywhere in the world at this time amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the opening game was postponed, the season will commence Sunday with two games in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

Defending champions Rakuten Monkeys will play New Taipei-based Fubon Guardians, and the Taichung-based Chinatrust Brothers will come against the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of Tainan.

The game between the Brothers and the Monkeys has been pushed back to a later date, as the field at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium was rendered unplayable due to heavy rains, according to the CPBL.    [FULL  STORY]

Spectator-less season will kick off on Friday with Rakuten Monkeys playing Chinatrust Brothers

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/04/08
By:  Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s professional baseball league will become the first in the world to start its 2020 season as many countries have been forced to delay or cancel sports events due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The country’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is set to begin its new season on Friday (April 11), with ballparks closed to the public as a precaution against the coronavirus. Throughout the season, matches will only be attended by team members, league and stadium staff, cheerleaders, and journalists.

The opening game will take place in Taoyuan City on Friday evening, with the home team and last year’s champions, Rakuten Monkeys, competing against the Chinatrust Brothers. CPBL President John Wu (吳志揚) has called on baseball fans to stay home for the broadcast and refrain from gathering outside the baseball stadium to avoid potential exposures to the virus.

The league will also implement strict preventive measures at stadiums, training fields, and hotels that will receive baseball players following the advice of experts and the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), the CPBL said via a statement. It has also simplified game schedules to ensure that teams will travel less during the season, the statement said.   [FULL  STORY]

GLOBAL REACH: Taiwan Cricket said that up to five sides could play in a broadcast competition and that upgrading local infrastructure would be beneficial to a deal

Tipei Times
Date:  Apr 09, 2020
By: Grant Dexter / Staff reporter

Broadcasting companies are turning to Taiwan for cricket content amid the shutdown of the sport in India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Internet streaming platform based in Mumbai, India, yesterday contacted Taiwan Cricket asking for rights to stream games in Taipei to its cricket-starved audience, which it put at 75 million people.

Yesterday, another India-based live sports streaming platform was seeking a “Taiwan cricket partnership.”The firms were promising global reach through their platforms with live content for users.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/08/2020
By: Lung Po-an, Chen Chao-fu, Huang Chiao-wen and Kay Liu

Taipei, April 8 (CNA) The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 due to the new coronavirus pandemic has some of Taiwan's elite athletes hitting the reset button while others are wondering when they will get another chance to qualify for the rescheduled Games.

To Taiwan's top gymnast Lee Chih-kai (李智凱), the delay means basically returning to square one.

"It was just 100 plus days away. Now, it's more than 400 days," said Lee at the end of March following 14 days in self-isolation after returning to Taiwan from qualifying events overseas.

"All I can do is look on the bright side. At least I'm still young, and with the Olympics postponed for a year, I have the opportunity to continue to improve and strengthen and perfect new moves."
[FULL  STORY]