The Baseball Craze in Taiwan

--By Rebekah Godfrey Translated by Liu Fang Ru

I had only been in Taiwan a couple of weeks when I visited Tianmu, the part of Taipei that comes highly recommended for foreigners who need an occasional Western indulgence. As I wandered past the Mitsukoshi Department Store that night, I heard cheering, loud pep music and the beating of drums. The cacophony of noise was coming from the Tianmu baseball stadium, which appeared ready to burst at the seams with all the excitement! It was playoff time, and two teams were battling it out in what appeared to be an intense game. I wandered into an adjacent park to get a better view when I saw a most unusual sight: fans without tickets had climbed trees and poles to watch the game. One skinny tree was packed with several men, all of them waving their arms and yelling into plastic megaphones. I scrambled up a wall to get a peek into the stadium myself and was riveted by the sight of thousands of people cheering with synchronized gusto, waving flags and pennants. I realized that professional baseball in Taiwan has a devoted following of many wild and crazy fans.

The History
Baseball has a long history in Taiwan. The Japanese administrators introduced the game to the Taiwanese in the late 19th century, but the sport was played almost exclusively by the Japanese until the 1920s. In 1930, the Taiwanese locals beat their colonial masters in a landmark tournament, and the baseball craze began.

The game surged in popularity in the 1960s, as the Taiwan Little League team won the first of its 17 world titles. In 1989, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was formed, and the inaugural game was held on March 17, 1990. Two years later, Taiwan's national team won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics.

Baseball fever peaked in 1996, when more than 1.3 million fans poured into ballparks around the island and television ratings went through the roof. Baseball became a new venue for people to spend their leisure time and money, and certain matchups succeeded in drawing standing-room-only capacity crowds.

In 1997, a game-fixing scandal erupted, which disappointed fans and caused attendance at games to plummet. During this time, players were kidnapped and threatened, three teams folded, and the future of Taiwanese baseball was in doubt. In 2005, there was another gambling-related scandal involving foreign players in the league, and an investigation is still on-going. Even with these blemishes on the young professional league, many fans have remained loyal and optimistic that baseball will have a bright future in Taiwan.

The Teams
Currently, there are six CPBL teams that are owned by and named for large Taiwanese companies. Each team has a home city, but all of the teams travel around the island to play about 50 games per season. The Taipei teams include the Brother Elephants, the Chinatrust Whales, and the Macoto Cobras. Kaohsiung is the home city for the La New Bears, Taichung is home to the Sinon Bulls, and Tainan's team is the Uni-President Lions. Besides these home cities, games are also played in Hsinchu, Douliou, Chiayi, Pingtung, Luodong, Hualien, and Taitung. Each team plays about two to three times a week and then takes a week off, depending on the schedule. The Brother Elephants have won more titles than any other team in the league, and the team enjoys a large amount of fan support throughout the island. But the La New Bears also have a strong fan base, partly due to the return of Chen Ching-Feng, the first Taiwanese player to play on a MLB team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's still too soon to predict a champion for 2006, but the Sinon Bulls, who have won two consecutive championships, will try for a third one. Their team boasts Osvaldo Martinz of the Dominican Republic, the winningest pitcher in league history.

The Games
With playoffs starting in September, now is a great time to go to a baseball game. Tickets are cheap, compared to American prices. Adult tickets are NT$300; student tickets are NT$200. Stadiums usually have a capacity of around 5,000 to 10,000, but the crowds are often under 3,000, allowing you to sit almost anywhere. Most of the time you can buy your ticket at the door, but opening games and playoff games are usually sold out; so get your tickets early if you plan to attend a big game. You can catch an All-Star game on July 22; see the CPBL website (listed below) for more information.

If you've been to an MLB game in America, you'll notice a definite lack of entertainment at a CPBL game. The only music comes from a pep band, which tends to play the popeye theme song over and over again. There isn't a seventh-inning stretch or stadium sing-a-longs, and the large TV monitor doesn't show instant replays or crowd shots. The announcers are strangely quiet; most of the noise comes from the fans, who are led in group cheers by a guy with a microphone. Another stark difference is that the fans of the team at bat feel compelled to maintain constant noise to encourage the batter, while in the U.S. they try not to distract the batter.

The biggest difference, however, is the food. Don't expect to eat a lot of American-style snacks here. You'll probably find hot dogs, but they're nothing to write home about. Instead of peanuts and Cracker Jacks, you'll find the ubiquitous Chinese lunchbox, bags of chicken feet, squid balls and fried chicken. For the health-conscious, fruit and tofu are also sold. If you really want Western food, you can try the french fries or corn dogs. Taiwan Beer is sold, but it's kept in the fridge and isn't displayed on the counter, which helps keep the atmosphere family-friendly. In fact, I didn't see a single Taiwanese drinking beer during the game -- but I did see a foreigner knock back a few cans.

Although the food is simple, it's very cheap! All of the snacks I saw were less than NT$50 and lunchboxes were only $70! Now, if that's not a deal, I don't know what is! Whereas American baseball stadiums might charge you US$5 for a hotdog, you only have to shell out NT$20 here. Team paraphernalia is also sold in the stadium at reasonable prices. The most popular items seem to be a set of plastic bats that fans like to beat together when cheering for their team. You can also purchase T-shirts, hats, keychains, pennants other standard souvenirs.

If you can read Chinese, the CPBL website is a wealth of information. You can find online schedules, team rankings, player statistics, message boards, special events, online polls and so forth. If you can't read Chinese, then your best bet is to pick up a schedule at a ballpark and just go to a game to experience the hoopla firsthand. And, while you're there, you can sing:
Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some squid balls and chicken feet,
I don't care if that drum you do beat,
For it's root, root, root for the Bulls,
If they don't win, it's a shame!
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
In Taiwan's ball game!
For more information:
http://www.cpbl.com.tw/ (The Chinese Professional Baseball League website; Chinese only)