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Baseball is a major sport in Taiwan that is often characterized as the national sport (Chinese: 國球). It was introduced during the Japanese rule era around 1897 and gained popularity over time, culminating in some successes of Taiwanese teams in the Japanese system. The sport remained popular following the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan despite the Kuomintang (KMT) government's deliberate policy of removing cultural links to Japan.
In the shifting international environment that eventually led to the ROC's departure from the United Nations, the KMT government hijacked baseball as a tool for nation-building, pouring massive resources into the sport in the hopes of forging a stronger national identity.
The highest level of baseball in Taiwan is the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) founded in 1989.
Introduction and early years
Baseball was introduced to Taiwan around 1897, but it initially remained a game for Japanese bureaucrats and bankers in the colonial seat of Taihoku (modern-day Taipei).[1] The first official baseball team in Taiwan was formed in 1904, when the island was a Japanese colony, by the Middle School of the Taiwan Governor-General's National Language School (present-day Chien Kuo Senior High School). The first organized baseball game was played between this team and the team of the Normal School of the Taiwan Governor-General's National Language School (present-day Taipei Municipal University of Education) in March 1906.
From 1906 through the mid-1920s, Taiwanese baseball teams consisted mainly of Japanese players. Taiwanese did not become actively involved in the sport until the mid-1920s. Around 1921, the first team made up of indigenous Taiwanese peoples was established in eastern Taiwan, and it was reorganized into the Noko (Chinese: 能高; also known as Nenggao) team. As part of the reorganization, Japanese officials offered players on the team the opportunity to attend the Hualien Agricultural School.[2]
That the Noko team consisted completely of indigenous Taiwanese, rather than Japanese or Han Taiwanese players, was a milestone in racial integration, albeit often noted through a colonial lens. Nonetheless, the success and popularity of the team laid the foundation for the further development of baseball in southern Taiwan, notably Takao First Public School in present-day Qijin, Kaohsiung, and Mawuku Public School in present-day Taitung County.[3]
Colonial participation
By 1931, high school baseball had become very popular in Taiwan, even though of all players dating back to 1923 in the Islandwide High School Baseball Tournaments, only 5.2% were ethnic Taiwanese.[4] The baseball team of Kagi Agriculture and Forestry Institute, hailing from southern Taiwan, played its way into the final of that year’s Summer Koshien tournament. The team arrived as one of 22 district representatives out of a total of 631 team across the empire.[5] Historians have noted the significance of the "tri-ethnic" Kano squad, consisting of Japanese, Han Taiwanese, and indigenous Taiwanese students.[6][7]
Professional baseball in Taiwan started with the founding of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 1989. At its 1997 peak, Taiwan had two leagues and 11 professional teams. The competing Taiwan Major League ran from 1997 until its absorption by the CPBL in 2003.
The professional game has had several game-fixing scandals which had led to sharp declines in game attendance. However, as of 2016 baseball in Taiwan had begun to see a renewed interest in the sport in spite of this setback due to major cheating scandals.[8]
Chinese Professional Baseball League
The Chinese Professional Baseball League was founded in 1989 with four teams and grew to seven. As of 2009, however, there were just four teams competing for the championship of the Taiwan Series.
Since 2005, the winner of the Taiwan Series represents Taiwan in the Asia Series, competing with the championship teams of Japan and South Korea, and with China's professional leagues.
Taiwan Major League
The Taiwan Major League was founded in 1997 by the chairman of TVBS, a popular cable TV channel company, after it lost the nine-year (1997 to 2006) broadcasting rights for CPBL games to Videoland Television Network. TVBS had held the broadcasting rights from 1993 to 1996.
The TML was meant to compete with the CPBL, but after 6 years of financial losses, it merged with the CPBL in 2003.
Teams from Taiwan dominated Little League World Series in the 1970s and 1980s.
Taiwan's dominance in international baseball was demonstrated when the men's team won top three medals across all levels of baseball in 2022, including the U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23, and Baseball5 competitions, the only team to do so in baseball history.[9] Taiwan's men's baseball team and women's baseball team are world No.2 in the WBSC Rankings as of December 2021.
Taiwan has produced great baseball talent, but its best players usually leave for the higher salaries offered by professional teams in Japan, the United States or Canada. In the 1980s, Taiwanese pitchers Tai-Yuan Kuo and Katsuo Soh (莊勝雄) posted impressive numbers at the Seibu Lions and Chiba Lotte Marines, in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Young stars, such as outfielder Chin-Feng Chen and pitchers Chien-Ming Wang, Chin-Hui Tsao, and Hong-Chih Kuo, became the first group of Taiwanese players to play for teams in North American Major League Baseball.
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