Lefty Ni Fu-Te put on a clinic of left-handed relief work Wednesday night in Beijing, picking up the win by tossing 5 strong shutout innings with six K’s.  Outfielder Lin Che-Hsuan broke out of his slump, going  3-for-5 with 2 RBI and a HR as Taiwan took advantage of the glorious Olympic extra inning rule, […]

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The U.S. beat Chinese Taipei 4-2 today as Taiwan’s disastrous Olympic campaign continued. Taiwan fell to 1-5 in Beijing, with increasingly angry and fed-up Taiwanese fans clamoring for answers.
U.S. Starter Brandon Knight picked up the win on 6 1/3 strong innings, and power /speed combo lefty outfielder Dexter Fowler drove in the games go-ahead […]

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Today, the Taiwanese national team breezed past the mighty Netherlands squad 5-0 in their opening Olmpic salvo (Way to save one of your better starters for the big games, by the way).   With questionable pitching depth on the national team roster, one question begs to be answered:
Why is Cubs pitcher Chen Hung-Wen– who was just […]

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Just got back from scouting the latest Chinese Taipei/Brother Elephants matchup in Taichung. The Elephants beat the Olympic squad 7-6. Or something. It was an exciting 6-6 game going into the 10th, dramatic comebacks, great plays at the plate. Until the extra frames.
I could tell you about the fun atmosphere, lively crowds. […]

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It seems like rumors of the CPBL’s demise have become as predictable as Nick Markakis’ second-half surges, but things have gone from bad to worse for Taiwan’s professional league in recent weeks. Just a few days after the Brother Elephants–Taiwan’s most popular professional team–threatened to fold at the end of the 2007 season, new […]

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Without a doubt, the biggest story of the season in the CPBL to date is Tong Yi-Lions pitcher Pan Hui-Lun’s recent no-hitter and near perfect game. Congratulations again to Pan. In the mean Time, the La New Bears have been the team to beat in the second half. To the rankings […]

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The Detroit Tigers’ first Taiwan signing is left-handed hitting outfielder Tang Chao-Ting. The 20-year old Tang Stands at 5′11 and weighs 176 pounds, and has joined the GCL Tigers’ rookie league squad. Tang marks the first MLB signing by first-year Taiwan-based area scout Allen Lin. The Director of International Scouting for the […]

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Tong-Yi Lions staff ace Pan Hui-Lun threw a no-hitter Thursday night in rainy Tainan Stadium, leading the Lions to a 7-0 victory against the punchless Chinatrust Whales. His game marked only the 6th no-no in CPBL history.
Pan, who has won 14 consecutive games in Tainan stadium, narrowly missed a perfect game, his only […]

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It’s official: Taiwan’s storied Nan-Ying High School’s staff anchor, 5′11 Right-hander Huang Wei-Sheung, is headed for the Atlanta Braves.  The move, which area baseball afficionados had been anticipating for quite some time, nets $120,000 for Huang and gets the Braves a battle-tested if not unspectacular arm. Huang, who has hit 89 but sits on 85-87 […]

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Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997 Gary Burnham spent 10 years playing for four major league organizations. He’s the all time HR leader of the Reading Phillies (AA) and was voted team MVP three times (AAA - 02,07/Reading - 06). Prior to the 2008 season he signed with the La New Bears of the CPBL.  
EWC: So how’s your […]

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Is it a Jackson Pollack painting?
No, it’s behind home plate of Chiayi County Stadium, one of the sites of the very wet Yu-Shan Cup high school tournament going on in the past week in Chiayi, Douliou, and Taichung. Taiwan’s major baseball schools have been meeting, and eager parents, scouts, and teams are looking […]

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Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997 Gary Burnham spent 10 years playing for four major league organizations. He’s the all time HR leader of the Reading Phillies (AA) and was voted team MVP three times (AAA - 02,07/Reading - 06). Prior to the 2008 season he signed with the La New Bears of the CPBL. He’s off to […]

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Ed. Note: The following article first appeared in The Taipei Times Saturday, May 25th.
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In 2002, former LA Dodgers and current La New Bears star Chen Chin-feng (陳金鋒) became the first Taiwanese baseball player to don a Major League uniform. Shortly thereafter, the first four Taiwanese players signed to MLB contracts— including Chen, Yankees starter […]

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I do apologize to our readers for not yet following up on the epic saga of trying to get English language rosters from the CPBL administrators as promised. I will resume our tragi-comic mission this week. I know I shouldn’t bother the English-language liasion with petty requests like asking him to do his job when […]

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As if massive excitement from the baseball community as it awaits EWC’s 3rd installment of CPBL power rankings weren’t enough, to add to this week’s fun my quixotic quest to ascertain an English name list of CPBL players continues into it’s 3rd straight week. I actually sat down and translated the names myself over the […]

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1. Tong-Yi Lions (17-7-0): The Tong Yi-Lions remain the team to beat in the CPBL so far this season, leading the La New Bears by 2 1/2 games with a 17-7-0 record. Starting pitcher Pan Wei-Lun (3-0, 0.50 E.R.A) and former Anaheim Angels/Cleveland Indians starter Lou Pote (3-0, 2.60) lead the Lions pitching […]

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With only 6 teams and a league whose most intriguing moment thus far has been La New SS’s Lin Chi-Shen’s forearm clocking of an umpire, it seems a bit inane to do power rankings for the CPBL.  However, in the name of one day moving towards the glorious Pan-Asian majors we begin our weekly updates. 
 1. […]

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I’ve been watching baseball for about 32 years now, and I’ve never seen anything like this: La New Bears SS Lin Zhi-Shen completely losing his mind after a close play at first in this Friday night’s 5-5 tie with the Brother Elephants, charging the first base umpire at full speed from the dugout for about […]

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The New York Yankees, never ones to miss a chance to present themselves as devoid of human feeling in their baseball operations, have reached a new low in recent days by entering a potentially damaging arbitration process with Pitcher Wang Chien-Ming. The team wants to pay Wang four million next season while Wang […]

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Kim Dong-ju of the Korean Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears finally signed a new deal yesterday.
Kim had previously turned down a four-year, 5 billion won ($5.3 million) deal from the Korean Series runner-up, instead accepting a one-year, 900 million won deal with the hopes of playing in Japan or the United States after the 2008 season. […]

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