In a game that conjured up memories of Chinese Taipei’s surprising Olympic loss to China, The Tong Yi Uni-President Lions barely escaped defeat at the hands of China’s Tianjin Lions in the Asia series opening match, pulling out a 7-4 win behind a ninth inning comeback.
Outfielder Pan Wu-Hsiung’s three-run walk-off home run saved the day for the CPBL champions.
In the nightcap, The SK Wyverns defeated the NPB Champs Seibu Lions 4-3 behind strong relief pitching and a controversial home run call.
For detailed coverage, check out Taipei Times coverage cooked up by contributing writers Paul Huang and yours truly.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Shinsano // Nov 14, 2008 at 9:45 pm
SK is looking good to win this thing. They demolished China 15-0 today…I think the tie breaker is run diff, so go ahead and put SK in the final, even if they lose to Taiwan tomorrow.
I also give SK a runaway win for best cheerleaders. They aren’t bad, but pretty much win by default over the Teletubbies of the Uni Lions and the Seibu team, who do songs like Macho Macho Man.
2 Jackson // Nov 14, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Yeah, rub it in.
3 simon // Nov 14, 2008 at 10:40 pm
That first SK homerun was clearly foul when you see the replay, but chances are it’ll again be Japan v Korea in the finals as Seibu dispatched Uni-President in the battle of the Lions round 2 (thanks yet again to the great Kishi).
4 simon // Nov 14, 2008 at 10:41 pm
SK definitely wins with the fit cheerleaders (well, maybe except for the bowl cut girl, what’s up with that?) but they only brought along 4 of them, is that a cost cutting measure?
5 Jackson // Nov 15, 2008 at 12:42 am
One thing I can say watching this on TV is that the more I watch this, the more I’m sold that a pan-Asian league is the way to go. I’m gonna beat the drum on this one again. It’s depressing to look at 3/4 empty stands at good games knowing that if there was something real at stake the games would be sold out. If I weren’t involved in scouting/writing about baseball I certainly wouldn’t be paying much attention either–in the end its just an exhibition.
The bottom line being I shouldn’t be able to look at the TV monitor and pick Aaron and his boss out in the stands immediately upon turning the set on.
6 simon // Nov 15, 2008 at 2:38 am
I don’t know about the KBO or CPBL, but NPB gate receipts partly depend on the visiting team’s loyal fans to buy some tickets (and gate receipts are still a significant portion of the revenue stream). Even though travel between the 3 countries is relatively easy and cheap, there’s still a big mental barrier to doing this, unlike in European soccer where lots of fans regularly travel abroad with their team.
7 simon // Nov 15, 2008 at 2:39 am
But yeah, I enjoy international club level matches like this.
8 Jackson // Nov 15, 2008 at 3:11 am
That’s a good point. I still can’t stop thinking “damn, what if this all meant something”. A 7 game world series between the Wyverns and Seibu would be some great baseball.
9 Shinsano // Nov 15, 2008 at 8:55 am
I agree. A seven game series that was “important” would be something else. It’s still a little in the in between stage. I was impressed by the number of Uni Lions fans yesterday. They had a bigger crowd than SK did on Thursday. I suspect there will be more SK peeps on Sunday. That should be a fun game.
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