The La New Bears of Kaohsiung and Uni-President Lions of Tainan face off in the 2007 CPBL championship in a rematch of last year’s Taiwan Series beginning this week. The Bears enter the series on a roll, having won the second half championship. Led by former Dodgers OF Chen Jin Fong offensively (.382! / 26 HR / 66 RBI) and SP Gary Rath (12-5, 3.52), the Bears come into the series slight underdogs despite winning the title last year.

For the Lions, offensively 3B Tilson Brito (.313/ 33 /107) and 1B Kuo Ching Kao (.358 / 20/ 89) lead the charge, and former Houston Astro Pete Munro (14-7, 2.03) and Wei Lun Pan (16-2/ 2.26) shore up a formidable rotation.

Despite the fact that the majority of Uni-President Lions live in EWC co-founder Jackson Broder’s building in Yongkang, Tainan, this page is semi-secretly endorsing the Bears in the championship. And we promise this has nothing to do with the fact that Broder’s wife is best friends with La New Catcher Chen Fong Ming’s (.206?!?!) lovely bride, Tsai Tsai Miao, and Chen hooked us up with some autographed stuff and socks this year.