(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Professional baseball-season Taiwan opens in empty stadiums
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
While most sports events and competitions around the world are currently being postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus, the first game in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the professional baseball-league in Taiwan, was played on Sunday (April 13).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are travel restrictions in the country and testing have been done in the past past 100 days.
In that period, fewer than 400 confirmed cases and only six deaths have been reported.
Large gatherings have been scrapped.
Before the season started, the CPBL unveiled a temporary logo to remind everyone to wash their hands.
Games are being played in empty stadiums, but on Saturday, reigning champion Rakuten Monkeys unveiled carboard dummies who are seated in their stadium in Taoyuan City.
There also will be robotic mannequins making music in the stands.
Initially, the team was to open the season on Friday-evening against Chinatrust Brothers, but that game was cancelled due to rain.
On Saturday, the next game of Monkeys against Fubon Guardians also rained out.
The start of the season had been delayed for three weeks, as the original Opening Day was March 14.
The opening of the season was moved forward to make room for the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament that was scheduled for April 1-5.
However, that event was moved to June due to the coronavirus, but was cancelled after the Olympic Games were postponed to next year.
The stadium in Taichung was to be one of the playing sites during the Qualifier.
The CPBL announced on April 1 that the season was to open on April 11 with no spectators allowed until te pandemic is over.
CPBL Commissioner John Wu said that players as well as staff will be monitored.
Only team members, league and stadium staff, cheerleaders and media will be allowed into the stadium.
In the new compact schedule, the annual All Star Game will not be played this year.
The season of Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), the professional league is South Korea, might open on April 21.
Opening Day in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan is tentatively set for April 24.
The 31st season of the CPBL opened on Sunday with a game between Chinatrust Brothers and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions.
In Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, the first game needed eleven innings and took four hours and 32 minutes to complete.
Lions won 4-1 and Kai-Wen Zheng hit the first homerun of the season in the second inning.
The lone run of Brothers was a homerun by Zi-Xian Zhan in the fourth at bat.
Lions then scored three runs in the top of the eleventh inning.
...In 2013, the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium...
...was a playing site during the World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the game, thirteen pitchers were used, six by the home-playing Brothers, seven by the visiting Lions.
Two lefthanded foreign pitchers started.
American Ryan Feierabend started for Lions and threw 5 1/3 inning.
Cuban Ariel Miranda Gil was the starter for Brothers and threw five innings.
34-year old Feierabend pitched in the American Major League for Seattle Mariners (2006-2008, 25 games), then missed the 2009 season due to an elbow surgery.
He then pitched in 25 games at three levels (Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A) in 2010 and played in the minors for Philadelphia Phillies in 2011.
After initially having played in an Independent League in 2012, Feierabend was signed by Cincinnati Reds later in the year.
In January 2013, he then was signed by Texas Rangers for whom he pitched in the Majors briefly in 2014 (six games).
After having become a Free Agent, the lefthander pitched in South Korea for Nexen Heroes (2015-2016) and KT Wiz (2016-2018).
In February last year, Feierabend was signed by Toronto Blue Jays for whom he pitched in two Major League-games.
After the season, he again became a Free Agent, then signed with Lions in January of this year.
31-year old Miranda also pitched in the Major League.
The Cuban pitched for Baltimore Orioles in 2016 (one game), then was traded to Seattle Mariners for whom he pitched in 2016-2018 (43 games).
After being released by Seattle in July 2018, he was signed two weeks later by Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japanese Professional Baseball.
There, Miranda was a teammate of Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk and won the Championship-title in 2018 and 2019.
In November it was announced, that the team would not sign him for this season and a few days later, he became a Free Agent.
In January, the Cuban signed with Brothers.
(April 14)
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