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07/12/2003 Archived Entry: "Taiwan Baseball News: 2003 CPBL All-Star Game Preview"
Taiwan Baseball News: 2003 CPBL All-Star Game Preview
By Andrew Wong
Team Red vs. Team White
This week in the Chinese Professional Baseball League has been a relatively quiet one as only six games were scheduled because of the all-star game tonight at Taichung Stadium.
All-stars from the six ball clubs are split into two teams: Team Red (consisting of the Sinon Bulls, Brother Elephants and the Makoto Gida) will be managed by Elephants manager Yi-tseng Lin and Team White (China Trust Whales, President Lions and First Securities Agan) managed by Whales skipper Chung-chiou Lin.
The leading vote-getter was Elephants center fielder Chih-yuen Chen with 300,195 votes. He was named the captain for Team Red.
Lions superb leadoff man Kang-ling Huang, also a center fielder, will lead Team White. He garnered 258,905 votes. Needless to say, the Elephants and Leos have the most representatives at this year's all-star game (look at All-Star Roster, below).
In an interesting move, Elephants batting coach Kuang-hui Wang will play in his record-breaking 13th all-star game. He was named a starter in the first-ever mid-season classic back in 1990. Another "veteran" is the Lions catcher Chih-cheng Tseng, who is 44 years old. He came out of retirement to begin the season. Tseng coached the Leos from 1999-2000.
On the mound to start, it will be Bulls sophomore Chung-nan Tsai against Lions rookie Wei-luen Pan, who had an excellent start to the season (6-0-0) before dropping five straight decisions and now is 7-5-0.
Pre-game ceremonies include a show just for fans, a beer drinking contest, an anti-SARS auction (all proceeds go to charity), autograph sessions and, of course, the Homerun Derby. No doubt Bulls slugger Tai-shan Chang will participate in that one.
Taichung Mayor Chih-chang Hu will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at 6:35 p.m. (Taiwan time) to mark the start of the game.
All-Star Roster (in no particular order)
Team Red
CF: Chih-yuen Chen (Elephants)
DH: Kuang-hui Wang (Elephants)
C: Rei-chang Chen (Elephants)
1B: Fong-an Tsai (Elephants)
2B: Shun-shian Fong (Elephants)
SS: Rue-chang Chen (Elephants)
RF: Cheng-ming Pang (Elephants)
3B: Tai-shan Chang (Bulls)
LF: Jia-hao Chang (Bulls)
1B: Jia-hsian Hsieh (Gida)
OF: Cheng-han Wu (Gida)
SP: Chung-nan Tsai (Bulls)
Team White
C: Chih-cheng Tseng (Lions)
DH: Ming-ching Luo (Lions)
1B: Chuan-jia Wang (Lions)
3B: Jia-rong Wu (Lions)
CF: Kang-ling Huang (Lions)
2B: Yueh-liang Lin (Whales)
SS: Chang-ming Chen (Whales)
LF: Song-hsuen Yang (Whales)
RF: Kai-fa Chen (Agan)
SP: Wei-luen Pan (Lions)
CPBL NOTE: The Makoto Gida have added left-handed pitcher Jesus Pena to the 25-man roster, effectively removing Bobby Munoz. Pena is 180 cm tall, weighs 95 kg and also hits left. This is the Dominican native's first year in the CPBL and he will wear No. 9.
Thursday's Results
At Kaoshung Stadium: Sinon Bulls 8 First Securities Agan 2
At Taichung Stadium: Brother Elephants 4 Makoto Gida 0
Friday's Results
No games scheduled.
Today's Games
2003 All-Star Game: Team Red vs. Team White (Taichung Stadium, 6:35 p.m. Taiwan time)
Sunday's Games
No games scheduled.
Second-half 2003 Chinese Professional Baseball League standings
W L T GB Pct.
1. Brother Elephants 7 2 0 --- .778
2. Sinon Bulls 6 2 1 0.5 .750
2. President Lions 6 2 1 0.5 .750
4. First Securities Agan 3 6 2 4.0 0.333
5. Makoto Gida 2 7 1 5.0 .222
6. China Trust Whales 1 6 1 5.0 .143
Final First-Half 2003 Chinese Professional Baseball League standings
W L T GB Pct.
1. Sinon Bulls* 34 15 1 --- .694
2. China Trust Whales 26 19 5 6.0 .578
3. Brother Elephants 27 20 3 6.0 .574
4. President Lions 24 23 4 9.0 .511
5. Makoto Gida 21 27 2 12.5 .438
6. First Securities Agan 9 37 5 23.5 .196
*clinched first-half title
