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04/19/2005 Archived Entry: "CPBLNews: Martinez's 100th win spoils Chen's retirement party"
CPBLNews: Martinez's 100th win spoils Chen's retirement party 2005-04-19 /Taiwan News, Contributing Writer / By Jason Pan
With first place up for grabs, the game between the home-side President Lions and the visiting Sinon Bulls in Tainan yesterday was a special night to remember for Dominican pitcher Osvaldo Martinez and star slugger Chen Cheng-hsien.
It was "Chen Cheng-hsien Day" in Tainan for the 16-year veteran of the President Lions with a retirement party held for "No. 37" prior to the start of the contest.
Chen has played in Taiwan 's Chinese Professional Baseball League, since its inception in 1990, and is one of very few men to have 100 home runs and over 1,000 hits in a distinguished career.
However, fireballer Osvaldo Martinez of the Sinon Bulls would spoil the party and the celebration mood for the President Lions by reaching the 100-win milestone with a 3-0 shutout over the homeside through 7-innings.
Into his 9th season in the CPBL - all with the Bulls - the 30-year old Martinez is now tied at the century-mark in career pitching victories with Hsieh Chang-hern, who was ironically on the losing side as the Lions' manager last night.
The Dominican right-hander is still going strong, and the league will mark his achievement with a special celebration when Martinez gets to 101 to become the CPBL all-time leading winning pitcher.
As for his next target, Martinez said, "I would like to get 200 wins and retire here in Taiwan,."
Sinon captain Huang "Brother Tung" Chung-yi hit an RBI-groundout in the 4th inning for the winning margin against American pitcher Douglas Linton.
The Lions' No. 37, Chen was nicknamed "The Terrorist" for his destructive home run power.
Ranking fifth in CPBL history in career homers with a total of 101, the Lions outfielder is best known for still holding the league record with 9 grand-slam homers. He also has the league's second-highest game appearance with 1,207 total.
In other action, the bottom-dwelling Brother Elephants edged the Chinatrust Whales 3-2 at Taipei County's Hsinchuang Stadium.Japanese rigth-hander Nakagomi Shin of the Elephants outduelled Whales starter Rafael Garcia to gain his first win of the season.
EarlierThursday, the Lions downed the Bulls 7-2 in the first game. Narimoto Toshinide got his second victory of the season on one earned run over 7 innings.Lions sophomore outfielder Liu Fu-hao got on base for all the four trips at the plate. Liu went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles, along with a walk in the 3rd inning, and scored 3 runs for the game-MVP performance.
In the other contest in Taipei County on Thursday, the Macoto Cobras and the La New Bears had to settle for a 9-9 draw. in the end.
