One Taiwan newspaper said it all in a headline: "Are the Tainan Giants too good?" Some Little League baseball people in the United States replied in the affirmative. They had reason. The Tainan Giants has just wrapped up a third straight world championship for the Republic of China. What is more, they scored 57 runs while their pitchers were throwing three no-hitters. Local Little League officials in the United States mumbled about "little professionals" and complained that they couldn't maintain interest in a contest so dominated by the teams of one country.
The home folks said stuff and nonsense, that American or other any boys could do as well if they wished to work as hard in order to win. "Come and see for yourself," said Taiwan Little League officials. "We'll show yow how it's done and you can go home and do likewise." They welcomed a Little League inquiry and at the same time reiterated that the Republic of China enforces Little League playing season, training and eligibility rules to the letter.
Peter J. McGovern, the president of the Little League, was moved to warn the boys' baseball movement against any criticism of excellence. He called the Tainan Giants' victory phenomenal, hut noted that the Little League program was the "pride of the (Republic of China) nation from the top levels of government down to the lowest. If they erred, it was in the direction of excellence."
Taiwan newspapers pointed out that the Giants were only one of a dozen outstanding teams in Taiwan during the 1973 season. They won the island championship in a round-robin playoff at Taipei. Unlike U.S. teams, which are all-star aggregations from a single league, Taiwan Little League entries usually come from a single school. Winning teams stay together into junior high. Most of the members of this year's Senior League world champions came up from the Little League.
It was, in fact, Taiwan's overall baseball success that raised eyebrows and stirred criticism in the United States. Less than a week before the Tainan Giants' victory, the Hua Hsing Junior High School of Taipei had taken the Senior League title. This meant two Senior League crowns for the Republic of China in as many years. The Giants' Little League triumph was the fourth in five years. Taiwan entered Little League play in 1969, won the championship, and thereafter lost only in 1970. Coleridge said that "The faults of great authors are generally excellences carried to an excess," and the same thought could be applied to baseball.
Boys have been playing baseball in Taiwan for the better part of a century. The game was popular during Japanese times. Taiwan teams occasionally did better than passing well against more experienced opponents from the island empire. With Taiwan's retrocession to the Republic of China, competition was limited to the intraisland level. The Little League was not heard of until the end of the 1960s.
Japan won the Little League world championship in 1967 and 1968. In the latter year, the Japanese sent their strongest team to Taiwan for a series of goodwill games. Surprisingly, aborigine boys from Taitung on the remote east coast defeated the Japanese in two games. The Red Leaves had learned to play with sticks and stones, but they let no grass grow under their feet when they found themselves on a regulation diamond.
The Red Leaves' success lighted a fire of baseball enthusiasm. Taiwan joined the Little League movement in 1969. The Taichung Golden Dragons won the island championship, drubbed Japan in the Asian and Far East playoffs and went to Williamsport, Pa., to win the world crown in the Republic of China's first attempt. The Taiwan champions of 1970 had an attack of nerves in their first World Series game and lost to Nicaragua. Then came the three straight victories of 1971, 1972 and 1973. Meanwhile, at Gary, Ind., the Taiwan Senior League champions were winning a championship on their first try in 1972 and then repeating in 1973. At elementary and junior high school ages, the Taiwan boys were undisputed rulers of the roost.
This year's Far East playoffs were held in Seoul. The Tainan Giants did not expect any walkaway. They were up against strong teams from Japan and South Korea as well as entries from Guam, Hongkong and the Philippines. This was the biggest Asian field ever. The round-robin tournament was to decide who would win the trip to the United States and a shot at the world title.
The Giants' reputation had preceded them to Seoul. None of the other teams wished to be first on the list of probable victims. Hongkong, which was given no chance, finally volunteered and took a 23-1 drubbing. It wasn't a bad game after the first inning, but that first canto had been more than enough what with 19 Giant runs on 17 hits, including three homers. Cheng Pai-sheng knocked out two of the round-trippers. Hongkong got only three hits, but one of those was a consolation homer by Mark Seals in the sixth inning.
Tainan's toughest test was with Japan on the second day. Great pitching by Huang Ching-hui held the Japanese to a single hit while the boys from Taiwan were rapping out eight for a 4-0 victory. Outfielder Lien Ying-shao homered for two runs in the three-run second inning and another run was added in the third. Huang Chin-yung also had a homer. The Japanese coach S. Suzuki, announced his resignation after the game. In five Far Eastern playoffs dating from 1969, Japanese teams had failed to get a run off Taiwan pitching. Chinese teams scored 28 runs in the five games.
Another Giant landslide of runs hit hapless Guam in the third round. The score was 24 to o and the boys from the South Pacific were held to three hits. The Giants had 23 hits, including three home runs. Second baseman Cheng Pai-sheng belted a three-run homer in the third inning, Chen Chi-hsiung a two-run homer in the second and Tsai Jen-chia a three-run round-tripper in the fifth. Tainan scored in every inning: four in the first, four in the second, three in the third, four in the fourth, three in the fifth and six in the sixth. Cheng Ping-mou was on the mound.
The Philippines did a little better on the fourth day. Giant sluggers banged out only 17 runs. But the Filipino boys went both runless and hitless. Kuo Wen-li burned the ball across the plate in a scintillating pitching performance. That set the stage for the championship game with the Republic of Korea, which had defeated Guam 13 to 2, the Philippines 9 to 0, Japan 3 to 2 and Hongkong 13 to 1.
Twenty thousand turned out to see the game, which was carried live on television and radio throughout Taiwan. Little League President McGovern was on hand. The hopes of Korean fans for a tight game were dashed at the very outset. A roof of six runs fell in on the Koreans in the first inning. Tainan went on to score three in second, one in the third, another six in the fourth and three in the fifth for a 19-0 triumph. Huang Ching-hui pitched a one-hit game and helped his own cause by belting two home runs. Cheng Pai-sheng also got two homers and Wang Ching-chung had three. Kuo Wen-li and Tsai Han-wen had a circuit blow apiece. One of Wang's homers was a grand slammer; so was Kuo's.
The Giants returned home immediately after the regional playoffs and went to Tainan to resume training. Two weeks later they were off for Williamsport with a 12-man roster. They had been preceded by their reputation. American sports writers held them up as the "team to beat," and such predictions could not have been more accurate. The opposition did not shape up as insignificant, however. Eight teams made it to Williamsport - four from the United States and one each from the Far East, Europe, Canada and Mexico. All had won either 11 or 12 consecutive victories to enter the World Series. Little League competition involves some 2 million boys and more than 8,000 teams.
Tainan drew Bitburg U.S. Air Force, the European titleholder, in the first round. The three Taiwan television networks pooled their facilities and broadcast all Williamsport games live at 2 o'clock in the morning (because of the time difference), then repeated the casts the following afternoon. Firecrackers exploded throughout Taiwan at 4:10 a.m. after the first game. Huang Ching-hui fireballed his way past the American youngsters, striking out 16 of the 18 to face him and yielding no hits. Home runs by Huang, Wang Ching-chung, Lien Ying-shao and Kuo Wen-li provided the skeleton of an 18-0 win. The Giants got 13 hits as they scored six in the first, five in the second, three in the third, two in the fourth and two in the sixth. To keep the score down, Coach Yang Chia-pao had his charges bunting in the last two innings. The four homers equaled a World Series mark set by Monterrey, Mexico, the 1958 winners. Tainan was errorless; Bitburg had six miscues.
Kuo Wen-li pitched another no-hitter in the Giants' second game against Tampa, Fla., the U.S. South champions. He struck out 15 and walked two. Meanwhile, another home run barrage was smothering the Tampa hurlers under a 27-0 deluge. Thirteen of the runs came across in the sixth and last inning. There were five homers to break the record that had been tied in the Giants' first outing: two by Cheng Pai-sheng and one each by Kuo Wen-li, Wang Ching-chung and Huang Ching-hui. Cheng had five hits in six at bats to smash another record. The 27 runs broke the old World Series mark of 22.
The crowd for the championship encounter numbered 32,000, including a big contingent of Chinese from the U.S. east coast and a rooting section from Taiwan. Tainan's opponent was the U.S. West team from Tucson, Arizona, and for three innings it was a dazzling pitching duel. Mike Fimbers, a lefthander, was on the mound for Tucson. His fast-dropping curve had the Giants guessing and whiffing for the first time since the start of the Little League season. Fastballer Huang Ching-hui was back on the mound for Tainan and in the end fashioned another no-hitter, his second of the series. He gave up a walk in the first and another Tucson batter reached first in the fourth on an error. That was all.
Still, the game might have been close instead of a 12-0 rout. The score did not reflect the whole reality. Fimbers yielded a home run in the fourth. But the Giants' three-run outburst was really put together from an error, a single, a wild pitch and two passed balls. Fimbers suffered an attack of asthma in the fifth and had to give way to Mike Martinez, who gave up nine runs the rest of the way.
Second baseman Cheng Pai-sheng led the Giant attack with a homer, double and two singles for a 4-4 performance. Pitcher Huang, who struck out 15, also homered, as did outfielder Kuo Wen-li. The Giants' 12 home runs for the series was one of their six batting marks. Their total of 57 runs was 23 more than the former record set in 1962. Even so, Fimbers' performance demonstrated that the Giants were not superhuman. With better fielding and. without the handicap of illness, he could have made the game a cliffhanger. He showed that the Giants could be stopped by good pitching. They had, in fact, been defeated twice by the Flying Lions of Kaohsiung in Taiwan play.
The final game was televised in Taiwan in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning. City streets were deserted as the sun rose; every0ne was sleeping. Millions of Little League fans had watched, set off their firecrackers and then gone to bed. Giants read their congratulatory cables from Premier Chiang Ching-kuo and other leaders, then set off for a brief tour of the United States. One stop was the White House, where Mrs. Julie Eisenhower, President Nixon's younger daughter, received them. In New York, they went to Shea Stadium for a game between the Mets and San Diego Padres. They visited Japan for two days on their way home, then reached Taipei the morning of August 5 for a rousing welcome, a parade through town and a gala victory party before television cameras in the evening.
Defense of the Republic of China's Senior League title was undertaken by the Hua Hsing Junior Middle School of Taipei, a team with a big contingent of former Little League champions. Hua Hsing had no easy time reaching the Far East playoffs. Their final opponent was Mei Ho of Pingtung, which won the world championship last year. The score was 1 to 0. Their only Far East opponent, Guam, turned out to be less of a problem. In a 2-out-of-3 series, Hua Hsing won the opener 18 to 0 and the clincher 11 to 0.
Ten teams participated in the Senior League World Series at Gary, Ind.: U.S. East, West, South and North plus Gary, Puerto Rico, Latin America, Europe, Canada and Hua Hsing as the Far East representative. The tournament was organized on the double-elimination basis for boys aged 13, 14 and 15.
Hua Hsing's biggest handicap was expected to be lack of experience under the lights. In Taiwan, baseball is played in the afternoon. Except for a Taipei softball field used by American teams, there are no floodlighted diamonds. The Taipei boys spent several days in San Francisco practicing under the lights. Accompanied by their principal, Miss Chiang Hsueh-chu, they then went on to Chicago and Gary. Chinese residents of the Midwest and a drum and bugle corps were at O'Hare airport to greet them.
Gary was the first opponent and fell by 16 to I under the slashing attack of Hua Hsing batsmen. Lefthander Li Tsung-yuan fired a one-hitter and struck out 16 in the seven-inning game, just one short of the record. The boys from Taipei scored two in the second, six in the third, one in the fifth and seven in the seventh. Gary used three hurlers but was unable to stem the attack, which included two homers, a triple and five doubles among the 16 hits.
Righthander Su Feng-yuan chalked up another one-hitter against the U.S. East team from Ox on Hill, Md., in Hua Hsing's second outing. The score was 3 to 0. That brought Taipei up against Windsor, Ontario, the Canadian champions, who were also unbeaten. This turned out to be a pitching duel and the best game of the series. Huang Chih-hsiung mowed the Canadians down with a no-hit performance while Steve Zack was holding Hua Hsing to three hits. The contest was called after six innings because of a curfew. The only run came in the third inning. Li Wen-jui led off with a single and raced home on a misjudged flyball double by left fielder Tung Kou-hua. Huang struck out four and walked two. Zack fanned five.
Li Tsung-yuan came back for the fourth game and struck out 17 while allowing Brenham, Texas, only three hits for an 11-0 triumph that put Hua Hsing in the championship round. Li's strikeout performance tied the record set by John Tagliarino of West Tampa, Fla., in 1970. Taipei got four runs in the first, three in the fourth and four in the sixth. The initial scoring was put together from three singles and a three-base error. Hou Te-cheng banged out a two-run double in the fourth. A walk and four singles produced the four runs in the sixth.
Pitching had dominated Hua Hsing's performance. It was more outstanding hurling that won the title game over Oxon Hill, Md., 4 to 0. Su Feng-yuan threw a no-hitter at the Maryland team to follow his one-hit feat against the same team earlier in the week. He struck out 11 and walked only one. Maryland's only other base runner got there on an error. Su opened Hua Hsing scoring in the fourth with a single to bring home two. The other runs came on sixth-inning singles by Shu Yung-chin and Li Wen-jui. Cornell Banks was the losing pitcher.
One of those sending cables of congratulations was Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the First Lady, who established the Hua Hsing Junior Middle School. The senior boys returned to a welcome virtually identical to that given the Little Leaguers a few days later. The close contest with Ontario was ample proof that Hua Hsing could make no claim to invincibility.
Press, baseball officials and government and civic leaders were unanimous in their approbation for players of both the Tainan Giants and Hua Hsing. At the same time, only a few voices were raised in protest against American hints of possible irregularities. All of those concerned said that Little League investigation would be welcomed and that all records were open to inspection.
There were some suggestions of de-emphasis, although the boys who play baseball might have difficulty understanding. One paper's commentary said:
"Suggestions that the Little League should bar the Republic of China because of its three straight world championships are nonsense. Such sour grapes are from Little League district officials and workers of the United States and will not be accepted by the directors.
"However, the bitterness and unfriendliness toward Taiwan teams to be found in the grass roots of America shouldn't be ignored. Those who are complaining give generously of their time and energy to the Little League movement. Now they are having trouble raising money to support local teams. Boys and their parents ask why they should try for a world title which Taiwan is sure to win.
"Some of our own officials and observers have suggested that the Americans come here to see how we do it, then go home to build up their own teams. This is unrealistic. A game for boys of 11 and 12 years is not that important in the United States. It is not going to be, even if we go on winning the Little League for a hundred years.
"What we can expect is a tightening of the rules about training, length of season and eligibility - and a microscopic scrutinizing of our observance of the regulations. If we make one false step, we shall be hauled on the carpet and drummed out of the Little League movement.
"Given the enthusiasm of our teams and the importance of winning the island championship, infractions of the practice rules are not unlikely. Who can blame a boy for wanting to play baseball 24 hours a day?
"For us, some de-emphasis of boys' baseball at both Little League and Senior League levels would be the better part of sports valor. Otherwise we shall be insisting that everyone is out of step but us. In time we could be given the dubious privilege of playing alone.
"We might begin watering down boys' baseball by doing more to raise the level of adult play. Japan shellacked our amateur team at Bologna by a score of 10 to 1. That is a far cry from the performance of our boys' teams in the United States.
"Taiwan grown-up teams should get better as time goes by. We have concentrated on the Little League for only four years and on the Senior League for two. However, without support, the boys who are such great players today may be mediocre in their 20s. It all depends on whether they have the chance to practice daily and play often.
"The team competing in Italy does not compare with the Little Leaguers because it has had neither the time nor the opportunity to be better."
If baseball success continues to pyramid, who knows? A truly worldwide series of professional baseball might some day be possible with teams from the United States, Japan, the Republic of China and possibly other countries competing for the championship.