Taiwan Today

Two players with the Chinese Professional Baseball League outfit Brother Elephants made full confessions to prosecutors and named five other teammates for their alleged involvement in game-fixing Oct. 29. Pitchers Wang Chin-li and Wu Bau-hsien reportedly admitted to receiving cash to throw games and provided the names of five teammates to prosecutors who then called the players in for questioning later the same day. After the questioning sessions, the five players were listed as defendants in the case and released on bail ranging from between NT$50,000 (US$ 1,534) and NT$100,000. The Brother Elephants management decided the same day not to renew the contracts of two members of the team next year, namely former Major League pitcher Tsao Chin-hui and manager Shin Nakakomi. To date, 10 Elephants players have been listed as defendants in the game-fixing scandal, or more than one-third of the squad, prompting general manager Hung Ruei-ho to schedule a team meeting for Oct. 30 to discuss and clarify the organization’s future. The five Elephants players questioned Oct. 29 were pitcher Mai Chia-jui, catcher Kuo Yi-fong and outfielder Huang Jeng-wei, each later released on NT$80,000 bail, as well as pitcher Lee Hao-jen, who had to post bail of NT$100,000, and infielder Chu Hung-sheng, whose bail was set at NT$50,000. The players, along with Wang and Wu, have been suspended indefinitely without pay by the CPBL. The Banqiao District Court rejected earlier the same day a request by prosecutors to detain Wang and Wu because of concerns that they might collude with witnesses and other suspects in the case. The court decided to release them after deciding that there was no such risk and because they had already provided testimony and the names of other suspects in the case. The confessions were the first obtained by prosecutors from current professional pitchers in the game-fixing probe. Wu admitted that he received NT$200,000 from former Elephants pitcher Chuang Hung-liang to throw a game against the La New Bears at Kaohsiung’s Chengching Lake Stadium on Sept. 9, and that Huang had also received money. Meanwhile, Wang told prosecutors that Chuang approached him in March about throwing games for the price of NT$200,000 per contest and asked him to “find other teammates who wanted to make some extra cash.” According to Wang, Chuang gave him hundreds of thousands of NT dollars to distribute as gift money to teammates for the opportunity to meet them. Wang said he gave NT$50,000 each to Chu, Kuo, Mai and shortstop Liou Geng-shin. Later, Chuang approached Wang again to offer NT$200,000 to Liou to help him throw a game, but Liou refused. Both Wu and Wang recounted how certain methods were used, such as the setting off of fireworks or the holding up of a bull’s-eye poster by someone in the stands, to signal to the players to commit errors to try to influence the outcome of the game. (SB)