Taiwan Today

This little League baseball team from a school with only 66 boys in six grades won the Taiwan championship twice and vanquished the leading team of Japan. 'Magic Hand' pitched one shutout in which none of the Kansai players got to second base

Red leaves mean autumn in much of the world ... deciduous woods swirling in a riot of color ... crispness in the air. But to Taiwan, Red Leaves are spring and the baseball season. The Hung Yeh (Red Leaves) boys' team from a village near Taitung on the remote east coast is the most exciting thing that ever happened to free Chinese baseball.

For the last couple of years, the island's baseball fans had agreed that the Red Leaves were good. At least they had to be as good as Taiwan has to offer. They won the Taiwan Little League championship in 1966, finished second in 1967 (because their star pitcher had a sore arm) and won again in 1968.

But even their most ardent partisans thought of the Red Leaves in sandlot terms. Send the Hung Yeh against world champions and they wouldn't have any more chance than a neighborhood nine against the Yomiuri Giants or the St. Louis Cardinals. Who could expect a baseball team from an aborigine village school with 66 pupils to make any kind of a showing in the big time?

So when the Japanese Kansai Little League champions came to Taiwan for a series of games, fans went to the ballpark to cheer for the home team - and watch the slaughter. The visitors were not only Japanese champions; they also had decisively beaten the Japanese team that won the 1968 world title in the United States. Nobody thought the Red Leaves had a chance - except the Red Leaves, of course.

Not only did the Red Leaves humble the world champions but they did it twice and then a third time as the nucleus of an all-star team. Taipei went baseball crazy after Hung Yeh's initial 7-to-0 victory over the Japanese boys. Playgrounds throughout Taiwan erupted with bat-swinging youngsters who had suddenly discovered the fun and excitement of baseball as a result of the Red Leaves' performance. Baseball fever still grips the island and probably will lead to a vast expansion of Taiwan Little League competition as well as an Asian championship series bringing together teams from Australia, China, Hongkong, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.

Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, baseball was one of the most popular sports of Taiwan, which was then under Japan's rule. There were baseball teams at every boys' secondary school and at most primary schools. The winning team in the annual all-island secondary school competition was sent to Koshien near Osaka to compete for the national championship. Kagi Agricultural and Forestry School (now Chiayi Agricultural College) in central Taiwan was the runner-up in the 17th championship series in 1931. Banks, businesses and factories sponsored baseball teams.

Baseball was discouraged during the Pacific War because Japanese military authorities considered the game "too Yankee". Substitute emphasis was placed on such sports of Japanese origin as judo, kendo (fencing) and sumo (wrestling).

After V-J Day and until recently, primary and secondary school students had scant leisure for sports. They were preoccupied with preparations for the keen competition of entrance examinations for the next level of schooling. Baseball teams were found in a few secondary schools and a few score primary schools. In business circles, only the Cooperative Bank has consistently fielded a team. One of the bank's directors, Hsieh Kuo-cheng, is chairman of the Taiwan Baseball Association.

The Kansai Little League team arrived in Taipei from Japan August 23 at the invitation of Hsieh. This was the first Japanese Little League nine to come to Taiwan since the war. Members were selected from among the best players in the Kansai area (Osaka and Kyoto). The all-star group had a month of training at Osaka and defeated eight other teams. Among them was the Kanto (Tokyo) League champions who had won the 22nd Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on August 24. Kansai defeated Kanto by a score of 15 to 3.

The Sino-Japanese series opened at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium August 24 with the Tsui Yang (Hanging Willow) team challenging the visitors. Tsui Yang is from Chiayi, the cradle of Taiwan baseball, and was the runner-up in the 20th Taiwan playoff last May. The Japanese won the seven-inning game by a score of 1 to 0.

In the second game on the following day, the Red Leaves blanked the Japanese by 7 to 0. The third game pitted China's all-stars (seven of them from Hung Yeh) against the Japanese. China won by a score of 5 to 1.

On August 28, Hung Yeh and the Kansai team moved to Hsinchu, 40 miles southwest of Taipei, for the fourth contest. Hung Yeh won again by 5 to 2.

The next day, the two teams went farther south to Chiayi to meet all-star clubs of that county. Hung Yeh was challenged by the Tigers and Kansai by the Dragons. Hung Yeh lost by 1 to 0, its first defeat in 37 games played since March of this year. Kansai won over the Dragons by a count of 5 to 3.

Hung Yeh attracted the attention of local baseball circles last April when Hu Hsueh-li, principal of the school, said the team was compelled to withdraw from the 20th annual Little League championships because of lack of funds to pay traveling expenses to Taipei. The Wang Tzu (Prince) juvenile magazine of Taipei offered assistance. On May 12, three days before the series, the Hung Yeh team was taken to Taipei by a Wang Tzu bus.

In five games that began May 15, Hung Yeh trounced all of its opponents, including two teams from other towns in Taitung county. After the championship series, the chairman of the Taiwan Baseball Association asked Japanese baseball circles to send a team to Taiwan for friendly games.

The Hung Yeh team is from an aborigine village of the same name 12 miles northwest of Taitung city. The village is 600 meters above sea level and was a hot springs resort in prewar days. The Hung Yeh name is deserved. The village is dotted with maple trees and becomes a sea of "red leaves" every fall.

Hung Yeh village has a population of 530 in 86 families of the Bunun tribe. The island has only about 20,000 Bununs scattered among 60 villages in Nantou, Kaohsiung, Hualien and Taitung counties.

Hung Yeh Primary School is small. Enrollment at the end of 1967-68 school year was 114 - 66 boys and 48 girls. Members of the Red Leaves were selected from among the 16 boys of the 5th and 6th grades.

Baseball was introduced to Hung Yeh pupils in 1962. Principal Chien Chiao-tung found that many students were playing hookey. Mountain children prefer outdoor activities to the classroom. To encourage academic study, the principal bought baseball equipment to be used before and after school hours. The coach was Ku Yi, a retired policeman and amateur ball player. In 1963, the Hung Yeh team won the championship of Taitung county.

Lin Chu-peng succeeded Chien Chiao-tung as principal that September. He, too, was a baseball fan. When Ku Li left the village in 1964, a teacher, Chiu Ching-cheng, who had played for the Taitung Normal School baseball team, took over the coaching.

In the beginning, the Hung Yeh boys were interested in baseball. But as time went on, the number of players became fewer. Boys couldn't stay after school because their parents complained they were neglecting work in the fields. The school thereupon promised to help families that were short of labor on Sundays and during busy seasons.

The school also had a money problem. The funds available for sports totaled NT$300 (US$7.50) a month, far from sufficient for the equipment the students needed. A local-made ball costs NT$10 (US25 cents). If the players bashed up or lost 20 balls a month, they were compelled to stop practicing. So the 1st and 2nd graders played barehanded with bamboo sticks and stones. The 3rd and 4th graders had gloves, bats and balls. Those who stood out were recruited as reserves for the team of 5th and 6th graders.

While practicing, players had to control their strength. The playground was only 210 feet long by 120 feet wide. When a batter hit a home run or a fielder muffed a fly, the ball was likely to disappear over a bluff or into a haystack. On such occasions the players, reserves and spectators were mobilized to find the ball.

Chiu Ching-cheng taught his players to improve their batting by swinging at tires 300 times a day. The purpose was to augment the player's batting strength by developing his shoulders and arms. He also learned to pivot. Then the player worked 500 to 600 times on accuracy by pounding away at suspended baseballs. The throwing requirement was 200 times a day.

To test his boys, Principal Lin led them into the 17th islandwide Little League championships at Yilan in April of 1965. Hung Yeh finished fourth among a score of contenders. Hung Yeh won its first title at Taitung the following year.

In the summer of 1966, Hu Hsueh-li, a native of the village and son of a fornner chief of the Bunun tribe, became the principal of Hung Yeh Primary School. As a comparatively well-off owner of five acres of farmland, the new principal often took money from his own pocket to buy equipment and food for team members.

Before each series, the Hung Yeh team has several days of "training camp" at the school. Conditioning begins at 5 in the morning with a warm-up run through the village. After that comes a long day of throwing, batting and base running. There is a break at noon, then a resumption until sunset. Poor play is punished by extra running or perhaps by a leap-frog style circling of the playground. Coach and players bed down in the classroom. Meals are cooked by the principal's wife.

When the Tsui Yang team from Chiayi was defeated in the first Sino-Japanese game, many fans dismissed all hope for the Red Leaves. Hung Yeh got two runs in the fifth inning and the remaining five in the sixth. Only four of the Japanese boys reached first base and none got to second.

After the all-star team beat the Japanese by 5 to 1 on August 27, Taipei sporting goods stores suddenly found themselves sold out of baseball equipment. Schools and players had bought up everything available in the epidemic of baseball interest. This year's implementation of the nine-year education program brought an end to entrance examinations for junior high school. With sixth graders off the examination hook, primary schools hurried to organize baseball teams. The number already has increased from fewer than 100 to some 300.

Local movie companies are interested in the success story of the Red Leaves. One project is for an educational documentary to promote sports. The setting will be Hung Yeh village.

The Japanese Little League Baseball Association has asked the Republic of China to send a team to Japan next March for a friendly series. Hung Yeh is the sentimental favorite to make the trip and one day to go on to Asian and world championships. Taitung would be getting its second world crown. C.K. Yang, who holds the record in the decathlon and who was a silver medal winner in the Rome Olympics, also calls Taitung home.