Taiwan Today

On the back of growing investment in baseball and softball, Taiwan’s national teams are powering up to knock it out of the park at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Excited chatter filled the locker room on an October afternoon at Dong Yuan Elementary School in Taipei City as 20 sixth-graders geared up for baseball practice. After receiving coaching instructions, the youngsters charged out to a well-maintained training field for their warmup routine. This was quickly followed by one-on-one fielding exercises, the first of numerous technical drills during the marathon four-hour session.

“My father loves baseball and so do I,” 12-year-old outfielder Ian Lin (林逸洋) said. “The team practices almost every day, even during the summer and winter breaks, but I never feel tired.”

According to head coach Happy Lai (賴敏男), 71 students across all grades are enrolled in Dong Yuan’s baseball program, up from about 30 when he started working at the school 25 years ago. “Dong Yuan has one of the best-known elementary school teams in the country,” he said, adding that its success in cultivating players is a major draw for prospective students and their parents.

All three Taipei-based members of Taiwan’s 18-person squad for the 2017 U-12 Baseball World Cup were enrolled in Dong Yuan. Lin and his teammates dream of following in their footsteps and subsequently the nearly 30 alumni who have made it to the professional ranks.

Proud Legacy

Baseball is widely considered Taiwan’s national sport. Introduced during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945), it took decades to become fully ingrained in the cultural identity. A watershed moment occurred in 1969 when the country’s underdog Golden Dragon team claimed the Little League World Series in the U.S.

That victory heralded the nation’s emergence as a global powerhouse in youth baseball. Taiwan teams won a further 16 Little League World Series crowns between 1970 and 1996. This was in addition to a host of other junior tournaments sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which merged with the International Softball Federation to create the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in 2013. 

Success in the men’s senior ranks followed, including winning silver at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and gold at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. After a 12-year hiatus, men’s baseball and women’s softball are returning as medal events for the 2020 Tokyo Games. Ranked fourth in the former and sixth in the latter by the WBSC, Taiwan is eyeing fresh bids at Olympic glory.

Baseball Diplomacy

Richard T. C. Lin (林宗成‬), secretary-general of local governing body Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA), said the sport is a key avenue for raising the nation’s profile around the world. This is due not only to Taiwan’s top-class talent, but also the leadership role it plays in promoting the development of baseball internationally, he added.

A major accomplishment in this regard was the establishment of the U-12 Baseball World Cup. Launched in 2011, the WBSC-sanctioned biennial event for under-12s was proposed by the CTBA. The first two editions took place in Taipei and the previous two in southern Taiwan’s Tainan City, which is scheduled to continue hosting through 2027.

As part of its long-term commitment to the tournament, the city is constructing an 8,000-capacity youth ballpark and 1,000-seater support stadium. Scheduled to open for the 2019 event, the facilities are the inaugural projects under the NT$2.2 billion (US$71.4 million) Tainan Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadiums and Training Centers initiative. The development is also expected to include a 25,000-capacity arena for professional matches, two infield practice sites, public batting cages and a Taiwan baseball museum and hall of fame.

This project has drawn the attention of the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). In anticipation the sport will retain its Olympic status for the 2024 Paris Games, the confederation has invited Taiwan to play an advisory role in the planned development of a new ballpark in the French capital, with CEB President Didier Seminet visiting the under-construction facilities in Tainan last August.

Talent Cultivation

Taiwan has continued to demonstrate its youth baseball prowess at the U-12 World Cup, winning the inaugural event and finishing as runner-up to the U.S. at the past three. Lin attributed the country’s success in the junior ranks to a deep talent pool cultivated by well-run coaching setups nationwide.

According to the Sports Administration (SA) under the Ministry of Education, 432 elementary schools, 277 junior highs, 216 senior highs and 126 tertiary institutions have baseball teams. Foreign scouts keep a watchful eye on top-tier programs and offer a very select number of elite talents the opportunity to continue their development in Japan or the U.S.

Taiwan’s youth system feeds a competitive men’s amateur game comprising 10 sides established and funded by local governments and enterprises, as well as the four-team Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the highest level of the sport in Taiwan. The national squad is primarily sourced from these divisions. At the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, the country’s bronze medal-winning lineup included 17 players from the amateur ranks and seven from the CPBL.

According to Hsu Shun-yi (許順益), head coach of Taiwan’s side at the games, the top two divisions are a key source of motivation for youngsters. “Students remain committed to the sport throughout school and college because they can see there’s a viable pathway to the pros and national squad,” he said. “And after a playing career there are coaching opportunities at various levels nationwide.”

Softball Expansion

In comparison to men’s baseball, women’s softball receives significantly less attention and resources. SA figures show that 20 elementary schools, 17 junior highs, nine senior highs and five universities and colleges have coaching programs.

Despite the small scale of the nation’s youth ranks, Taiwan’s softball side is a regular participant in international competitions. The nation qualified for three of the four Olympics in which the sport was a medal event, achieving its best result of fifth at the 2008 Beijing Games. It has also won four silvers at the Asian Games, including at the most recent edition in Indonesia.

Chang Chia-hsin (張家興‬), secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Amateur Softball Association (CTASA), said that while the nation is proud of these achievements, it has higher ambitions. “Our aim going forward is to win gold at the Asian Games and a medal at the Olympics.”

In 2016, the association marked a major milestone in its efforts to cultivate the sport with the launch of the Taiwan Professional Women’s Softball League (TPWSL). Running May to November, the competition features five corporate-sponsored teams and has attracted about 10 elite foreign players from nations including the Czech Republic, Japan and the U.S. At present, the “professional” in the title of the league is largely aspirational. With the exception of the overseas talents, players do not receive enough money to quit their day jobs. Typical compensation totals roughly a quarter of Taiwan’s average industrial wage.

The establishment of a senior domestic league is having a positive impact on softball development in Taiwan, according to Han Hsin-lin (韓幸霖), one of the coaches of Caesar Park Warriors, a TPWSL side sponsored by a local hotel chain. The involvement of foreign athletes, most of whom are pitchers, shows up-and-coming Taiwan players the standard they need to reach if they want to compete at the highest echelons of the sport, she added. 

“Softball in Taiwan is comparatively weak in terms of pitching ability, so we can learn a lot from top overseas players in this respect,” said Han, who has been coaching at her alma mater Shilin High School of Commerce in Taipei for more than 20 years. “Plus, local sluggers are likely to improve from regularly pitting their wits against powerful foreign aces with diverse styles.”

Olympic Focus

According to Chang, boosting exchanges with overseas players and coaches is crucial if Taiwan is to achieve its Olympic ambitions. “The nation doesn’t have many sides, so they can learn a limited amount from competing against each other,” he said.

The association organizes at least three overseas training camps for the national team each year, as well as trips for individual coaches and pitchers. “These sessions used to run for at most two weeks, but starting last year we upped the ante considerably,” Chang said, adding that a group consisting of two pitchers, a catcher and a coach spent almost three months at a private training institute in the U.S. at the end of 2018.

While this investment is aimed at earning a medal at the 2020 Games, the more immediate goal is qualification. With host nation Japan included automatically and the U.S. gaining entry by virtue of winning the 2018 Women’s Softball World Championship, there are just four places up for grabs. “Competition will be fierce,” Chang said. “With softball regaining its place in the Olympics, countries around the world have been increasing funding for the sport.”

For officials at the men’s baseball association, the focus is similarly on capturing a spot at the games. Lin said the CTBA hopes to recruit Taiwan’s top professional players, including its representatives in the U.S. and Japanese major leagues, to ensure the country advances to Tokyo. He expressed confidence in the current crop of athletes, stating that should Taiwan qualify, it would send its strongest-ever side.

Hsu likewise fancies the country’s chances of making it to the Olympics. The sport is on an upswing in Taiwan and the players exude confidence in their abilities, he said, adding a prime example in this regard was the nation’s headline-grabbing 2-1 triumph over eventual gold medal winner South Korea at last year’s Asian Games. The victory in the round robin stage was considered a major upset as Taiwan brought mostly amateurs to the event while South Korea’s squad consisted of top players from its professional league. “The Olympics are the ultimate challenge,” Hsu said. “But if we can learn from our experiences in Indonesia and assemble our top talents, Taiwan can shine in Tokyo.” 

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw