1997 Taiwan Series

The 1997 Taiwan Series was the 5th Taiwan Series. It was an unusual Series in that both teams finished last in the 7-team league in one of the halves and both were .500 or under for the 1997 CPBL regular season. The Wei Chuan Dragons (managed by Sheng-Ming Hsu) were 15-31-2 in the first half then jumped to 31-15-2 to win the second half. The China Times Eagles, meanwhile, were 30-16-2 in the first half then were hit by the Black Eagle gambling scandal that resulted in most of the team being suspended and fell to 11-35-2 in the second half (Hsin-Chang Lin managed them in the Series). Neither team even had a player named to the Best Ten though the Dragons did have CPBL MVP Mike Garcia, the ERA and save leader and stolen base leader Bernie Tatis.

In game one, October 18, the Eagles won, 5-1, with Mariano De Los Santos getting the win over Gabriel Ozuna. Shi-Xing Ro homered for the Dragons. On October 19, the Eagles stunningly won again, 3-2, with Rafael Montalvo beating Jim Austin and Danilo Leon notching a save. George Canale homered in a losing cause. Wei Chuan won their first on October 21 with a 7-2 victory, as Wen-Po Huang getting the win and Jose DeLeon the loss. Chin-Mao Chen and Canale went deep for the Dragons. They tied it with a 2-0 win on the 22nd, Ozuna beating De Los Santos and Garcia saving it while Tatis drove in the game-winner.

On October 23, the Dragons went ahead with a 2-1 win, Garcia saving a victory for Todd Revenig while Montalvo lost and Tatis had another game-winning RBI. The Series wrapped up on October 25 with a 4-0 Dragons shutout win. Huang got the win and took home Taiwan Series MVP honors while Jose Martinez was handed the loss. Manny Francois homered.

Source: 1997 Taiwan Baseball Wiki