History of baseball in Taiwan

History of baseball
Timeline
Origins · 19th century · 20th century · 21st centuryBaseball Origins Committee
by continent
Africa · Americas · Asia · Europe · Oceania
by country
Australia · Canada · China · Cuba · Dominican Republic · Germany · Great Britain · Italy · Japan · Mexico · Netherlands · Puerto Rico · South Korea · Taiwan · United States · Venezuela
by type
Amateur · College · International · Professional · Women's

The history of baseball in Taiwan dates to 1895.

History

Baseball was introduced to Taiwan by Japan after China ceded control of the island to Japan in 1895. Initially played only by Japanese colonial administrators, by the 1920s interest in the sport spread across the island with games between Taiwanese natives and Japanese immigrants becoming common. In 1931, the Chiayi School of Agriculture and Forestry took second place in the Pan-Japanese High School Yakyu Tournament.

Following World War II and the reassertion of Chinese control over Taiwan, baseball became marginalized in popularity because of its association with Japan. But along with post-war stability during the 1950s and 1960s, interest in baseball rebounded with the spread of amateur and youth baseball teams. Between 1969 and 1982, Taiwan won 13 Little League World Series championships.

In 1990, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (中華職棒聯盟) was formed, bringing professional baseball to the country for the first time. In 1997, however, a gambling scandal sent the CPBL into disrepute. Following the scandal, the Taiwan Major League (臺灣大聯盟) was launched, splitting the audience for baseball. For the 2003 season, the two leagues agreed to merge under the CPBL name. As of 2009, the league consists of the Brother Elephants, La New Bears, Sinon Bulls, and Uni-President Lions.

A handful of Taiwanese players are in the U.S. major and minor leagues, including Hong-Chih Kuo and Chien-Ming Wang.

Baseball has become so entrenched in Taiwanese culture that it is even depicted on the NT$ 500 note.

Taiwan in international baseball

In 1984, Taiwan took the Bronze medal at the Los Angeles Olympics where baseball was played as an exhibition sport, and in 1992 Taiwan won Silver in Barcelona.

Some or all content from this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of baseball outside the United States". This page needs wiki formatting, links and a general cleanup.