Kuang-Huei Wang

Kuang-Huei Wang (王光輝) (The Charmer)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 205 lb.

• School Fu Jen Catholic University
• High School Chung-Hua High School

• Born November 12, 1964 in Hualien County Taiwan
• Died August 30, 2021 in Taipei Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kuang-Huei Wang was the best first baseman in the first decade of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He is the brother of Kuang-Shih Wang; both brothers played for Taiwan in the Olympics during their careers. A cousin is two-time Olympian Chung-Yi Huang, and his nephew is former CPBL pitcher Wen-Mao Liu. Wang's son Wei-Chen Wang would also play in the CPBL.

Wang played for Taiwan in the first World Junior Championship, in 1981. He was with Taiwan for the 1986 Amateur World Series, as they won Bronze. He played in the 1987 Asian Championship and 1987 Intercontinental Cup (where they placed 4th and were second in offense). In the 1988 Baseball World Cup, the first baseman hit .304/.347/.478 with 9 runs and 10 RBI in 12 games. He tied for second on Taiwan in runs and was third in RBI. His 3-run homer off Tetsu Suzuki gave Taiwan a 4-2 win in the Bronze Medal game against Japan. Wang also played in the 1988 Olympics.

After spending 1988 and 1989 with the Brother Hotels baseball team, he remained with Brother when the Chinese Professional Baseball League was founded; their team was called the Brother Elephants. He was the first batter in team history. In the first CPBL season, 1990, he hit .342/.387/.510 and won the batting title. He batted .272/.333/.444 in 1991 and .254/.332/.395 in 1992; that year, he won Best Nine honors at first base.

In 1993, the right-hander hitter batted .328/.391/.493, made the Best Nine again and won a CPBL Gold Glove. In '94, he hit .297/.320/.442 and was again named to the Best Nine. He helped the team win the CPBL title each season from 1992-1994. During the 1995 campaign, he produced at a .316/.368/.451 rate and made the Best Nine for the 4th straight season; he also won his second Gold Glove.

Wang hit .325/.351/.455 in 1996 and made the Best Nine again. In '97, he batted .260/.313/.348 and was named to the Best Nine for the 5th straight time. He hit .305/.338/.422 in 1998 as Jay Kirkpatrick ended his run of Best Nines at first base. He represented Taiwan in the 1998 Asian Games.

In '99, the 34-year-old veteran hit only .215/.284/.320 and won a Gold Glove. It was his last major honor as a player. During the 2000 CPBL campaign, Wang hit .257/.304/.314 in 30 games. He was a regular again in '01 but only batted .213/.278/.314 for the Elephants and was the third player to 1,000 CPBL hits. Wang played 14 games from 2002-2004 while serving as a hitting coach primarily. From 2005-2006, he was a full-time hitting coach.

Wang was named the manager of the Elephants in 2007; he was the first manager with indigenous ancestry in the history of all professional sports in Taiwan. He guided the team to the 2008 Taiwan Series, where they fell in 7 games. He joined the Taiwan national team coaching staff for the 2009 World Baseball Classic. When the Elephants started 2009 7-19, Wang was demoted to managing in the minors and was replaced by Shin Nakagomi.

He was known as The Charmer due to his warm personality.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• Wiki Baseball (Chinese)
• Obituary