Ming-Hung Tsai

Ming-Hung Tsai (蔡明宏)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Hua Hsing High School

• Born September 2, 1966 in Yunlin County Taiwan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Ming-Hung Tsai pitched in the Olympics and the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Tsai played in the 1987 World Port Tournament, 1988 Haarlem Baseball Week, 1989 Asian Championship (Taiwan tied for first) and 1989 Intercontinental Cup. The Toronto Blue Jays expressed interest in him following the 1989 Asian Championship but did not sign him. He played in the 1990 Goodwill Games. In the 1990 Baseball World Cup, he allowed 14 hits and 9 runs (7 earned) in 5 2/3 IP; his 11.12 ERA was actually the median mark on the staff.

In the 1990 Asian Games, he helped Taiwan to first place, but baseball was only a demonstration sport that year, not a medal event. He was 1-1 with a 1.32 ERA in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup, second on Taiwan in ERA behind Chao-Huang Lin. He shut out a powerful Cuban national team (which was in the middle of a 15-year period where they did not lose a game) for four innings in the semifinals, beating Leonardo Tamayo 1-0, but allowed one in the 5th and one in the 6th before Kun-Yuan Chuo took over and Tsai had a hard-knock loss.

The submariner helped Taiwan to a Silver Medal at the 1991 Asian Championship to qualify for the 1992 Olympics, the first Olympics to feature baseball as a Medal event. In the 1992 Barcelona Games, he struggled at 0-2, 9.92 on a team that otherwise was 6-1. He had Taiwan's highest ERA (Lin was next at 2.65) and allowed a .392 average. His stats may have been inflated by facing two of the top teams. He lost to Ron Villone and a Team USA offense that included Nomar Garciaparra, Phil Nevin and Jason Giambi (7 R, 10 H in 4 1/3 IP after relieving Chen-Jung Lo) and surrendered 8 hits and 6 runs in 4 2/3 IP before Lo took over against Orlando Hernandez and a Cuban squad with Omar Linares, Orestes Kindelan and Antonio Pacheco. He tied Lo for the team lead with five games pitched. In the Gold Medal game, he relieved Lin in the 4th with a 4-0 deficit against Cuba and allowed 11 hits and 5 runs in 4 1/3 IP before Lo took over; Taiwan lost 11-1 but got the first Olympic Silver Medal in baseball.

Tsai then turned pro. He was 3-3 with a 6.32 ERA for the China Times Eagles in the 1993 CPBL, 0-2 with a 5.94 ERA in 1994 and 0-2 with a 7.50 ERA in 1995. His CPBL career record was only 3-7, 6.45 in 38 games (12 starts) with a 1.75 WHIP. When the Eagles fell in a game-fixing scandal during 1997 (when he did not pitch), he was the only player on the team to be found innocent of wrongdoing.

He threw a fastball, forkball, curveball and sinker.

Sources

• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Defunct IBAF website