桃園市政府秘書處

Taiwanese baseball is the first in the world to open its 2020 season. Taoyuan City Government not only has supported its home team, the Rakuten Monkeys, through concrete actions, Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan and AIT Director William Brent Christensen also went to Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday (May 1) to visit the team’s American pitchers, and cameoed as English commentators on Twitter live stream.

The U.S. has been hit hard by the outbreak of COVID-19, and Mayor Cheng and Director Christensen visited the Rakuten Monkeys’ two American pitchers at the stadium, showing concern for their life in Taiwan, as well as their family members back in the U.S. Although U.S. State Department has issued travel alerts, urging all Americans to return to the stateside, Taiwan has reported zero new cases for six consecutive days, and both players believe that Taiwan is safer and insist on staying. Mayor Cheng and Director Christensen also visited the locker room to cheer for the Rakuten Monkeys’ players. They elbumped with the players, and wished them the best of luck in their quest for a “four-peat” this year.

Taiwan has successfully contained the spread of COVID-19, and the stadiums have adopted the strictest preventive measures. According to Mayor Cheng, during this period of closed-door games, the league has implemented measures including taking players’ body temperatures and health management. The games are also broadcasted live on ELEVEN SPORTS channel and Twitter, so that fans can watch the games and support their favorite teams and players at home. English broadcast also enables American fans to watch the games, and the entire world is now cheering for Taiwanese baseball.

The Rakuten Monkeys have installed in the seats the “Teammate No. 10” robots developed by Sha Yang Ye Robot Wonderland, a local business of Taoyuan City. The robot cheerleaders and fan cutouts in the seats not only cheer for the players, but also make the games more interesting to watch. Mayor Cheng and Director Christensen both transformed into “New Teammate No. 10” and sat in the seats. They also fed the robots snacks, cracking everyone up at the scene. Rakuten’s pitching coach Lin Ying-chieh shares the same Chinese first name with Director Christensen (Li Ying-chieh), and the city government and the team specially produced a “Ying-chieh for Ying-chieh” cheering sign to symbolize the friendly baseball ties between Taiwan and the United States.

According to Director William Brent Christensen, as Taiwan and across the world are currently suffering from the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwanese Baseball has attracted the attention of world media, and millions of fans around the globe are all watching the exciting ball games in Taiwan. Taiwan has established the “Taiwan model” for the world with its marvelous job preventing the transmission of COVID-19, and now, the “Taiwan model” has also drawn an unusual attention of baseball fans from all over the world to the baseball games played in Taiwan.

Director Christensen also expressed that, with MLB’s 2020 season still in jeopardy, it is a great honor to attend the game today and cheer for the Rakuten Monkeys and Taiwanese baseball, as Taiwanese baseball has become the only option during this “extraordinary time.”

Director-General Yen Tzu-chieh of Taoyuan City Government Secretariat shared that the Rakuten Monkeys invited Mayor Cheng and Director Christensen to throw the ceremonial first pitch for this game between the Rakuten Monkeys and CTBC Brothers (Elephants), which was pre-recorded prior to the game. Mayor Cheng and Director Christensen also greeted fans around the world on the English live stream.

The special event was attended by Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan, Secretariat Director-General Yen Tzu-chieh, Department of Public Information Director-General Chan Ho-shun, Department of Sports Director-General Chuang Chia-chia, Rakuten Monkeys General Manager Justin Liu, General Manager Yoshinori Kawada, Vice General Manager Pu Wei-ching, pitching coach Lin Ying-chieh, and starting pitchers Ryan Carpenter and Justin Nicolino; also present were distinguished guests including AIT Director William Brent Christensen, and AIT Spokesperson Amanda Mansour.