Thursday, October 14, 2010

Elephants to meet Bulls in Taiwan Series final

Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) The Brother Elephants will meet the Sinon Bulls in the best-of-seven Taiwan Series of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) after surviving a franchise-threatening game-fixing scandal and winning the second half of the season for a shot at the series title.

The Elephants, which lost its manager and almost half of its players to a major game-fixing scandal that came to light in October last year involving more than 40 retired and active players and coaches, won the second half-season championship, finishing with 36 wins and 24 losses, with a team of young and inexperienced players.

It came as a surprise for baseball fans, and even for the first-year Elephants manager Chen Jui-chen, who said in a press conference Thursday that he was nervous on the eve of the finals, which match the winners of both halves of the regular season and will be played Oct. 16-24.

"What I want from my players is for them to do their best, period, " Chen said. Peng Cheng-min, the most popular player on the most popular team in Taiwan, gave credit to the young players, who he described as "playing their hearts out."

For the Elephants to accomplish a dream season, it has to conquer one more opponent -- the Bulls, which won the first half season with 36 wins, 23 losses and one draw, and won the 120-game 2010 regular season with an accumulated record of 65 wins, 53 losses and two draws.

The Elephants is making its third straight run at the title after losing in 2008 and 2009, both times to the Uni-President Lions. It has won a total of six titles, the most among the CPBL teams, in two runs of 1992-94 and 2001-03.

In a joking and symbolic move, Bulls manager Hsu Sheng-ming ate bananas at the press conference, as yellow represents the Elephants' team color. The veteran manager, who is coaching in his sixth Taiwan Series, said he and his team were determined to win and that he "never gave up an opportunity to win since he first put on a baseball uniform as a 10-year-old."

His team won the series in 2004 and 2005.

La New Bears, which also suffered heavy personnel losses to the game-fixing scandal, ranked third with 55 wins, 62 losses and three draws, while three-time defending champions Uni-president Lions finished a disappointing season with 54 wins, 63 losses and three draws to rank last in the four-team league, which was established in 1990.

The Taiwan Series schedule is as follows:
Game 1 Oct. 16 17:05 Taichung City
Game 2 Oct. 17 17:05 Douliou City, Yunlin County
Game 3 Oct. 19 18:35 Taoyuan County
Game 4 Oct. 20 18:35 Sinjhuang City, Taipei County:
*Game 5 Oct. 21 18:35 Taoyuan County:
*Game 6 Oct. 23 17:05 Kaohsiung County:
*Game 7 Oct. 24 17:05 Kaohsiung County:
* - If necessary (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J