Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) A two-game series between Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) champion Brother Elephants and Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) title winners SK Wyverns will be held in Taichung from Nov. 4-5.
SK Wyverns, which swept Samsung 4-0 in this year's Korean Series for its third title in the team's history, arrived Tuesday for the two-game 2010 CPBL-KBO Club Championship at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in central Taiwan.
Prize money of NT$10 million (US$328,370) is up for grabs, with NT$8 million for the winners and NT$2 million for the losers in the event of a 2:0 series, and the teams sharing the pot in the case of a 1:1 tie.
Pride is more at stake than money, however, as Taiwanese baseball has long been trying to prove it can compete with South Korean baseball, generally regarded as second best in Asia behind Japan.
Wyverns manager Kim Sung Keun and Brother manager Chen Jui-chen both said they were confident of victories.
The friendly series first took place in the 1980s, and in three visits between 1990 and 2005, the KBO champions clocked up six wins and three losses against CPBL teams.
Taiwan teams are 2:2 against Korean teams in the Asia Series, an annual event held from 2005-2008 featuring title-winning teams from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.
The Elephants will hope to entertain local fans with the same skills that helped rout Sinon Bulls in five games in October, when the team won the 2010 Taiwan Series despite having lost nearly half of its squad in a game-fixing scandal prior to last season.
In addition to home-court advantage, the Elephants also gain from being able to utilize all four foreign pitchers on its roster, whereas three key Wyverns players did not make the trip to Taiwan. (By Chris Wang) enditem/MH