In mid-March, as the lead-up to the presi-dential elections reached a fever pitch, Taiwan's attention was less on the antics of the two presidential candidates than on the island's baseball team. As the final eight teams competed in Taiwan for the remaining three places in the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Taipei team's seven games drew a total of 90,000 baseball fans to Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, setting a new record for the stadium. Television ratings for the games soared to a 7.5 share, making it the star of the coveted 8 p.m. timeslot.
Ultimately Chinese Taipei made the top three with five wins and two losses, meaning they, alongside South Korea and Canada, would go to the Olympics, marking the fifth time the team has done so. Their first showing was at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, then 1988 in Seoul, 1992 in Barcelona, and 2004 in Athens.
Despite their success, compared with the "dream team" Taiwan fielded the previous four times, their road to the Olympics was markedly less smooth this time around.
With the games being played in March, many of Taiwan's top players were unable to take part, with stars like Tsao Chin-hui, Hu Chin-lung, Chen Yung-chi, and Lin En-yu involved in spring training in either the American or Japanese professional leagues. On top of this, the team's star batter Chen Chin-feng was out of action due to a back injury, casting a pall over the team's chances.
To make matters worse, before the first game two more pitchers, Shen Yu-chieh and Lin Po-you, failed the drugs test due to taking gout medication and antibiotics, meaning up-and-coming second-stringers Lee Wei-hua and Lee Chen-chang had to step up.
Nonetheless, relying on the guidance of head coach Hung Yi-chung, the Chinese Taipei team-average age only 24-gave it their all and were able to weather the storm.
Yang Chien-fu-the "lucky charm" of the Sinon Bulls team-was one of Chinese Taipei's standout pitchers, and was instrumental in Taiwan's defeat of Mexico and Australia, pitching a shutout against the latter. Ni Fu-te, left-handed pitcher for the Chinatrust Whales, was able to keep Taiwan in the game against Canada despite Taiwan not being expected to do well, while new pitcher Luo Chia-jen, pitching at speeds up to 153 kilometers per hour, put in an impressively solid performance.
The Taiwanese batters were just as unforgiving as the pitchers. In the first game, against Spain, the Brother Elephants' star batter Peng Cheng-min smashed a two-run homer, letting the fans know that even without Chen Chin-feng, with him and Chang Tai-shan Chinese Taipei was still a force to be reckoned with. Luo Kuo-hui, currently signed to a minor league team in the United States, helped Chinese Taipei retake the lead against Canada, driving the fans in the stands wild, while the Boston Red Sox's Lin Che-hsuen put in a stellar performance in the outfield, hampering Australia's offense. Fellow Red Sox player Chiang Chi-hsien, star Taiwanese player Chang Chien-ming, and the injured Lin Chi-sheng all also put in excellent performances.
Crunch time came on March 14 as the Taiwanese faced off against South Korea in front of over 18,000 baseball fans waving flags, tooting air horns, and chanting to inspire the home team.
In the end, the hometown boys lost that game by just one run, losing three to four. Nonetheless, with the knowledge that Taiwan had made it through, the fans were ecstatic as the team did a lap around the field and threw head coach Hung Yi-chung into the air in celebration. With this, the qualifying rounds for the Beijing Olympics came to a close, with the Chinese Taipei team having written another heart-pounding, exhilarating chapter in Taiwanese baseball history.
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