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| I rode to the Taichung International Stadium along the Han River and onto a path under highway #74 arriving early expecting long lines for general admission 1000 NT seats; there were none. I walked around, bought a cap and tried to find the way in. I was led away from two ticket takers to the back of the stadium. I learned that my seat was in the bleachers with had no access to the grandstand to sneak into. I sat in the first row behind the left field fence. |
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| The final score of 6-1; four unearned runs due to errors. |
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| Taichung International hold 12,000. I'd say there were 7,000 people last evening. It was so far from home plate; that and a double echo from two sides of the grandstand that sounded like how Ebbets Field sounded. It was hard to see the battery.. |
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| The LED scoreboard was behind us; I had to turn to see the image. |
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| Here is the opening ceremony of the series. They played 'anthems' from both team's home. |
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| The President of WBSC, Riccardo Fraccari |
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| Outside ground level ticket booths, shops and food court. |
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| If Taiwan can hold on, they can go to Super Round in Japan. |
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| With franchised food stands upstairs on the rotunda, I got home-made duck wraps before I went into the bleachers where one ah-ma was selling guava and corn dogs. I had brought two tall cans of Taiwan beer to wash it down. My dinner last evening was two hot dogs on buns from 7-11 and two tall cans of Taiwan Beer; together 160-$5.33. That would be at least $21 at Yankee Stadium. The best thing about Taiwan is you can legally bring food in from outside. There is no searching of bags or metal detectors, and few police! |
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| Jesmuel Valentin had a hard time at second base making three errors and being involved in a fourth. "Chinese Taipei" had four unearned runs and won needing only four hits. |
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| "Chinese Taipei" has just beaten Venezuela and goes on to "Super Round" in Tokyo Nov. 11-16 Read Taipei Times article here. |
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| More people the second night, perhaps 10,000. International games are different from local CPBL in that there is no noise when the foreign team is batting. The go-go dancers on the Taiwan team's dugout (left-home team against Puerto Rico, right-visitors' dugout against Venezuela. You could hear a pin drop .The brass band was quiet, too, and moved with the team. |
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| A group of men, smoking, having a good time, stand outside locked doors sneaking a free peek at the game through a clearing near the left field foul line. |
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| The Venezuela bullpen was used with too much finesse; five times to support starter, Alvarez, who was removed in the fourth inning; he hadn't given up any runs and only three hits. |
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| At both games, fans got a two-color print "scarf" when entering with the flags of the teams home. Each read:"NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOODBYE"; a "NA" was missing |
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| Pinch-hitter V.H. Chu's double that scored the first Taiwan run in the seventh. |
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| Relief-pitcher Miguel Socolovich, who gave up two doubles and a walk in his 1 2/3 innings, was the loser. |
Taiwan,
or “Chinese Taipei” as it’s called, beat Venezuela 3-0 and goes on to the next
round in Japan. It is so cool to sit in the stadium and watch a game instead of
staying home. The bleacher seats will not be occupied by me in the future. I
had thought the lowest price tickets would put me in the grandstand where I
could choose a vacant seat but there was no connection but a closed walkway. I
made the best of it and had fun.I am going to go to a lot more baseball games next
season and will keep my eyes open for more off-season games.
Copyright © 2019 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved
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