Play ball!

On Friday night, Bryan and Whitney experienced our national pastime in Taiwan with a trip to a professional baseball game. With the help of Richard Wang, of the Chinese Baseball Professional Baseball League, they headed 45 minutes south on the high speed railway and found themselves sitting behind home plate as the Brother Elephants battled the Uni-President Lions. Although the experience was very different than a Major League game in the States (think college level), they enjoy a taste of home.

Some major differences between baseball in Taiwan and the States are,
-no assigned seats!
-tickets are $10 (even behind home plate)
-night market fare (dumplings) replaces ballpark fare
-12 innings maximum and the game is called a 'tie'
-4 teams in the league instead of 30!
-cheerleading and band section for each team
-maximum salary for a ballplayer is $300,000 (US dollars), minimum salary is $30,000 (US dollars)
-free agency is being introduced this year

Team buses parked right in front of the main entrance of the stadium

Stadium concourse 

Unfortunately, the beer vendor 'forgot' to show up but it was a BYOB baseball game!

Brother Elephants warm up

First pitch!

An American pitcher, John Halama started for the Lions

Elephant dugout and fan section. 

There were about 3000 people at the game.

Richard Wang and Whitney! 

Richard lived and worked in Boston for 10 years and is a die-hard Red Sox fan!

View from the upper deck

Bryan and Whitney during the 7th inning

Even though we had to leave before the end of the game, Richard made sure we knew the score of the game as soon as it was over. Elephants beat the Lions, 5-4!

A shout out to Brad for helping make this experience happen from Cooperstown! And all to Tim and Jim at the HOF who helped prep Whitney about Taiwan baseball prior to her trip! Thank you!