TAIPEI, Taiwan | More than 62,000 fans poured into the Taipei Dome during the All-Star weekend to enjoy the Summer Classics, setting both single-game and series attendance records in Chinese Professional Baseball league (CPBL) All-Star Game history.
The two-day festivities included the All-Star Home Run Derby, as Steven Moya from the TSG Hawks easily took the title away with 18 long balls in the final stage (41 in total over two stages). An-Ko Lin from the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, the Home Run Derby winner last year, had 31 in total and could not defend his title.
On the first day of the All-Star Weekend, 33,688 fans showed up at Taipei Dome to set the record for the most attended CPBL All-Star Game in its 35-year history. Lin’s two-run home run in the 2nd inning helped his team to take the win en route to receiving the MVP of the game award.
In the second game, Lin singled in the 8th to break the 1-1 tie before Dragons’ Giljegiljaw Kungkuan’s two-run home run drove in insurance runs to cement the victory. Lin was awarded the MVP in both games.
After two outs in the top of the ninth, fans started to request their favorite legendary players into the game. The calling of 29,000-plus fans in unison received answers from the legends in the games as 2008 Summer Olympics Chinese Taipei manager I-Chung Hong (Hawks manager) took the plate first and faced former New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang (Brothers pitching coach).
Chin-Feng Chen, the first Major League Baseball player from Taiwan (Guardians manager), also stepped into the batter’s box before getting hit by Wang, and both benches cleared as all players rushed to the mound for a group photo.
Fans then called CPBL’s Mr. Baseball Cheng-Min “ChaCha” Peng (Brothers farm director) to the plate, and he doubled to the left. After Wang took himself out of the game, the fans called Yueh-Ping “Daddy Pie” Lin (Lions manager) to the mound and Chun-Chang “The Invincible” Yeh (Dragons manager) behind the plate, as another legendary hitter Chien-Ming “Brother Fire” Chang (Dragons coach) was called by the fans to the plate for a ground out to end the 35th edition of CPBL’s summer classic.
Since the completion of the Taipei Dome, baseball in Taiwan has seen tremendous growth in attendance, with the Yomiuri Giants 90th Anniversary series setting the first sold-out record at 37,890. CPBL has also set numerous attendance records in exhibition games, regular season games, and the All-Star Games. The Dome will be the venue for the upcoming III WBSC Premier12 2024, presented by RAXUS, in November for Group B’s round-robin stage.
