Low expectations
“Before the Premier 12 Opening Round, nobody gave our team much of a chance,” says Feng Sheng-hsien, secretary-general of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), who was tasked with organizing and training the team for the event. They hit road blocks right from the start, when they sought a manager for the team, and encountered many difficulties in the organizing and training process. In particular, from the time he began to put together the national team last year, Feng repeatedly invited Hong I-chung to be manager. But it took half a year, until July 2019, before Hong accepted, putting aside his fears for his reputation and taking on this heavy responsibility for the country.
“I came up as a player, and was on the national team for four years, so I know there’s tremendous pressure in putting on the manager’s uniform.” During the 1999 Asian Baseball Championship, which was a qualifying event for the 2000 Olympics, Feng missed a catch and became the target of widespread criticism. As for Hong, he was heavily castigated when he managed the team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Both men have painful memories of being pilloried over defeats.
That is why for this most recent Premier 12 competition Feng put top priority on putting players’ minds at ease. Many players worried that if they made a mistake when competing for the national team, people across the country would berate them. “Our guiding principle for organizing the team was simple: There is only the national team, with no distinction between players who are based in Japan, the US, or Taiwan.” The whole team would face its challenges together and share in the outcome of winning or losing.
Chinese Taipei manager Hong I-chung guided his team well from the bench, enabling them to perform at their best. (courtesy of CTBA)