Take me out to the ballgame

It was only a matter of time before I made my way to a ballgame. My other travelogue pastime involves being part of a group of friends that has seen a game at every Major League Baseball stadium in the United States. It took ten years to accomplish and maintaining that status will be a work in progress as from time to time, new stadiums will be built and new stadiums must be visited. Publishing the stories is an incomplete aspiration but some of the experiences can be seen at Ballpark Roadtrip.

I had the pleasure of seeing a game at "the Big Egg" in Tokyo which was just insane. If you think baseball is borning, in a lot of ways you are right. But don't let that stand in your way of going to a game in Japan. The environment is more like a European football/soccer match than an American baseball game. I wasn't quite sure what to expect in Taiwan, but I headed down to Tian Mu Baseball Stadium to see the La New Bears take on the Brother Elephants. Also like Japan, the teams in Taiwan are corporate named.

So what is pro baseball like in Taiwan? Take the spirit of Japanese baseball and shrink it down to the scale of the Minor Leagues in the U.S. Tian Mu stadium holds 10,500 fans and there were about 4,000 in attendance for a Sunday evening game. The price of a ticket close to the field is 300NT ($10) and a bleacher seat can be had for 200. The food selection included fried mushrooms, grilled meat skewers, Taiwan sausages, some Pizza Hut thing in a box, and of course, hot dogs. The price of everything except the Pizza Hut box is about $1.50. What is also $1.50? A tall boy of Taiwan Beer. Even at the minors in the States, you can't touch a beer for under $5. Some will argue that Taiwan Beer is swill, but people pay $8 for an Old Style at Wrigley Field.

When you approach the ticket windows, you choose a line based on which team you are cheering for and the stadium is split down the middle with home team fans on the right, vistors on the left. This is the same as Japan. I wasn't aware of this in Japan and was amazed to see a sold out game, 50k+ fans in Tokyo, with the stadium precisely split right down the middle. I had a friend hook me up with tickets in Tokyo so I didn't understand how it happened, but it was obviously by design.

The fans in Taipei were equally as rabid as those in Tokyo, allbeit in smaller numbers. There were a couple guys waving huge flags right behind the dugout and a guy with a microphone leading the home crowd in cheers. There was a guy with a trumpet helping the cause and this later morphed into a 4 piece brass section. Everyone except me seemed to have some noise making device along the line of "thundersticks" with the Elephants logo on it. There was a specific beat to which they banged the noisemakers together in unison and there were Chinese songs. Though the visiting Bears used the melody of Popeye the Sailor Man as their theme.

Although they use the DH, from what I've seen on TV and at this particular game, it tends to be more of a National League style of play. They actually bunt, they actually hit and run. It's also a fast paced game, no acting like an OCD goofball in the batter's box. Just stand there and get ready to swing the bat! They have a halftime of sorts at the end of the fifth. The grounds crew comes out and the players clear the field and do some stretching and warming up in foul territory. It's probably a solid ten minutes. I haven't yet noticed what they do on TV during this time. They have a solid fence along the wall to screen you from sharply hit foul balls which was pretty surprising since their scooter use isn't quite characteristic of being risk averse. At the end of the game the players all lined up side-by-side along the foul line and bowed in unison to the crowd. Then a couple guys with purple mohawks and a guitar took the field to play a song and had a Milli Vanilli -esque audio malfunction, the crowd seemed neither surprised nor disappointed.