Baseball - Yankees’ Pitcher National Hero in Taiwan

The pitchers Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Hideki Irabu of the Yankees made Major League baseball a hit in Japan in the mid-1990s. Center Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets also popularized NBA basketball in China in 2002. Now thanks to New York Yankees jersey’s pitcher Chien-Ming Wang baseball is becoming fairly popular in Taiwan.

While Taiwan is experiencing its worst street protests and even brawls between supporters and critics of President Chen Shui-bian, Wang is considered as the national hero of the Taiwanese nation. Everyone from schoolchildren to grandparents has made plans to watch television when Wang pitches in the first game of the playoffs. Yankees games now became some of the highest ratings on Taiwanese public television network, which outbid unexpectedly commercial channels for the rights to broadcast Yankees games here this summer. These high ratings are obtained while games are broadcast at 1 a.m. because of the 12- hour time difference.

Wang's success has its downsides for the local league by diverting attention from local games. Attendance is down 30 percent this season, partly because of Wang but also because of a dispute last year. But in the long run the Taiwanese league may benefit from Wang's popularity as more people become interested in the game and as Taiwan becomes more important as a recruiting ground for the major leagues in the United States. Scouts for the Mets, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies have all been trolling the island for players this summer, Wang said.