The IBAF Intercontinental Cup is being played in Taichung Taiwan at the new and beautiful Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Bei Tun on Chung De Road. Some games are being played at Taichung Municipal Stadium downtown - a lackluster venue by comparison.
Yesterday Ivo, Ryan and I went with some friends to see Italy play Cuba. A couple strange things happened - the strangest was a posted error by Cuba (scorekeeper changed a a bungle-fielded bunt which left an Italian player safe at first, into a hit - and erased the error...). The other big strange thing is how empty the stadium was. Granted Taiwan was playing Australia at the old stadium at the same time, but still... Since the tournament started on Thursday, the fields have looked emptier than full. And online, the tickets for all Taiwan games are sold out - but there are hundreds of empty seats...
It's surprising because so many Taiwanese seem to love baseball. The professional season here is a bit short with fewer than expected games played in town and by the end, the Taichung games are SOLD OUT. Because of the success, celebrity and sweetness of Wang Jian Ming - the Yankees are hugely popular. So popular, in fact, that their games are replayed by ESPN and any other station that can get the rights... over and over and over. Even if another game is available live. Even if and when the Yankees were eliminated. It seems to me, real ball fans would want to watch the world series even if the Yankees weren't playing. Even if Wang Jian Ming had already flown back to Taiwan.
But then, it's not just Taiwan-nationalism-pride/lack-of-interest-in-the-outside-world, cuz this year's World Series between Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals was the least attended/lowest ratings-grabber since 2005's Houston-Chicago match-up which was the lowest rated... It seems like - as in the rap-world, it's all east coast/west coast... No matter what kinda street cred Motown has... I'm interested, but like I said, my favorite part of baseball is the peripheral stuff like nachos and souvenirs, especially Ivo-sized, neither of which was for sale yesterday:( But, we're going to this afternoon's Taiwan vs. Korea (blew last night's game w Japan in the bottom of the ninth inning!!!) game - which SHOULD be well-attended... We'll see.
We took Ivo's gege Michael - he's the 11 year old son of Ivo's babysitter. Karin, Dean, John, Petra and their niece met us there.
The pic of Ivo looking disgusted was taken while he was perched just behind a screaming baby whose father kept telling her to "shhhuuut up!"
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