Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

The IBAF World Cup of Baseball 2007 is in Taichung (also Taipei)!!!

We have 2 different versions of Nero and therefore 2 different versions of Photosnap Image Editor - one excellent and one sucky. The sucky one is on the laptop - which is seriously diseased anyway, and THAT version has no red-eye reduction. Sometimes when I want to post from the laptop, I convert the red-eye pics to b&w - but I wanted these pics to be in color, hence the delay. Humpphhh.

The stadium is really nice, but I gotta add, for Taiwan. It's a great design, big and open. The aspect I like the most is that you can see the game and walk around the first level of the stadium without having to buy a ticket, which gives a real inviting, inclusive feeling like at a hometown field. But something about the execution, the actual construction, the materials, causes the stadium to seem heavy, cold and haphazard. It's all cement and function - no beauty, kinda feels like it was built by prisoners for robots who exist in a world without joy. However, that inhumanity marks the majority of Taiwan's modern-day architecture, I.M. Pei notwithstanding. And, what difference does it make in the end? The facility serves well its purpose and it's got ample parking!!!!

Here's a bit from the Taichung City Government website - this was written a couple years ago while the stadium was being built. When we went to games last November, the stadium was still under construction.

Mayor Hu has received grants from the National Council on Physical Fitness
and Sports to build an international standard baseball stadium, which has been
keenly anticipated by the people of Taichung. The work commencement ceremony took place on December 29, 2004, and the building's completion is scheduled for
August 2006. The stadium's location is at the intersection of HuanZhong Road and
ChongDe Road, with an area of 9 hectares and can seat up to 20,000 members of
audience. Once this international standard baseball stadium is completed, not
only would it benefit Taichung citizens, people from Taichung County, Nantou
County and Changhua County would only be about an hour's drive away. With the
development of transportation nowadays, the service area would reach up to
Hsinchu in the north and Chiayi in the south. It will also help balance the
number of sporting facilities in the country.

If this excerpt whets your whistle to learn more about English proficiency in Taiwan, click over to the source and read about Taichung as the Leading Force in English Educational Reform - the English is almost correct. What the educational push lacks is any notion of utilizing native speakers as editors or proof readers. So close and yet, so far away. Taiwan businesses and governments -at all levels - routinely publish sloppy and confusing English translations. It's confounding when there are so many qualified native speakers at hand. All writers need and use editors. No writer employs non-native speakers as editors... It's just not done, except in Taiwan where it is de rigueur.

These last pics are after Ryan got the foul ball. We were sitting behind the plate just to the 1st base side - Panama (guest) dugout. I'm still kinda surprised Panama didn't play a little better...

Ryan wants me to clarify that a few years ago at a Taiwan league game at the old stadium, he got a homerun ball - and had it signed by the player. Very cool to have a baseball signed with Chinese characters!