Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How Do You Say "Black Sox" in Taiwanese?

Hey look, it's a former Los Angeles Dodger in the news, allegedly involved in a game-fixing scandal in Taiwan:

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Authorities are investigating whether Taiwanese baseball players accepted bribes to fix games, a prosecutor said Tuesday, the latest blow to the integrity of the sport on the baseball-loving island.

Prosecutor Cheng Hsin-hung refused to identify the players involved in the probe, but former Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tsao Chin-hui has acknowledged that investigators searched his Taipei home on Monday.

"I regret [the investigators] failed to understand what happened with me and others who have played in good faith," said Tsao, who this year joined the Brother Elephants of the four-member Chinese Professional Baseball League -- Taiwan's top league.

The 28-year-old Tsao was the first Taiwanese pitcher to take the mound in the major leagues but struggled through a series of injuries which limited his appearances for both the Rockies and Dodgers. [...]

"We have ruled out the possibility that the players were intimidated and forced into throwing games, and are investigating whether they accepted improper benefits," he said.

Taiwanese media, citing unnamed investigators, said that starting pitchers could earn up to $90,000 per outing from high stakes gamblers for agreeing to throw games.

Well this leaves a tsao-ur taste in my mouth. I suppose any Taiwan Championship Series that involves the Uni-President Lions and Brother Elephants, and goes to seven games, is immediately suspect.

8 comments:

rbnlaw said...

Hung like Chin-hsin

rbnlaw said...

Sorry, Cheng-hsin.

Josh S. said...

"How Do You Say "Black Sox" in Taiwanese?"

黑襪

Steve Sax said...

@Josh: Gesundheit.

Steve Sax said...

I can't believe these guys would be so motivated to throw a championship game. They must be Taipei personalities.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

(shakes head in shame)

MR.F said...

So... "The Plan"... anybody? I'll likely watch it this weekend.

MR.F said...

And the basketball season starts. Good thing since the baseball season just ended a few days ago.