Taiwan’s CPBL first in world to open 2020 baseball season

2020/04/15

Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball league kicked off its 2020 season with the Chinatrust Brothers facing off against the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions April 12 at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in the central city, marking the year’s first pro baseball game held anywhere in the world as other leagues remain shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
 Though the stands were empty, viewers around the country tuned in to watch the Lions soundly defeat the Brothers with a 4-1 win. A major highlight of the game was the first home run of the season, hit to left field by the Lion’s Kevin Cheng in the top of the second inning, giving his team an early 1-0 lead.
 
 Among the estimated 800,000 spectators tuning in was dedicated baseball fan President Tsai Ing-wen, who posted to her Facebook page a picture of herself enjoying the game from her home in Taipei City.
 
 Precautions were made to ensure the safety of the players such as conducting the season behind closed doors, limiting staffers involved in each game to under 200 and requiring reporters covering the game to register in advance. The CPBL’s measures were praised by media outlets about the world, including major U.S. news networks CBS and NBC.
 
 In an effort to encourage those watching from home to maintain good personal hygiene, the CPBL released a new temporary logo showing a baseball player washing his hands.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)