More than 80,000 fans packed the Taipei Dome over a two-day series to participate in the farewell games of CTBC Brothers’ legendary outfielder Szu-Chi Chou, setting numerous attendance records in Taiwan baseball history.
Both games on 21 & 22 September were sold out at the Taipei Dome, which was open to its largest capacity since its completion, and it was also the first time any baseball games in Taiwan had reached the 40,000-audience milestone.
Szu-Chi Chou, born in the Indigenous
village of Tafalong in Hualian, played football during his grade school years
before switching to baseball after the football team disbanded.
Chou was selected to represent Chinese Taipei for the first time in his high school years in the WBSC Junior Baseball World Championship 1999. He was later selected to the Chinese Taipei team in the XXI BFA Asian Baseball Championship 2001, XXVI BFA Asian Baseball Championship 2012, and World Baseball Classic 2013.
Chou’s professional career started when he
was drafted by the CPBL expansion team Macoto GIDA (later renamed COBRAS) during
the 2003 military training draft (3rd round, 14th overall).
In 2005 he made his debut and became the starting outfielder of the COBRAS in
2007.
The year 2008 marked the most unforgettable season in Chou’s career. With the new ownership taking over the COBRAS, Chou had his first career season with a .330 batting average and a career-high .861 OPS with league-leading triples. Little did the public know that the largest game-fixing scandal in the history of CPBL was to lead to the franchise being expelled right before the Taiwan Series 2008 took place.
During that darkest season of CPBL history, Chou had to ask the management to send him down to the minor league so he would not be part of the teams that threw games. “I truly love baseball, so I would never do anything to betray baseball,” said Chou during an interview years later. With the legal proceeding becoming known to the public, many learned how agonizing and frightening the season had been to Chou and other teammates who insist on defending the integrity of the games.
Chou became the only
player to win the Best Ten from the expelled club that season. “When the circumstances
cannot be chosen nor be controlled, I kept telling myself to insist on giving
my one hundred percent no matter how my surroundings are,” said Chou during the
acceptance speech at the award ceremony.
Chou was selected by the Brother Elephants during a subsequent and continued his career for another 16 illustrated seasons. During his tenures with the Elephants (later to become the Brothers), Chou excelled and won another two Best Ten and a Silver Sluggers Award, as well as a season MVP (2012), and was voted to the All-Star Game 13 times.
In June, 2024, Chou became the 9th player in CPBL history to collect 1,000 hits (1,805), 100 home runs (144), and 100 stolen bases.
In addition to giving his best on the field,
Chou also established his own charitable foundation, Base Garden, became the
union leader, and enrolled in the graduate school of history. “I just want to
look at baseball from a different perspective,” said Chou.
Chou will stay with the CTBC Brothers after his retirement and will be a special assistant to Jefferey Koo Jr., the President of the Baseball Federation of Asia and Chinse Taipei Baseball Association as well as the owner of the CTBC Brothers.
