TAIPEI, Taiwan | The Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame announced that retired Major Leaguer and former Olympian Pride of Taiwan Chien-Ming Wang has been inducted into the Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility.
Wang received 92.86% of the votes to become the second player to be inducted under the Professional Era category. Four other inductees were also elected under the Amateur Era category by the Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame Screening Committee.
Wang, a native of the southern county of Tainan, started his baseball career in grade school. He was selected to the national team for the first time aged 11. He then became a frequent national team member at all levels, even after signing for the New York Yankees in 2000. He competed in the Busan Asian Games 2002, Asian Baseball Championship 2003, Athens 2004 Olympic Games and World Baseball Classic 2013.
After making his Major League debut in 2005, becoming the third Major League Baseball (MLB) player from Taiwan, Wang earned a league-leading 19 wins for the Yankees in 2006, setting a new record for a single season with the most wins by an Asian pitcher. Wang repeated his 19-win season in 2006 and was voted the “Best Starting Pitcher of the Year” at the “This Year in Baseball Awards.”
In 2007 and 2008, Time Magazine named him among the "Time100 Most Influential People”.
His achievement in baseball was highly recognized in his hometown. In addition to being named the Best Male Athlete at the Sports Elite Awards in both 2005 and 2006, Wang also became the first baseball player to make the "Ten Outstanding Young Men” in 2008 with a unanimous vote.
After retiring from the MLB, Wang served as the bullpen coach of Chinese Taipei in the WBSC Premier12 2019 and World Baseball Classic 2023. He currently serves as the pitching coach of CTBC Brothers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
In the Amateur Era category, voted by the Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame Screening Committee, Kue-Shing Lin, Hyotaro Kondo, and Keng-Yuan Chen received posthumous recognition. At the same time, former WBSC Vice President Tom Peng was also elected to the Hall of Fame.
Lin, the founder of the first indigenous baseball team, NOKO, in Hualien, was widely regarded as the baseball pioneer in Taiwan. In 1925, NOKO became the first Taiwanese baseball team to appear in Japan’s Koshien High School Tournament.
Kondo, well known for taking the famous KANO baseball team to the final game of the Koshien Tournament in 1931, received 100% of the votes from the Screening Committee. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of Koshien Stadium in Osaka, Japan.
Chen was a member of the 1931 KANO team that made history in Koshien. After returning from studying in Yokohama, Japan, Chen devoted his career to coaching baseball in Chiayi and Taitung.
Former WBSC Vice President Peng was elected to the Hall of Fame with an 87.5% vote from the Screening Committee. Peng, a baseball player during his college years at Chinese Culture University, is recognised for his long-term devotion and contribution to developing local and international baseball. Peng was also influential in the development of Taiwanese baseball on the international stage, being the first Taiwanese to serve as the President of the Baseball Federation of Asia and the Vice President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation. Peng also received The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette Decoration from the Japanese government in honour of his achievement in strengthening the relationship between Taiwan and Japan through baseball.
The Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 2013 and has seen 45 baseball players, coaches, managers, and executives elected. The Hall of Fame and Museum is currently located at Lungtan, Taoyuan County, in the north of the island.
The Class of 2023 induction ceremony is to be held in the summer of 2024.
