TAIPEI, Taiwan | Legendary Taiwanese baseball player and executive Shih-Chiang Smiling Goerge Chao was elected Acting President of the Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame on May 28, 2024. Chao will fulfil the remaining tenure of the recently resigned former President Kuo-Ming Henry Chuang until the end of the year before the general election takes place.
Chao, 63, a native of Taichung City, currently serves as the Vice President of the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CPBL) and has been in the industry for over half a century. Chao started his baseball playing career at 12 when he was selected to represent the ever-famous Golden Dragons Baseball Team in 1973. He was later recruited to Taiwan’s powerhouse baseball academy of Pingtung Meiho junior/senior high school before being admitted to the Private Chinese Culture University to continue his baseball playing days. After graduating from college, Chao joined the Japanese amateur baseball league while playing for Honda before returning to Taiwan as a coach with the Weichuan Dragons Baseball Team.
During his playing career, Chao represented Chinese Taipei in the 1982 Baseball World Cup (fourth place), the Asian Baseball Championship (shared first place), the Baseball Intercontinental Cup (third place) and the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games baseball demonstration tournament (third place).
With the inauguration of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in 1990, Chao was retained as the Vice General Manager of the Dragons, then became the Vice General Manager of Jungo Baseball Club while assuming the post of Technical Committee Member at the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association.
In 1996, Chao became the inaugural manager of Chia-Nan Luka of the Taiwan Major League before taking the position of Vice General Manager of the Naluwan Corporation (the parent company of the Taiwan Major League) in 1998. Chao later managed TML’s Taichung Agan and Taipei Gida before taking over the position of General Manager of Naluwan Corp.
After the merger between the Taiwan Major League and the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2003, Chao managed the Macoto Gida for a season before returning to administrative tasks to oversee the Macoto organization's operations.
In addition to baseball-related media work, Chao has been appointed a board member of CTBA, consultant and leader of the Professional Baseball Panel of the Sports Development Committee of the Executive Yuan, and board member of the Mega Bank Cultural and Education Foundation.
The Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will include former Olympic and New York Yankees player Chien-Ming Wang and former Vice President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation Tom Peng, among other legendary figures in Taiwan baseball. The induction ceremony is expected for CPBL’s annual All-Star Weekend in July, with the induction exhibition opening in August in Lungtan, Taoyuan.
