Riccardo Schiroli in Taichung
Friday November 15 at 5 am (CET) or Thursday November 14 at 11 pm (US Eastern) or at 12 noon local time the 2013 Asia Series will take off in Taichung (Chinese Taipei) Intercontinental Stadium.
The Asia Series were born in 2005 as the Konami Cup and saw the Champions of the main pro leagues in Asia (Japanese NPB, south Korean KBO and Chinese Taipei CPBL) and an All Star from the People’s Republic of China compete in a 4 team format. After the 2008 edition Konami withdrew its support and the tournament was reduced to a series between 2 teams representing their own country (in 2009 Japan–Korea, in 2010 Korea-Chinese Taipei). The tournament was born again in 2011 when it opened to the winners of the Australian Baseball League and made one step further prior to this 2013, edition opening to the winners of the European Cup for Clubs.
Unipol Bologna is the newcomer, representing Italy and Europe. The 2 time European Champions can be definitely considered theunderdog of group 1, that features powerhouses like the KBO Champions Samsung Lions, including aging but always dangerous slugger Seung Yuop Lee (better known as the Lion King), and the CPBL winners Uni President Lions.
Uni President Lions’ manager Chien Lien Hung made it clear, during the press conference that preceded the tournament’s Welcome Party, that he believes the Japanese Rakuten Golden Eagles to be the team to beat.
The manager of the first time NPB Champions Eagles Sanichi Oshino took it as easy as he could: “I really am not sure about what my team can make. We have never played in international competition”.
The Eagles will debut on Friday against the second team from Chinese Taipei (the Eda Rhinos), that will have in former hitting coach Dallas Williams the new manager. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Rhinos gave up some chances to compete against the Eagles to keep their best pitchers to face the Australians Canberra Cavalry.
The championship game will be played between the 2 teams emerging from the semi finals (group 1 winner against group 2 runner up and vice-versa) on Wednesday November 20 at 6 pm local time.
