TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Weichuan Dragons, one of the four
founding franchises of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 1990, Friday
night played their first home game for the first time since 1999.
Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei City welcomed 7,500 spectators,
who saw the “expansion team” Dragons shut down the Fubon Guardians, 3-0.
Dragons rookie first baseman Shiang-Lin Chu launched his first career home run
in the 8th and collected his second RBI on the night. Chu was named MVP of the
historic contest.
During the pregame ceremony, the Dragons invited 326 baseball and softball players (163 pitcher-catchers) to challenge the ceremonial pitch record (111 set in 2011), held by the Ehime Mandarin Pirates of the Shikoku Island League Plus in Japan. Per the announcement by the adjudicator, 156 throws were successfully caught and thus became the new World Guinness Record.
Tianmu Baseball Stadium was built in 1999 and was never a designated homefield for any CPBL team until the negotiation between the Dragons and Taipei City Government resulted the Dragons calling it home from this season for at least 10 years.
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