Taipei City – World No. 4 and co-host Chinese Taipei named Taiwanese baseball legend Kuo Tai-yuan as their team manager for the inaugural WBSC Premier12 of Baseball being staged in Japan and Taiwan from 8-21 November.
The announcement was made jointly by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) and Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) at a press conference, together with WBSC. The two organisations, both WBSC Members, said they were proud to be entering into a historic collaboration and shared vision on the newest international baseball flagship, Premier12.
“The Chinese Taipei National Baseball Team for Premier12 will be the best ever,” Chinese Taipei leaders said. “We are confident that Chinese Taipei will make it to the semi-finals and finals of Premier12.”
Taiwan’s Sports Ministry, present at the press conference, said, “We’ll have the strongest Chinese Taipei team with this cooperation between CTBA and CPBL.”
During his playing career, Kuo, 53, won over 100 games for the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
In his new role, Kuo said he aims to guide the team to the Tokyo Dome, where the semi-finals and global grand finale will be staged.
Chinese Taipei will open the WBSC Premier12 on 9 November against No. 5 Netherlands at Taichung Intercontinental Stadium.
The full tournament schedule, bracket and full list of venues for the WBSC Premier12, scheduled for 8-21 November in Japan and Taiwan, were revealed last week in Taipei City by the world governing body.
The biggest international baseball tournament on the calendar, the Top 12 countries from the WBSC Baseball World Rankings will unite for the first time ever at Premier12, in a global battle that will challenge each nation to prove and defend its world rankings, with a $USD multi-million purse and large-scale bonus of ranking points at stake.
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