TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Hailed as the world's first professional baseball game in 2020, Taiwan's league went ahead with its regular season and played its opening game in Taichung behind closed doors on Sunday (April 13).
Unfortunately, the game was mistaken by a baseball writer as having occurred in China, due to the misleading first word of the league's name: the "Chinese" Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
The season opener in Taiwan has attracted heavy international media attention, as all the world’s sporting events have come to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, of Tainan, beat the home team Chinatrust Brothers, 4-1, according to CBS Sports.
“Kai-Wen Cheng, an outfielder with the Uni-Lions, hit the first home run of the CPBL season in the first inning. That means, by extension, Cheng hit the world's first meaningful home run of the year,” the report said.
NBC Sports shared the video of the homer on its official Twitter account, with the caption, “A real life home run from a real live professional baseball game!”
American journalist Jared Carrabis also shared the home run video on his Twitter account, with the accompanying text, “We are playing baseball in China. There is hope.”
After several of his followers pointed out that it’s Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, Carrabis made a semi-correction by tweeting, “It’s a Chinese baseball league in Taiwan. Whatever. It’s baseball. And it’s happening.”
