"Tai Steel vs Dai Steel" match realized, 12,000 fans gather at Kaohsiung Chengqing Lake Stadium over two days

On February 27 and 28, the "Kangdu-Taiwan Friendship Exchange Games" were held at the Cheng Ching Hu Baseball Stadium in Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan, home of the Taiwanese professional baseball team The Hawks, the "sixth team" that joined the Taiwanese professional team last season, and Oisix Niigata Albirex BC, also an NPB Eastern League team from last season.

The mascots of both teams are Taisteel, The Hawks is "Taka", and Oisix Niigata Albirex BC is "Swan", so the catch phrase "捍衛空空 (protect the territorial airspace)" was the highlight of this exchange match, which was Yang Yue Steel, who has been playing for Oisix since last season.

It has been seven years and four months since he played in Taiwan in November 2017 when he joined the baseball Taiwan national team as an overage player. Taisteel's press release carried the headline "Taigan vs. Daigan".

The lineup of the "old and new The Fighters warriors" of Yang Yue Steel and Tai Steel and Wang Baiyu, the starting duel between Shotaro Kasahara, who joined his hometown of Niigata, Oisix after leaving Taisteel last season due to injury, and Kazumasa Yoshida, who moved to Taisteel during the season and played as a reliever, and the team of the WBC qualifier Taiwan National Team, who decided to advance to next year's tournament despite their struggles, joined the team. There was a lot of buzz, and about 12,000 fans packed the stadium on both days.

Since the team's founding in 2022, Taiwan Steel The Hawks GM Liu Dong-Dong, known as the "Japan connoisseur" of Taiwanese baseball, has indicated that in addition to inviting Japan coaches and acquiring Japan players, he will actively promote exchanges with the Japan baseball world.

At the end of October last year, four promising young players were sent to the fall camp in Saitama Seibu Lions, and during this year's spring camp, the top team including coach HONG Ichichu and general coach HISUNORI YOKOTA pitcher led 14 young pitcher players to a mini-camp at Nishizaki Baseball Stadium in Itoman City, Okinawa Prefecture, to raise expectations for full-scale development from next spring onwards.

On February 27 and 28, Taisteel and Oisix held the "Port City Tai-Japan Friendship Exchange Match". The exchange game, which was offered and invited by Taisteel to the Oisix side, was the first official exchange game with an NPB team since the team's founding, and it was also the opening of the stadium at Chengqing Lake Stadium this season.

GM Liu said, "It was very tough with a lot of hurdles, but I Oisix 'm happy to be able to do it. I smiled.

Oisix Coach Masaru Takeda and Coach pitcher of expressed his enthusiasm when he arrived at the stadium, saying, "I am grateful for this opportunity, and it is a good experience for young players, especially to be able to play against players from the first team of the Japan, whether it is Taiwan or Taiwan, and since the opening of the season (March 15) is coming up, I would like to make the most of this experience."

He also praised the 38-year-old Yang Yue Steel, who was also his teammate during his playing days, saying, "He is a big part of the team because he is older and takes care of and coaches the juniors," and joked, "I'm going to use him as the No. 1 light right away, and I'm already an uncle, but I want him to play around like a boy today."

On the other hand, when Taisteel's director Hong Yi-zhong saw Yang Yue Gang who had come to greet him, he ran up to him and shook his hand. Not only did he ask the press to "call on everyone to come back to Taiwan soon," but he also enthusiastically said, "I've been telling you to come back to Taiwan for a long time," and the love call involving the media of the "famous general" of the Taiwanese baseball world was overwhelmed by the cool Yang Yue Gang.

When asked about the significance of the exchange match, Coach Hong said, "I'm very happy, if we continue to interact with Japan baseball, who are at a higher level than us, the gap between the Taiwanese players will be narrowed not only in terms of technical aspects, but also in terms of facilities and other hardware."

Surrounded by Taiwanese media for the first time in a long time, Yang Yue Gang said, "I'm very excited to come back to Taiwan with my team and play in Kaohsiung, in the south of the country. I hope that the young people of Oisix will be able to feel the passion of Taiwanese baseball firsthand." When asked about Coach Hong's "love call," he said with a wry smile, "Every time I see him, he tells me," but added, "There are still many things I want to learn and things I need to learn, so I'm not in a hurry.

On the Taisteel side, it can be said that his performance greatly contributed to the holding of the exchange game by Kazumasa Yoshida, who joined the team from Oisix in August last year, appeared in 15 games, allowed one earned run in 15 2/3 innings, and gave up one earned run in relief performances. Yoshida, who was nicknamed "the Darvish of Taisteel" by fans, was delighted with the realization of an exchange match with his old nest in Taiwan, saying, "There is Kasahara pitcher who played for Taisteel, and there are many NPB players here, including Moya, so I think it is good for the Asian baseball world to be able to realize such an exchange match."

Yoshida, who has been preparing as a starter this season, said, "I've played against players from the NPB, such as Kakuko and Takayama (Shun), so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when I play against Chinen (Taisei), who was the top hitter in the Eastern League last year."

Yang Tai-kang's great performance with 5 hit in 7 At Bat in two games makes Taiwanese fans happy

The event was co-hosted by Taisteel The Hawks and the Kaohsiung City Government, and the first pitch ceremony of the first game on February 27 was pitcher by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-yi, while Taisteel's Wang Boxuan, who played in the WBC qualifiers, served as catcher and Yang Yue Steel served as hitter. Taisteel's starting pitcher was Premier12 left-hander Chen Baiqing, while the starting pitcher for Oisix was former Hiroshima Carp Kazuki Yabuta.

In the top of the first inning, Oisix suddenly led off the inning with a 142 kph fastball from Chen Baiqing, and center fielder loaded the bases with two outs and scored on an RBI single to left field by No. 4 Yodai Okawa, and in the bottom of the inning, Taisteel tied the game at 1-1 with a two-out triple to right field by last season's double champion Stephen Moya.

Oisix scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning with an RBI triple that beat Taisei Chinen's RBI single to right-center field. After that, Oisix added three runs in the seventh inning and one more in the eighth inning from the young pitcher of Taisteel, and scored eight runs in 15 hit and scattered Taisteel batting lines to score 6 hit closer and win 8-1.

In Oisix, Yodai Okawa had a 2 RBI and Taisei Chinen had a 2 hit 2 RBI, and Yang Yue Steel also had a multi-hit game with an unrelenting strike, much to the delight of fans.

After the game, manager Hong Il-jung mentioned that 6 pitcher was forced to throw a total of 196 pitches, and said with a wry smile, "It's pitcher like hitter Japan has been instructed on how to pitch. With 1 runs in the fourth inning, starter Chen Baiqing also said that he had to improve the sharpness of his breaking ball, saying, "He just hits the bat and doesn't struck out easily.

After the match, there was a joint autograph session between the two teams, number 1, Prince of Taisteel, Zeng Ziyu and Yang Yue. A limited number of 100 people were selected by lottery from fans who purchased collaboration goods over a certain amount of money. There were also many enthusiastic fans of Yangyu Steel wearing goods from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Yomiuri Giants eras, and were thrilled with the raw "Yue Steel".

Then, in the second game on February 28, Oisix Shotaro Kasahara and Kazumasa Yoshida stood mound in the starting lineup for Taiwan Steel. In the top of the 2nd inning, the Taiwan Steelers were invited as guests for this exchange game, and gave a two-game all-out performance. baseball Cheering YouTuber B-Morel led the cheering, and after Wang Kwai-yu suddenly led off with a double, with one out and three on, Zeng Yu-ching, who was called the "Taiwanese Ichiro" when he was at Kochi Chuo High School, center fielder went in front. After a timely hit, a misjudgment by Oisix outfielder allowed the second run to score. The Oisix batting lineup also got on the board in the bottom of the 2nd inning with a timely hit by Taisei Chinen, and in the bottom of the 3rd inning with a timely double by Yohdai Okawa to go up 2-2.

Taikogei, who wanted to avoid consecutive losses, scored two runs with two outs in the bottom of the 5th inning, including a double by Ikuen Yan, who was registered as a manager in the off-season, and added three more runs in the 6th inning with 5 hit outs in one inning to extend the lead to 7-2. Oisix bases loaded The TAIGEONG team scored two runs in the bottom of the 7th inning on a double by Chinen Taisei, but the TAIGEONG team escaped with a 7-4 win and a 1-1 loss in the exchange game.

In the game, Taigang's 12 hit and 17 hit runs were more than Taigang's Oisix. For Taigang, Lin Jia Yu, who started at No. 1 short stop, had a strong performance, and in Oisix, Chinen Taisei, who was active in the first game, exploded with 4 hit 3 RBI runs, showing his ability as the top hitter hitter in the Eastern League.

At Bat hit Yohtai Koh, who appeared in the No. 6 DH spot, once went to the bench with a limp after a hit from Kazumasa Yoshida center fielder in the bottom of the second inning, but continued to play after receiving treatment, saying, "I can't leave after just one at-bat. The Taiwanese fans were delighted.

Before the game, Yohtai Koh, who had analyzed the similarities in the team colors of the two teams with many young players, said, "When I actually played with them, I found they were really similar. The two games were a great exchange. I think both teams learned a lot from each other, both offensively and defensively. I hope to grow even more in the season," he said of his aspirations for the season.

It is unclear whether Yang Dai-kang will respond to manager Hung Yi-chung's invitation and consider playing in Taiwan in the future, but at the CPBL's GM meeting on March 5th, all six teams agreed that the CPBL would consider creating a system that would allow teams interested in acquiring veteran big-name players who have played overseas for a certain period of time to negotiate freely without going through the draft meeting.

Taikou General Manager Liu Dongyang reflected, "This is the first step, and we would like to continue our exchange with Oisix in the future." Taikou plans to continue to actively exchange with NPB teams, as well as with overseas teams. Friendly matches between teams from the same team are attractive because they are filled with friendly atmosphere and various events are planned, making it easy for fans to interact with each other. We look forward to future exchange plans from the Taikou The Hawks.

Written by Hideo Komada (Information current as of March 10)