The games hosted by the Uni-President The Lions of the Taiwan Professional baseball (three games against the Wei Chun The Dragons) held at the Taipei Dome in Taipei City from April 11th to 13th were held as a "W The Lions" collaboration event between the Uni-President The Lions and Saitama Seibu Lions.

The Taiwan-Japan The Lions exchange between the Taiwan Professional baseball League's Uni-President The Lions and the Nippon Professional baseball 's Saitama Seibu Lions began in 2016, when "Oriental Express" Kuo Tai-Yuan (currently Executive Vice General Manager of the Fubon Guardians), who played for Seibu from 1985 to 1997, was the manager of Uni-President. In the spring of that year, current Seibu manager Nishiguchi Fumiya served as a visiting pitcher coach for Uni-President, and Uni-President players were also sent to Seibu 's fall training camp. In addition, during the spring training camps in 2019 and 2024, friendly games were held at Seibu 's training camp site, Haruno, Kochi Prefecture (the 2024 training camp was cancelled due to rain).

The "W The Lions" collaboration event between the two teams has been held in both Taiwan and Japan since 2016, except during pandemic periods. The highlight is the "co-starring" of the mascots and performance teams, but in Taiwan in particular, the event is highly popular, with the sale of collaboration goods and talk shows and opening pitch ceremonies featuring Seibu alumni legends.

This year, the "W The Lions" collaboration event was held in Taiwan for three days from April 11th to 13th at the Taipei Dome, and in Japan on both April 30th and May 1st at Belluna Dome. This time, we will bring you the details of the event held in Taiwan.

This year, which celebrated its 10th anniversary and was held at the Taipei Dome for the first time, the six members of the official performance team "bluelegends" from Saitama Seibu Lions and the mascot "Leo" were in the lineup, and the cheerleaders "Uni-girls" of the unified The Lions, and the mascots "LION" and "YINGYING" were present. It was enlivened with.

In addition to interacting with Taiwanese fans at a fan meeting at a special venue, bluelegends performed a breathtaking dance performance with Uni-girls at ground at the opening ceremony, and during the game, they also participated in Taiwanese-style cheering on the stage of the first and third base infield stands, such as "Bark The Lions" and train dance In addition to cheering for Seibu, he also challenged the unification support call and received applause.

Nozomi and Chihiro, who became members of "Uni-girls" last season and are now popular cheerleaders representing Taiwanese professional baseball, are from bluelegends, and their interaction at this "W The Lions" event was the reason for their visit to Taiwan. It seems that many Taiwanese fans were happy to see the two performing together with bluelegends and dancing to the cheering song of Saitama Seibu.

In addition, Saitama Seibu 's mascot Leo showed impressive athleticism in Taiwan. Just when you think that you showed strike pitch at the first pitch ceremony, the synonymous continuous backflip is 8 consecutive rotations with plenty of room to spare. And the culmination was the relay showdown. Leo took the baton as an anchor from the members of BlueLegends and kept the lead, scoring a goal and sending the stands into flames with a "backflip home in" like Koji Akiyama showed in the 1986 Japan Series.

The guests this time were Watanabe Hisanobu and Ishii Takehiro, legendary players who supported Seibu 's golden age. After finishing their careers in Japanese professional baseball, both of them joined the now-defunct TML (Taiwan League), another professional baseball league in Taiwan, where Kuo Tai-yuan was serving as a senior technical advisor at the time, through their connection. Watanabe played for the Chia-nan Warriors from 1999 to 2001, and Ishii for the Taipei Sun from 2000 to 2002. They sometimes pitched against each other and both had great success, winning the titles for most wins and best ERA, and they also shared their rich experience as coaches, raising the level of the team. Watanabe has always said that his coaching base was based on his three years in Taiwan.

At the fan meeting and talk show on April 12th, Watanabe excited the fans with his greetings in both Mandarin and Taiwanese. He expressed his joy at the completion of the Taipei Dome, which fans had been looking forward to since his days playing for TML. He also spoke about the long-standing relationship between the two teams, and recalled the commemorative photo taken with both teams right after the team's 1-0 walk walk-off victory over Taiwanese champions Uni-President in the 2008 Asia Series finals, when the team played as the number one team in Japan, saying, "It's a memory I will never forget."

In the second half of the talk show, Kwak Chun-lin, who Watanabe acquired when he was a senior director at Saitama Seibu and who now plays for Uni-President, appeared as a secret guest. When asked by the moderator if he had seen Kwak Chun-lin's performance at last year's Premier 12, Watanabe got the crowd excited with a straightforward talk, saying, "You know, Kwak Chun-lin is strong in international competitions," and then he mentioned the subtle changes in his form, and followed up by praising him, saying, "I was worried because he injured his elbow, but he's now got a ball that can get strikeouts. His level has improved," and the two shared a smile and embraced.

Watanabe is also related to Taiwan's "national hero" Chen Chiet-Hsien, who was captain of the Uni-President and Taiwanese national teams and was named MVP at the Premier 12 championship. In fact, both of Chen's elementary and junior high school teachers were Watanabe's teammates at the TML Chianan Warriors, and in particular, the pitcher Lin Zhan-Hsien, who is seven years younger than Watanabe, was a close colleague and a junior that Watanabe looked up to. When asked about their connection, Watanabe said, "Chen studied abroad in Japan (Kyoseiko High School in Okayama Prefecture) and I had heard about him from Lin Zhan-Hsien, but I'm glad he has become such a great player. He built his foundation at a Japanese high school and blossomed in Taiwan. He's a player with ties to Japan, and I'm even happier because he's a student of my student."

The following day, on April 13th, Ishii Takehiro threw the ceremonial first pitch and, with an expression of emotion on his face, said, "I'm happy to have visited Taiwan, which I consider to be my 'second home,' and to have been able to take part in such an event at the wonderful Taipei Dome. If I could have been greedy, I would have liked to throw strike, but I don't think I'll forget this for the rest of my life."

When asked by the Taiwanese media about the progress of Taiwanese baseball over the past 20 years, Ishii said that when he played, there was still a big gap between Taiwan and Japan, and although many players could hit the ball far with a powerful swing, they could not keep up with breaking ball. However, after watching the games over the past two days, he said he was surprised at the improvement in the level, and that there are now more good hitter who can keep up with breaking ball. Regarding the progress of the Taiwanese national team in last year's Premier 12, he said, "Until now, Taiwanese players have been perceived as weak in close games, but their psychological state has become much stronger." During this visit to Taiwan, which was his first in nine years, he also met Kuo Tai-yuan, and they had a lively time reminiscing about their time with Seibu and TML.

The "W The Lions" event was also an exchange event between Taiwan and Japan, and the special venue featured booths from Seibu Group companies such as Seibu and Xpark, an urban aquarium operated by Yokohama Hakkeijima in Taoyuan City in the north, as well as Pacific League Marketing (PLM) and Kochi Prefecture.

PLM began broadcasting regular season Pacific League League games in Taiwan in 2014, and currently has a partnership agreement with DAZN Taiwan, broadcasting games every day, including the main channel with live commentary in Taiwanese Mandarin, and broadcasting more than 400 games per year, including games hosted by the six Pacific League League teams alone.

At the PLM booth, fans were invited to take commemorative photos in front of a board featuring Pacific League star players, register on DAZN Taiwan's Instagram, and post a photo tagging one of their favorite Pacific League players, in order to be entered into a lottery to win merchandise. Nearly 1,500 fans took part over the three days.

As this was a match hosted by Uni-President Lions, the most popular tagged player was former Uni-President Lions ace Ruei-Yang Gu Lin, who used the posting system to join Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters this offseason, but Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 'Yuki Yanagita and Nippon-Ham 's Chusei Mannami were also popular. A fan wearing a "W The Lions" happi coat released at this collaboration event laughed, "I've been supporting Seibu since the days of Kiyohara Kazuhiro. I can't narrow it down to just one person."
　
At the Kochi Prefecture booth, Sakamoto Ryoma, Sports Director of the Kochi Prefecture Tourism and Convention Association, also promoted the prefecture. According to Sakamoto, who shares the same name as the "Bakumatsu Patriot," Seibu holds its spring training camp in Haruno every year, and Unified has also visited Kochi twice in the past to exchange with Seibu, which is why they decided to exhibit at the event. He expressed his hope that they would like to have a deeper connection with both teams, not just for the training camp. Incidentally, Taiwan is the top source of bounce tourists visiting Kochi Prefecture, and Tigerair Taiwan, the only international scheduled flight at Kochi Airport, operates two flights a week between Taiwan Taoyuan and Kochi, with a boarding rate of over 90%, and Sakamoto said he would like to aim for daily operation. Audience members holding pamphlets in Mandarin Taiwan were shining with excitement, saying, "I would like to see the Japan-Taiwan The Lions match in Kochi. The fish looks delicious."

Since the acquisition of Kuo Tai-yuan, Saitama Seibu Lions have acquired many Taiwanese players. In last year's draft, they acquired the large outfielder Lin Guan-chen (Nihon Keizai University), who is 195 cm and 105 kg, with the 4th pick. On April 27th, he hit his first professional home run in a game against ENEOS, a third-string team, and even if it wasn't a perfect hit, his power to carry the ball into the stands was thrilling to watch. If Lin Guan-chen can establish himself in the first string, Taiwanese fans will become even more interested in Seibu, and the "W The Lions" events from next year onwards will be even more exciting. We look forward to further exchanges in the future.

Text by Hide Komada