On Having One Job
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| ChengCing Lake Baseball Stadium, 2013 |
Uni-President 7-11 Lions vs. EDA Rhinos
ChengCing Lake Baseball Stadium
Chinese Professional Baseball
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
18:35
Outside the Game:
Since the high-speed rail ride to nearby Kaohsiung was only about fifteen minutes, I could afford to sleep in a little before heading down to my inconceivably large breakfast buffet again with my free paper. I ate until it was necessary to leave, and then grabbed my stuff, checked out, and went across the street to wait for the free shuttle bus to the high-speed station. It came, I went, and I got on the train for an inconsequential ride to Kaohsiung.
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| Trains ahoy |
Kaohsiung was always the "problem" of this trip, in that the main baseball park in the city is near a recreational area northeast of the city and not near anything resembling mass transit. It seemed a flaw for the biggest baseball stadium in the south, but who am I to judge?
A Taiwanese co-worker had helped me work out some buses that seemed to offer some hope, but this was always a little more mushy than I like my plans, so I was looking for some more solid information once I got boots on the ground. At the high-speed rail station, I stopped at the information booth, and the man there gave me a map and several places to catch the buses that my co-worked had correctly identified.
Buoyed by that information, I bought a ticket for my train the next day and then went onto the subway to get to my hotel. The Kaohsiung subway was much like the Taipei one, in that it had either the casino-chip, single-trip tokens, or a multi-use refill card. Since I was only using the subway once or twice, I opted for the tokens and a quick and uneventful ride to the station by my hotel.
After a bit of back-and-forth to find the right alley that held my hotel, I was able to check in early and dump all my stuff in the room. As this was going to be a one-day wonder trip, I got all my clothes and whatnot ready for the next day and re-packed, and then sat in the welcoming air conditioning for a while.
Since getting to the stadium was such a sketchy endeavor, I just decided to make a day of it, and at around two, I headed out. I walked up to the main local-service train station, which was just one more subway stop to the north. I went to the information desk there to ask which bus to take to get to the park. The woman at the counter gave me a bunch of useful information, but also offered the caution that the buses stop running at 10-ish and there aren't usually many cabs up by the lake district, so I also asked her for the number of a cab company, figuring I'd work out the logistics of actually calling a cab later.
So I popped out to wait for the bus, which was supposed to come every fifteen minutes or so. A scrolling sign informed me that the next 60 bus would arrive in about 20 minutes, so I figured I had just missed the last one. Over the next twenty minutes, the line behind me got longer, until it was snaking all around the waiting area. The sign said "bus arriving soon," and then a 60 bus drove past without stopping, and the sign changed to the next 60 bus arriving in 30 minutes. I seemed to be the only one who noticed that, and I wondered if they were repeating this message in Chinese or not, or if there was a different message in Chinese.
And so we waited. And waited. And another 60 bus finally showed up, and we all got on. I had a vague idea of how long I had to go on the bus until we got to the lake area, but standing around in the heat for so long waiting for the bus had gotten to me, and I promptly fell asleep in my seat. Fate had my six that day, as I woke up about a minute before the ChengCing Lake stop was announced. I groggily got off the bus and tried to work out my next move.
I had some Google maps printed out, but they were not of a resolution that would make precise navigation possible. The bus stop was right by a university in this area of the town, so I tried to find another point of triangulation reference nearby. There was such a thing with the huge, gated entrance to the ChengCing Lake park, which was located a little down the road. Inside was presumably the man-made lake itself, along with, if the signs could be believed, an aquarium located in a former Presidential bomb shelter. As enticing as this was to visit, I had to be sure I knew where the ballgame was being played first. I thought I had the bearings I needed, so I started off.
There was a nice little wetlands park along the route I was travelling, and I eventually got the idea I was going in the right direction. I passed a hospital on my way, and that became fallback position one on getting home, as it would probably be pretty easy to get a cab at the hospital if the game went too long. The local buses only ran until about 10 PM, so I needed to be thinking about my way back if things went all pear-shaped. A little past the hospital was a small mall, with a bread shop and a 7-11. I took the opportunity to load up on snacks and water, as I still wasn't quite sure where the park was from there.
I set out again, at least fed and hydrated, and then I thought I saw something on the horizon, so I cut across a road and another park until I definitively saw what had to be a set of stadium lights. Triumphant, I marched as directly as possible towards them, until I inevitably met up with the stadium.
And then I was in a bit of a situation. It was still about three hours or so before game time, which was not quite enough time to go back and visit the lake and the aquarium, but not close enough to even line up for tickets (which presumably wouldn't go on sale until two hours before the game). Especially given how popular the Rhinos game had been in Taipei, I didn't want to risk being sent out to the bleachers for this game.
So I spent some time walking around the park and taking pictures and dodging the packs of wild dogs that seemed to be some sort of feature in Taiwan. About twenty minutes before the tickets were to go on sale at the one ticket window open for early sales, I went back up to the top level by the ticket window and stood on what passed for a line.
I say this because it was still in the heat of the afternoon, and the ticket window was on the upper level, unprotected from the sun, except for the shadow that the ticket booth itself cast on the walkway. And all of us early-comers (all guys, go figure) were in some manner of line, cowering in the shade until the booth opened. I was clearly a curiosity, but no one could spare the energy to say anything, as we all waited as coolly and unmovingly as possible for the booth to open.
After a seemingly endless amount of sun-addled time, it did, and I was able to acquire my ticket and go wandering again. I found out that there was a bus stop actually behind the stadium, so I could have walked even less if I had known, and then I wandered across the street to a small military memorial museum. The museum itself was closed that day, but the small park in front of it was open, with various tanks and planes to hold one's interest while running from patch of shade to patch of shade. It eventually was time to enter the game, so I went back across the street to get in the stadium.
Upon leaving after the rather lengthy game, I was concerned about how I was going to get back downtown to the hotel. The last public transit bus had stopped running, and I was a long way from home. It was then that I found out that the CPBL runs free buses back to downtown after the games, and I was greatly relieved. I followed the crowds to the buses, and I saw a taxi parked there. Deciding that the convenience of going directly back to my hotel outweighed any potential costs the cab could incur, I asked if he was engaged yet, and when he said no, I gave him the card for my hotel and piled into the back seat for a rather relaxing ride back to town. In the end, I think the taxi was about $10 American, which was among some of the best-spent money I think I ever transacted. A fifteen-minute or so taxi ride had me back at the hotel, where I trundled up to my room to wash the disgusting off of me before hitting the sack for an early train the next day back up north.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, ChengCing Lake Baseball Stadium |
ChengCing Lake Baseball Stadium was the most imposing stadium I saw on the trip. It was a giant oval in the image of a lot of 70's era American ballparks, but not in the generic, multi-use way that they were. The park was perched in a large surrounding plaza, with government offices off to another plaza to the right of it, and a small field of something off to the left. In the far distance was the lake itself. Across the street, as mentioned, was a veterans memorial park and museum. Slightly over from that park is where the third-party concessionaires set up for the game for those looking for more discount food before entering the stadium.
You can walk around the entire base of the circularish-stadium. There is a brick walkway that extends all the way around. Near home plate is the main VIP entrance, which is flanked by walls on both sides. It wasn't so VIP that a small group of random dogs wasn't allowed to lounge around in the shade it offered. Concessions were located in an area to the right of the VIP entrance, which not only included food, but also a food massage booth for the weary. There were various offices on either side of the first level, and toward the back on the right field side was the bus and parking entrance. Given the workers there, it also seemed to be the maintenance area. All the way around back were the bleachers entrances, with its own wide stairway that led to entrances on either side of the top.
There were two other loops around the most of the infield on higher levels. Several sets of stairs and some ramps led up to a second walkway level on the park. This is where the main grandstand entrance was located behind home plate, and it was flanked by the ticket booths for the stadium. On either side of that was what promised to be a hall of fame and a baseball museum, but neither seemed to be open the day I was there. There were also CPBL offices to be found, so this may also serve as the league center, which would be odd for a stadium so far from the city center.
There were also stairs and elevators up to a third level, which was presumably for the upper deck of the stadium, but since the upper deck was closed for this game, all the ways up were locked up, so I couldn't test out that theory.
Once you enter the park, you are immediately greeted by various merchandise stands, most, if not all, selling merchandise related to Manny Ramirez. Manny pictures, Manny balls, Manny towels... it was all available to you. On either side of the merch table were food vendors. There were smaller kiosks selling specialty hot dogs or sausages and larger stands selling more drinks and food that included grilled vegetables, donuts, and hot dogs. The lower interior walkway ran all the way from left field to right field. There were scattered bathrooms to be had, and the closed entrances to the museums, but outside of the visitors merch tables on the first-base side, the hallway was largely deserted. There were a couple of concessions stands, but they were all closed. The walls were covered with some great moments in team history as well as historical achievements for Taiwanese baseball. The hallways also ended in the entrances to the luxury seating areas.
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| Manny |
The infield grandstand seating bowl was separated into a lower and upper section by a promenade that extended all around the stadium. There were large stage areas on top of the inset dugouts of both teams for their cheering section, and, more in keeping with Asian parks, there was a relatively low foul ball fence that extended around the entire infield seating area. There was a special, roped-off seating area for VIP fans right behind the dugout stage, and there were other special seats with tables and power outlets under cover of the upper deck located at the top of the first and third base seat areas. A ring of luxury boxes also extended from about first to third base.
There was also an upper walkway at the top of the lower infield seating area. It held a couple of small concession kiosks and bathroom (as well as another entrance into the luxury boxes), and it led back down to the main walkways through regularly placed stairwells.
Towards the end of the seating areas in left and right field, the seat order got a little sketchy, with some restricted-view seats located somewhat haphazardly at the end of the sections. The outfield bleachers were once again segregated from the infield area, with their own entrances in the back of the stadium. They were "bleachers" per se, as they all had seats, and a walkway separated them into a lower and upper area all across the outfield. The largest scoreboard in Taiwan so far dominated the left-center area, with space for full lineups of the players, as well as the umpires.
There was an upper deck with its own sun shade that extended from a little beyond first to a little beyond third, but it wasn't open for this game. I imagine that they only open it up when demand dictates. The only people up there for the entire game were some cameramen, who no doubt had their choice of the various foul balls that made it up there over the course of the game.
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| Cheers and mascots |
The Rhinos mascot and the cheer squad were both present for all of the game, and the Rhinos mascot did more schmoozing with the fans throughout the entire seating area than the other mascots so far seemed to do. There was a bit more to the interactions with the fans between innings that the regular dance numbers with the cheerleaders and mascot. There were some contests to pick the best fan sign that were brought to the park that day, and some guessing games, but much less than you'd find in the MLB of MiLB. Chants and singing were mostly Asia-regular, although there Rhinos fans did have a thing they did with balloons (thought not the rocket balloon launches common in Japan) in the later innings. There were some Japan-style beer girls (and beer boys) moving through the stands throughout the game, as well as some other concessions that came through for other food and merchandise.
Both home and visiting sides of the infield seating area were mostly filled up, with a nod to the home fans. There was a thin crowd out in the bleachers for the game, and both crowds were very much into the game, and it got very loud in some places. The biggest cheers were, of course, for Manny Ramirez, who only managed to go 1-3 with a run scored this night, but no one seemed to care either way.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Taiwan scoring |
I scored some seats a little up on the home third-base side, near the stage. Because of the ticket I bought, I apparently got to go in for batting practice before the rest of the hoi polloi, which gave me some extra time for taking photographs. Despite my obvious racial failing, I was given an CPBL Taiwanese All-Star ballot, which I still do not know how to read. They had a special area set up by the entrance for fans to fill them out and return them, so they were clearly taking the whole proceeding very seriously. Since my only option was to fill out some random ovals and hope for the best, I just held onto the ballot.
I grabbed one of the sweet sausages in a rice bun and a lot of water for my dinner that evening at one of the concession stands that opened up after the general admission was allowed in. I took that back to my seat, where I was surrounded by young men who, in various groups, were all there to take in a game that evening, or perhaps get close enough to ogle the cheerleaders. I'm not sure, and I'm not one to judge. Groups of them would pop out and back with various food and beer throughout the course of the game, and all of them stayed the four hours until the end of the game.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Lions vs. Rhinos |
There was one game on this trip where I was worried about the time. As mentioned, before the game, I didn't know that the CPBL ran buses to downtown after the game, so I was worried about the game ending after the regular city buses stopped running at 10 PM. But that would only happen if the game, say, went four hours or something. So you know exactly what happened here. Nearly everything conspired to make this game go as long as possible.
And it was not helped at all by the Rhinos starting pitcher for the evening, who went to Traschel-eque lengths to delay between pitches to the point where I completely hated a stranger I had never met. Every pitch was followed by at least a minute before the next pitch, and it drove me entirely crazy, both as a baseball fan and observer, and as someone who had to get out of that place at some point.
Despite his slowness, he got the Lions 1-2-3 in the first, though the Rhinos also went in order, although more quickly. Captain Slow did less well in the second, giving up a leadoff single to center. A one-out single to left made it first and third with one out, and if at all even possible, the Rhinos' pitcher was even slower with men on base. It didn't help him, as a sacrifice fly to center gave the Lions the lead, 1-0. The Rhinos came back in their half, with Manny Ramirez leading off the second with a single to right. A double only got him over to third, but a sacrifice fly of their own tied it up, 1-1, before two straight outs ended the inning.
After getting two outs to start the third, the Chinese Rain Delay gave up back-to-back-to-back singles. The first runner stole second and was brought in by the second hit, and the second batsman took second on the unsuccessful throw home. The third hit brought him home... and then the runner at first was called out. I'm not exactly sure what happened. As the throw from right came to the first-base side, the only reason I can possibly imagine for him being called out was an interference call, as it didn't look like he left the bag at first to be tagged. Either way, he was out to end the rally at 3-1, Lions, and there was no explanation I could discern of the call made in English. The Rhinos unceremoniously went in order in the bottom of the inning.
The fourth went in order for both sides. The fifth started off with a leadoff double for the Lions. A one-out walk made it first and second, but Sergeant Molasses almost got out of it with a foul out to first. But a single to right brought in the runner from second before a fly-out ended it at 5-1, Lions. The Rhinos started off the bottom of the fifth with a walk, who moved over to second on a single to shallow center. With a 1-2 count on the next batter, the pitcher was removed due to injury, and a new pitcher came in, prolonging the game further. He got the next batter to ground to first, where the first baseman took the force at first and then threw to the shortstop covering second for a tag-out double-play. A fly to left ended the threat and the half.
The Rhinos finally put in a new pitcher, who only gave up a single in the top of the sixth, and the Rhinos went in order in the bottom half. The seventh started with a leadoff double to center, but the next batter lined back to Lions' pitcher, who made the play, but was then also replaced due to an injury, dragging in another pitcher to extend the game more. A grounder to second got booted, making it first and third, but a grounder to short erased the runner at first, but brought the player from third home. A strikeout ended the half. The Rhinos got three short singles in the seventh that managed to load the bases, but strand the runners, leaving it 5-2, Lions.
The Lions got a one-out single in the eighth that moved to second on a ground-out and scored on a single to center. Another short single to left made it first and third with two outs, but a grounder to short ended the top of the inning. The game was long-since decided at this point, but the Rhinos decided to see how long they could make a half-inning. The bottom of the eighth began with a drizzling rain, which seemed intent on testing my patience with reality. There was a leadoff walk and a one-out walk that chased the current Lions' pitcher. The new pitcher promptly walked the bases loaded, before a ground-out to third scored a run and left it first and second with two outs. A short single to center loaded the bases again before a fly-out to center ended the inning at 6-2, Lions.
With two outs in the ninth, the Lions decided to get their run back with three straight singles to score the run before a ground-out to second ended the half. The Rhinos only managed a two-out walk before a strikeout finally ended the four hour endeavor at 7-2, Lions.
The Scorecard:
Lions vs. Rhinos, 06/11/13. Lions win, 7-2.
I was using the BBWAA scorebook again, and there were some odd ones this night as well. In the third was that play that I'm still not sure what happened. I have it recorded as "Int-3?" on the scorecard. In the top of the fourth, there was an "inning extension" error as the left fielder dropped a ball in foul territory and earned himself an E7 for the effort (recorded in black at the bottom of the batter's frame). There were the two injury removals of pitchers in the fifth and seventh. I noted the count on the batter in progress for the first Lions pitcher who was removed. I also noted the failed sacrifice bunt in the top of the fifth that led to a 2-3 put-out.
Also in the fifth was the rather rare "DP 3U-6t," where the first baseman got the put-out and threw to the shortstop to put on the tag. Everything else was rather straightforward, if loooong.
The Accommodations:
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| Kindness Hotel |
For a one-night stay where I wasn't particularly expecting to be in the room that long, I picked the Kindness Hotel, a mid-ranged business hotel that had a bunch of locations around the city. I selected the one right by the Formosa Street Station, which is a transit hub in the city. It provided me pretty much exactly what I needed, in that it was convenient to the high-speed rail station and was convenient as possible to the stadium out in the middle of nowhere.
It had the smallish building all to itself, but similar to many of the other hotels I'd run into in Taiwan, the rooms were crammed in every possible crevice. The rooms also had a weird double-door system I hadn't run into before. There was an outer door, and then a larger, heavier interior door, that made we wonder if crime was an issue in this area or it was just something to give a little more soundproofing.
The room itself was fairly standard. There was the main area dominated by the bed, with a TV and small desk ledge on the opposite wall, and a connected bathroom. There were required shower slippers for the bathroom, and the shower itself was quite interesting in that it had three settings. There was the more familiar handset sprayer and shower head (which completely shot off the housing when I turned it on, but that's another story), and then there were a number of smaller, horizontal-facing shower heads that seemed to serve as a hose-off function (though designed for someone slightly smaller than me).
All the necessary shower fluids were provided in dispenser tanks on the wall of the shower, but the soap and shampoo were curiously differentiated by gender, though the conditioner was apparently unisex. So there's that.
2013 Taiwan
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