New Taipei City

On Finishing Strong (if Damp)

Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, 2013

Friday, June 14, 2013

Uni-President 7-11 Lions vs. Brother Elephants
Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium
Chinese Professional Baseball League
New Taipei City, Taiwan
16:35


Outside the Game:
So this was going to be my last day with boots on the ground and head on the pillow in Taiwan. Making the most of my now critically limited time in country, I slept in and took my damn time getting out of bed.

Eventually dragging myself out of my room, I trudged down to the subway station and headed off to the Taipei Zoo. At the end of that particular subway line was not only the zoo, but also the Mokdong Gondola, which was advertised everywhere as the way to view Taipei. As I understood, it was a glass-bottomed sky ride that was usually closed due to weather conditions.

I decided to go to the zoo first, and as soon as I paid my admission, some desultory rain began plunking down from the sky, just to underline the situation. Undaunted, I took my ticket and went in.

I have to say, as zoo facilities go, it was a very well-done enterprise. First of all, it is frankly massive. And it is all well-landscaped. As you are walking around, you get lost in the place as you walk through stone arches and tree canopies shuttering the outside world. It is well-organized also, with logical animal groupings, including a special section dedicated to native Taiwanese wildlife. The rock-star pandas, of course, got their own big building to deal with the adoring masses of Chinese who can't get enough of them, though there were no real lines to speak of today. The koalas also got their own building, for some reason. They may just be popular or Taiwan, or it may be because koalas are bastards and need to be alone or they go nuts.  Either way.

When I'm on these trips, I've taken to using bottles of water as a unit of distance, as in, it took me two bottles of water to get from X to Y. The zoo was an eight bottle of water endeavor, with the gross distances and insane mid-day temperatures. Thankfully, vending machines for sundry liquids were available at fairly regular intervals. I'd throw out my empties, load two more bottles into the backpack, and go on to meet and greet more wildlife.

Ook.

The place was just massive, though. Even still, they had closed down some areas (such as the nocturnal house) and some were under reconstruction, such as the hippo hut. The hippos must have been popular, as they had a rather expansive area right in the middle of the zoo, near a gift shop and snack bar. While all the construction was going on, all the hippos were in a small concrete pen where they were all splayed out in a way that made it look as though someone how just used a dump truck to drop a palette of hippos off at a loading dock.

Not content with all of the animal enclosures, they also had a small natural history museum on the grounds much in the diorama spirit of the NY Museum of Natural History (with one showing a panda getting treed by some wolves), with the added benefit of awkward life-size animatronic dinosaurs in the basement level. It was all to a good cause, as there was an extensive display on evolution and extinction, so if it was in the course of education, a brachiosaur whose head only loudly moves about two feet is an acceptable price.

Treed panda

I eventually made it through all the animals (and all the water), and stopped at one of the commissaries to get a late lunch after my obligatory trip though the gift shop. Looking at the time, I realized my decision on the gondola had been made for me, as I had to get back to the hotel for the game.

Before I went up to the room, I decided to check with the concierge desk to see if they could help me out with tickets after my experience the previous week. They'd said they take a trip to the 7/11 and let me know. On my way up to the room, I noticed a welcome sign out for the Uni-President Lions (the visiting team for tonight's game) and asked if they were staying here. And they were. I found out that this hotel has a bit of a history with baseball, hosting the Yankees coaches, Japanese stars, and others. I had no idea this was the case when I booked the place, but funny how that kind of thing works itself out, is it not?

So I went up to my room for a shower, and as I was getting dressed, the front desk called. It turns out that you could only use the convenience store machines for games a day in advance, but they had checked for me and assured me that there were infield seats still available.

This being the case, I headed off to the park to get there right when the ticket windows opened. I got to the stadium at a little after 4, and a small line had already formed for tickets, which I joined. At 4:30, the counters promptly opened, and I was in possession of an infield ticket on the home field side. I then set about amusing myself for the hour until the gates opened, wandering around the adjacent sports park and generally poking around. A little before 5:30, I queued up at the end of the line to get into the stadium, and, just as the gates opened up, it started to rain.

But more on that in a minute.

After the game, I headed straight back to the subway and had an uneventful trip back to the hotel. As I was walking up, the Lions' bus was just offloading its passengers, and I shared an elevator back to my room with about a third of the team, who were looking to get some sleep after the game as quickly as possible.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium

Due to some creative CPBL scheduling, the first game where I saw the Elephants at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, they were actually the away team. It was one of the reasons that I wanted to get this last game in, as I would never technically have seen the Elephants play a game at home. So it all worked out, as it often does on these trips.

This was my first visit to the stadium where I was in the infield grandstand, so I was able to do more exploring that my first quick trip through the grandstand at the end of my first game here. There was the one promenade walkway at the top of the seating bowl, which was one section down from the walkway. About half of the seats in the lower deck were covered by the upper deck, which extended almost all the way around the lower deck seats. There was special seating similar to the Taoyuan park on either side of home plate, with desk seating that included power outlets.

You access the upper deck through stairways at regular intervals along the promenade. The upper deck as well had one walkway at the top that allowed access to all the seats below. The awning up here covered nearly all the seats in the upper deck. The upper walkway dead-ends on one end in the outfield where the deck ends and at the other inside at the handicapped seating next to the luxury boxes surrounding the press box.

You have to go downstairs for any amenities. The visitors merchandise gets set up on the third base side and the home team on the first base side. There is no permanent store for the merch on either side, which was unique in Taiwan. Food options were a little scarce on the visitors side (which turned into a ghost town past third base), but there were plentiful options on the home first-base side, ranging from a full-fledged convenience store, to Pizza Hut, to duck burritos, and (no kidding) pork blood sausages.

All of that talk about overhead coverage was very important, because the rain that started as soon as I came in changed to a torrent rather quickly. The tarp was out, but there didn't seem to be any move to call the game, so I was never too worried. When the rain slowed down, however, it was all hands on deck to get the field playable. First, the tarp came off and the grounds crew started laying down DiamondDry like it was going out of style. The infield seemed easy enough to fix, but the umpires were spending a lot of time looking at the outfield, which had several small lakes. Everyone except the players, but including the ball girls and what appeared to be some office staff, converged on the outfield with towels and buckets and began to sop up all the water possible. It was quite an effort, and in the end, the umpires cleared the field for play. To look at it, it only seemed if a small shower had graced the field. Here's to the grounds crew: the unappreciated heroes.

Cheerleaders work for their supper

Given the weather, there was still a sizable crowd in the stadium, especially after a half-hour rain delay. The covered area of the home side was mostly filled, with a smattering of people upstairs and die-hards out in the bleachers. On the visiting side, the Lions had about a quarter of their seats filled, and their cheer squad was in attendance.

Rain cheers

The Elephants' band and cheer squad were not down on the stage by the dugout, but at the top of the walkway safely under cover. I was pretty close to them, and the horns and drums get loud when you're that proximate to them. While the singing and cheers were mostly normal, being this close, I was able to pick up on a lot more of the little things. For example, on any two strike count, the home fans say a drawn-out out "See ya" as the pitch goes in to send the batter on his way.

And even on this rainy day, there was a proposal in the stands during the game. It was hard to see because they were in the section closer to home plate, but judging by the reactions, I think she said "yes."


At the Game with Oogie:

Slow realization

While I was waiting in line for my ticket, I noticed for the first time in the two weeks that I had been in Taiwan that the $500 NTD note had a baseball picture on the back of it. I have to wonder if that is the only instance of baseball on money in the entire world.

Luckily, the seat I had for the game was already under the second deck, so the rain wasn't as much of an issue for me. I was sitting in a seat one away from the aisle, but it seemed my entire section was mostly filled by teenagers on dates. Two of them showed up next to me, and the male of the pair managed to get across that I was the one that was keeping them from sitting together, and would I mind moving? So I moved over one to advance the good of humanity. To perhaps offset this, on my other side was a teenage kid going to the game with his mom. I'm sure it means something, but I was too damp to care.

Pork blood on a stick

The one good thing about the rain delay was that it gave me a lot of time to wander around the concession stands for food. Of course I got the pork blood pudding. It was fantastic. One of the first things I did when I got back to the states was talk to the Taiwanese people I know at work and make them tell me where you can get it in America. (The answer is Queens.)


The Game:

First pitch, Lions vs. Elephants

The game started about forty minutes late due to the rain delay.

This was a tale of a game with sporadic, but intense, scoring, and a bunch of double-plays. The Lions went in order in the top of the first, while the Elephants had a leadoff single erased on a double-play, and a reached-on-an-error stranded by a ground-out to the pitcher. The top of the second began with a homer deep to left by the Lions. Two outs followed, then another homer deep to left, leaving it 2-0 Lions at the end of the half. The Elephants went in order.

The third started with another Lions' homer deep to left, before the rest of the lineup went in order. The Elephants went in order again in the bottom of the inning, as did the Lions in the top of the fourth. The home team finally showed some life in the bottom of the inning. They got three straight singles to bring in a run and leave it first and second with no outs. The next batter tried to bunt the runners over, but the catcher threw the ball away, loading up the bases with no outs. A short single brought another run in and left the bases loaded, but the pitcher struck out the next batter. But he walked the one after that, bringing in a run, and then alternated with another strikeout. A single to deep second brought in another run and completed the Elephants' batting around for the inning. The tenth batter finally flied out to second to end it, with the Elephants in the lead for the first time at 4-3.

The Lions eked out a two-out double in the top of the fifth, while the Elephants went in order. The sixth was another scoring frame, as the Lions got back-to-back singles to start the inning, and a sacrifice fly brought in a run and moved the tailing runner to second. A deep single to left brought the runner from second home before the pitchers got a strikeout. He then gave up another single and got the hook from the game. The next pitcher got a fly-out to center to end the bleeding at 5-4, Lions. The Elephants only had a stranded hit batsman to show for their half.

In the top of the seventh, the Lions got back-to-back singles again to start the inning, but stranded them with nothing across. The Elephants, seemingly forgetting how to hit, again went in order. The Lions didn't fare much better in the eighth, with just a two-out single. The Elephants tried to get something going in the bottom half with a single and the inevitable sacrifice bunt to move the runner to scoring position. But a grounder to the pitcher nailed the lead runner at third, and the runner remaining after the fielder's choice was picked off first base to end the threat.

The Lions got three straight singles in the top of the ninth to score another run, before a strikeout and a double-play ended their half. In the bottom of the ninth, a one-out walk went for naught as another double-play erased the runner before a fly to left ended the Elephant's last licks at 6-4 for the visiting Lions.


The Scorecard:

Lions vs. Elephants, 06/14/13. Lions win, 6-4.

Once again, I was with the Baseball Writer's Association of America scorebook. As previously mentioned, there were a bunch of pitcher's best friends in this game, the most exotic of which was the "DP 1-6-3" in the ninth.

Easily the oddest thing in the game was the home runs. While it was also the most I saw in any game in Taiwan, the second and third dingers were of particular interest. The second homer to left in the top of the second looked like it hit the wall, but it was, after a brief congregation of umpires, ruled to be over the line and a home run. I made that note and thought I'd never think of it again. Yet two batters later in the top of the third, the exact same thing happened in the exact place with the home run to lead off the inning, and so the note was improbably re-used.

It was mostly conventional besides that, except for a "1-5t" put out in the bottom of the eighth to nail a lead runner not in a force situation.

One Elephants pitcher had quite the pitching line: infinite innings pitches (recorded no outs), 3 hits, 1 earned run. That does not help one's ERA.


The Accommodations:
I was at the Imperial again, along with the winning team from that night's baseball contest.

On Bad Decisions, Such as Leaving

Airport pagoda

Saturday, June 15, 2013


Outside the Game:
So it came to this.  It was my last day in country, and something had to be done about it. And that something turned out to be sleeping in as late as possible, and then having to pack all my crap before checkout came at the very civilized hour of noon.

Through some herculean effort of physics and organization, I managed to get all of my crap into the two bags I started with, even though I had far more stuff than I began with. I did worry about the structural integrity of both bags, but you can only bother yourself with so many concerns.

I dragged my bags down just shy of noon and officially checked out with the good folks at the hotel. I asked them to hold my bags for a while, as I wouldn't actually to have to head to the airport realistically any time before 3 PM, and even at that it would be early. I then had an afternoon to fill, with several strictures imposed upon it. Firstly, I couldn't go too far, as I needed to know I'd be able to get back to the hotel in time to leave. Secondly, I couldn't really do anything outside in the afternoon, as it was again a thousand degrees out with a thousand percent humidity, and I didn't want to take a sixteen-hour plane ride smelling like wet death after being soaked through with sweat from being outside. Not only would it be uncomfortable, but I'd likely be lynched by my fellow passengers in first class.

So  within the parameters given, I did what I could. My first action was to get a four-course steak lunch at one of the restaurants in the hotel. And even given the luxury of the experience, it only cost about $30, which is cheap for the offering in the US. Suitability luncheoned, I set out into the afternoon. Given my limiting factors, I took to the underground, and grabbed the subway back Taipei Main Station. I had partially passed through an underground mall they have there in previous trips, and I figured it was worth a visit through now.

The mall, as it turns out, is not just one thing, but a series of sections starting at Taipei Main Station and following the subway line for two stops. It is probably the longest straight distance you can travel underground in Taipei. The first stretch of mall between the first two stations was mostly clothes and the like. But the second bit was the "Underground Book Mall," with nothing but book shops for the entire stretch of it. Although there was limited material that I could comprehend, it was a good way to pass some time. And then, in about the third or fourth store I stopped in, I saw a shelf of English-language instruction books, and on it was a book about learning English through baseball. It is a small world sometimes. It would have been more useful to find a book with the Chinese translations for every possible baseball terms at the start of the trip, but who am I to argue?

Purchase in hand, I went through the last stretch of the mall, which had a section of public mirrored dance studio, which was filled with Taiwanese teenagers of both genders spending Saturday afternoon practicing their dance moves in great numbers. When I got to the end of the mall at the second station, I took the subway back to the main station. There was a stage set up for what looked to be an audition for the Taiwanese version of "American Idol," or some such. Having successfully murdered the necessary time, I left them to it and got on the subway back to the hotel.

I got my bags from the hotel and had them call me a cab to the airport a little shy of 3:30. My flight wasn't until 7 PM, but I needed to get there 2.5 hours before, and the staff had told me that with traffic (as was likely on a Saturday, for some reason), it could take up to an hour. So off I went, in multiple ways, as I managed to conk out in the cab early in the trip and awoke to find that we hadn't hit any traffic, and I was at the airport at 4.

I paid the cabby and headed into the airport to get this whole process started. Since I was in super-mega class, or whatever, I got to use the special check-in counter and quickly checked my erstwhile and over-laden carry-on bag and got my boarding pass and permission slip for the frequent flier's club. After I turned in my bag, I had to wait to see if it got through security before going through security myself. Presumably, if there's a problem when your bag is scanned, you deal with it before security, and life goes on. So I waited by a little video screen until I saw my bag being conveyed to loading, and went on my way. Since I was so extraordinarily early, I took a walk around the outer area of the airport to see what I could see, which wasn't all that much.

I then went to security, and it provided a very effective American detection system. When the Americans got up to the actual checkpoint to go through the metal detectors and bag X-ray, they started disrobing and pulling crap out of their bags, while everyone else just threw their bags on the conveyor and went to through the metal detector. Drunk with unimagined freedom, I stopped taking off my belt, and just threw my backpack on the conveyor and walked through the metal detector... Aaaand I got my bag, and went on my way, and the terrorists didn't win, and freedom didn't collapse, and I felt a little sad thinking about the next time I had to fly. Which seems to happen an awful lot when I fly in other countries, for some reason.

I had to wait in another quick-moving line to clear customs, where a very serious-looking young woman asked me a bunch of questions no-doubt designed to catch smugglers and terrorists, and stared seriously at me as I answered, and then smiled sweetly at me and sent me on my way. Why can't more transactions go this way?

Still incredibly early, I decided to take a look around the airport to kill some time. I bought some pineapple treats for people at work at the duty free shop, and then I just walked around. Because it was actually a legitimately interesting building instead of just an airport. There were sporadic art, cultural, and historic exhibits you could walk around in. They even had a play area for the kids (well, the girls at least) all themed out in Hello, Kitty. As I passed, there was a little girl rapturously watching some cartoon or other on the screen, and I yet again saw another child that was happier under 10 then I'd ever be again in my life.

Well, almost, because down another corridor was a "relaxation room," that had 15-minute massage chairs that you could get free tokens to use. And while I might not have been quite as happy as that little girl, after fifteen minutes, I was doing A-Ok.

I eventually gave up walking around and went to the EVA Air club at the terminal. There are apparently several different levels to the club, as you get screened when you come in and get sent down one of three corridors that are carefully watched. The passage I was sent down ended in a nice enough lounge, with big comfy chairs and electrical outlets. There was also a nice free buffet in another room, and in that buffet was a drinks tray, and on that drinks tray was an open bottle of KaVaLan single malt. So, with my plate of free food, I was in a comfy chair watching the ballgame on one of the TVs, freshly massaged, and drinking some free Scotch, and all of a sudden, that little girl was getting a run for her money.

Civilized

This debauchery went on until it was time for boarding. I went down to my gate and got there just as they were finishing pre-boarding all the special needs and families with young children. I went in with the first batch of first class, or business class (or whatever) passengers, and was led to my seat by a stewardess. I stowed my bags and began taking advantage of all the stuff to which my ticket price entitled me. I took off my shoes and socks and replaced them with circulation socks and slippers. I arrayed my free headphones and got everything plugged in. I moisturized on up with the lotion in my kit, and arrayed my pillows and blankets accordingly.

It was a relatively quick wait until take-off, and no plague-carrying miscreants delayed us going this way. We took off and got altitude, and as soon as the seatbelt sign came off, I went and got my bag, and really started to abuse the privileges. I had my iPod plugged into my seat jack to recharge and provide music, I plugged in the iPad to get it juiced up as well, and I played some games on the entertainment system while I awaited my three-course dinner.

As much as I was enjoying myself, the little Chinese girl in the pod behind me thought she had died and gone to Disney Land. She was in this big chair that might be as big as her bedroom, and there were buttons, and lights, and clothes to dress up in, and a blanket to hide under... and then she found the big magic screen that would play whatever cartoon she wanted. It really put my own limited enjoyment in perspective. But then my steak dinner came, with its free Scotch, and once again, the kid would get a run for her money from the old white guy.

Also civilized

After dinner was all cased away and the cabin was darkened for night time as we defied time and space and flew eastward against the date line, we started to hit some turbulence, which sort of dampened the festivities. Or it at least delayed everyone getting to sleep for an hour or so. And had that sleep disturbed by being buffeted around like a present being guessed by an impatient child.

But even with that, everyone slept through most of the flight. I woke up with under three hours until we landed, and all of the things I had hoped to achieve on the flight quickly took the wayside to "sitting around and eating and watching TV." I make no apologies.

We actually pulled in about an hour early and had a bit of a taxi to our gate, but we were eventually disgorged early into the NY evening. We had left at about 7 PM Taiwan time, and we arrived about 9 PM ET, thus setting up some rather epic jetlag. With unsteady steps, I made it through immigration and went to baggage claim to get my bag. I gave my father a call, as he was picking me up, and he was already parked and waiting for me on the other side. After a moderate wait, I managed to have my bag be one of the last of the "priority" bags to come off the plane, and, enjoying my last first-class perk, I wandered through customs and out to my waiting parent, who graciously took me back to my apartment.

After exploding my bag open at my place, I eventually started to get a little sleepy at 2 AM and made the awful decision to take a sleeping pill, thinking it would get me back on my sleep cycle faster. In reality, it left me wide awake at 4:30 AM when I awoke again, but too drugged to do anything but loll back and forth impotently on the bed.


The Accommodations:
Home Hoboken, relievedly and regrettably

Epilogue:

Loot

I'm not exactly sure what next year will bring. There is the (largely theoretical, at this point) Chinese mainland league. After that, pro ball is only to be found in Australia, which has inverted seasons from us. Besides them, there is the Netherlands and Italy in Europe, and then all the leagues in South America, which will need to wait until the further reaches of the globe are completed first. Time will tell.

All the guys

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2013 Taiwan

Kaohsiung

On Having One Job

ChengCing Lake Baseball Stadium, 2013

Tuesday, June 11, 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.

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:

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.

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.

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:

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:

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:

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.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2013 Taiwan

Tainan

On Secondary Achievements

Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium, 2013

Sunday, June 9, 2013
Lamingo Monkeys vs. Uni-President 7-11 Lions
Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Chinese Professional Baseball League
17:05
Tainan, Taiwan


Outside the Game:
I had a weird night of sleep for whatever reason, but I got up with plenty of time to grab breakfast, pack up, and head off to the train station. This would be my first adventure on the Taiwan high-speed rail system, so I decided to give myself some leeway for unforeseen situations.

High-speed

I got the station very early, so I killed some time at the waiting area reading the Interwebs and whatnot and then boarded my train. As with every other rail service in Asia, it was quick, clean, timely, and painless. I found my seat, and we were soon underway. The ride was a mixture of naps and staring out the window, especially at some rather unwelcome rain. As fast as we were going, it would be sunny one second, cloudy the next, unable to see out the window due to the rain in the next moment, and then back to cloudy and sunny (though damp in the wake of the rain storm we'd just gone through). And eventually, it was just back to sunny, but not directly affecting me at the moment, as I was in a nice, air-conditioned train.

I eventually got off at the station in Tainan and made my way over to the tourist counter to collect my maps and work out how to get to my hotel. The high-speed rail station is actually about a half hour or so from downtown, and there is no mass transit to speak of in Tainan, but there are free shuttle buses to get you to where you're going in the city proper. I had to find out what stop on the shuttle to get off at for my hotel (which was the rather swag Tayih Landis in the center of downtown), and it turned out that the hotel actually had a booth right in the rail station next to the tourist information center. Now that's service. The woman there gave me a map, and told me which stop to get off at for the hotel, and then urged me to hurry over to the buses, as the next shuttle was just about to depart.

A quick sprint over to the buses later, the driver was good enough to re-open the doors for me and pop the cargo hatch so I could stash my luggage, and we were all off for downtown Tainan. I spent most of the first part of the bus ride blankly staring out the window, and then, having most of the late morning still available to me, I started flipping through my guide book to see what I should visit until I had to head out for the ballgame. One gentleman saw me reading the book, and, if the being white and dressed as a tourist didn't tip him off, took this to mean that I was a tourist. He came up next to me and asked where I was going. I told him the hotel, and he said that it was a very nice hotel and that I was probably spending a lot of money there. I told him I had gotten a deal, and he was very happy for me. He asked what I was going to do in Tainan, and I mentioned the baseball. He seemed to take that in stride, but he also told me that I should visit a museum outside of town that we had just passed. It didn't seem polite to tell him that I had no way of getting out there to see it, so I mentioned I would go if I could make it, which seemed acceptable. He got off several stops before me, but before leaving, he told me how many more stops I had to go, and where to go once I got out. The stop was apparently right across the street from the very big hotel, so I thought I'd be okay.

Several stops later, we arrived at my destination. I got off the bus, got my luggage from the carrier, and promptly had no idea where to go, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember what the man on the bus had said. There was a big building across the street, but it was labeled something for a party store, or so it seemed. A passing woman saw me looking at the map, and then told me that the building behind that party store-looking one was the hotel. I eventually worked out where the entrance was, and had the door held open for me by someone in a suit as I went inside. I expected to leave my bags and go about my day before check in, but they let me check in early, so up to the room in the really nice elevator I went to disgorge my bags. I had managed to spill some ink on my pants on the train ride down, and because of the unceasingly hot weather, I was running short on pants that I could wear in public without shame. I took off my inked pants and a pair that I had committed war crimes against to this point and had them and one or two overshirts picked up for laundry service. I donned my last pair of semi-acceptable pants to go out into the day and see the sights.

My guide book had a suggested path to see the best that Tainan had to offer, so having no agenda of my own, I decided to follow that. It started up near my hotel at the Tainan Confucius Temple. While the Buddhist and Taoist temples and their grandiose ornamentation are always a spectacle, I have a soft spot in my heart and a predilection,perhaps, in my aesthetics for the more modest designs of Confucianism, and, no doubt, its penchant for intellectualism. It was not bland or unornamented by any stretch of the imagination, but it was sedate and unified. I spent a good part of the late morning exploring the extensive grounds of the temple, and, given the extensive heat of the afternoon, I capped it off by visiting the cafe adjacent to pound some liquids and load up on some more for the rest of the afternoon.

Dacheng Gate

My next stop was the Great South Gate, a fortification of the old city dating back to when it was the provincial capital of the island. Then it was to the nearby Wu-fei (of "Five Concubine") Temple, dedicated to the titular five concubines who committed suicide to show their allegiance to one of the failed contenders for the 17th-century Ming throne. After exploring the temple and small park on the grounds, I realized that I had to get back to the hotel to switch up for my game bag, as the weekend baseball games started up an hour earlier, and after the lesson of my first game in Taiwan, I was not going to arrive late and not get a good seat.

Five Concubine Temple

So I headed on back to the hotel in the afternoon sun, drinking down water as fast as I could sweat it out, and my dripping and uncouth self had the door held for me again by gentlemen in suits. I dragged myself up to the room and had to put myself through a rather vigorous spin cycle in the shower to feel human again, dressed up, grabbed my game bag, and went back out into the sun. As luck would have it, I was to find that the Five Concubine's Temple was just down the street from the stadium, so I could not have planned my excursion any worse to ensure that I would do the most walking around in the most heat for no reason.

I eventually found the stadium, and the trip back after the game, while in the deepening night, was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. On that walk, I passed several interesting stores, including an open-air video arcade just sitting in an alley, a casket store, and a full-in Internet gaming parlor as one would find in Korea. The exterior of the hotel was lit with blue LED crystals to lead me back to my room. I showered and got changed to visit one of the restaurants in the hotel for dinner, but thanks to the very necessary shower, I got there too late for the last sitting. Not to be put off, I went to the large food court in the mall next door to the hotel and had a big duck and rice dinner before retreating back to my room. Still relatively early, I spent the rest of the evening soaking in the tub.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium

Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium was more the product of its environment than any other stadium I saw on this trip. In the temple city of Tainan, it had an elaborate pagoda archway framing the entrance to the stadium grounds, which were tucked off of a main street in town. The largest area of activity was along the right corridor next to the stadium on the first-base side, shaded by trees and dotted by a stage and several concessions. Along the left side of the stadium was more of a parking lot, and it was also the location of the visiting team entrance and merchandise stands. Further around the more disused back of the stadium, it was quite worn down, with the paint flaking off rather heavily in some places (especially when facing the afternoon sun), but this area was mostly garage and storage areas built into the base of the stadium under the seats.

The VIP entrance was at the front of the park, by home plate, and flanked by a tea concession on one side, and some mascot picture spots and a wall commemorating their Taiwan Series win on the other. There was also the big stage set up so that you could try your luck at a skill game to win some bottled tea or other 7-11 food. Across from that was the ticket booth, which was right next to the main infield entrance to the stadium. A little further down from that was the team store, which had a smaller, glass-doored, air conditioned indoor part, and a much larger explosion of tables and hangers selling stuff outside, next to the fan club sign-up table.

Once inside, the park had some quite interesting features. The outfield seats were once-again completely segregated from the infield grandstand, served by their own entrance in back and several stairwells that led out to the seating area. What was particularly of note was that it was a bi-level bleachers, with another level of bleachers completely underneath the first that extended as far as the regular bleachers did. This is no doubt helpful for those who want to sit in the cheap seats but get a bit of shade as well. An unexplained inflatable alcohol bottle sat perched at the top of the left-center bleachers.

The infield grandstand seating was one section of seats served by a central walkway at the base of the seats. There was a shade overhang that extended almost around the entirety of the grandstand, stopping about three sections short on either side of the field. The home team was on the first base side, and the visitors the opposite, and both sides had a rather large stage area built over the dugouts, which were nearly completely inset into the stadium structure.

There was "VIP" seating behind home plate, and a small selection of luxury boxes by the press box behind home. Two of them flanked the home base seats and jutted out a little towards the field. The park had a "Food Court" in an area completely indoors behind home plate that offered a modest selection of boxed foods for park grub needs, as well as sausage vendors dotting the infield. Stairs led down from the food court into what looked to be a players area, or at least the luxury box area, and memorabilia of past important games (such as a scrimmage with the Japanese Tokyo Yakult Swallows) were commemorated on the walls.

Most of the seating looked fine, but there were a couple of stunted rows of seats right next to stairway walls that no doubt offered obstructed views of the field. But to be fair, none of them seemed to be sold for the game. The visiting seats for the Monkeys were about a quarter filled, and they seemed to bring a contingent of their cheering squad. The home side had a more sizable turnout, including a hardy contingent hiding under umbrellas in the top bleachers in right. A family "K" crew was stationed out in the lower deck of the bleachers, putting up the appropriate letter as the number of strikeouts increased in the game. Cheering was organized by the MC and his crew on the dugout, and the fans seemed quite drilled in the songs and choreography throughout the game.

Sing-a-long

There were roaming vendors during the game selling merchandise and food. One particularly egregious example were the "ice cream girls," young ladies in short shorts and skin-tight, nearly missing tank tops who sold ice cream in the stands throughout the game. No one seemed particularly embarrassed by this state of affairs, so who am I to judge?

Mascots, ho

A male and female lion performed the mascot duties, and were more heavily involved in the pre-game festivities and the between-inning dance numbers with the cheerleaders, not the mention the post-game celebrations. It was pretty unique in that after the game, both the mascots and the cheerleaders were stationed in the front of the stadium to pose for pictures with fans. I'm not sure if this was something they did because they won, or something that always happened either way. There were someone longer breaks for grounds keeping maintenance every three innings in lieu of a seventh-inning stretch was also in effect here.

In a bit of nostalgia for Shea Stadium, there were semi-regular fly-overs of planes heading to Tainan International Airport a short distance away. You can't go home again.

Living dangerously, and unlike most other baseball parks in Asia, there was only netting directly behind home plate and out to the dugouts, similar to American ballparks. I'm not sure why this part wasn't done in the Japanese and Korean manner (with foul fences or netting all along the lower level), but no one was killed by foul balls during the game, so it seemed to be working out okay for them.

There was one inexplicable bit to the proceedings. There was a pre-game... something. Here's where not knowing the language well was a detriment. This was either an actual proposal that involved a dance number, or a dance number that was themed on a proposal at a baseball game... There was a girl there with a lace veil in her hair, and there was a guy, with what I guess was his groomsmen, all dressed in suits. And then they danced... Maybe someone got married. Hand to heaven, I have no idea what actually happened there.


At the Game with Oogie:

Sensible sausages

I was wearing my Wyverns shirt to the game today, and while I was taking my pictures of the outside of the stadium, one of the Monkeys players came out, looked at the shirt, and gave me a thumb's up, which is a very American kind of hand sign. I gave him a thumb's up back and he went onto the bus. So there's that.

I had arrived early enough to get a ticket in the infield grandstand on the home team's side, in this case, first base. After I had taken all my pictures and had visited the team store for some portable trinkets, my thoughts turned to getting into the stadium.

As I stood there, staring at my ticket and wondering when I could get in, a young guy came up to me and asked if I needed help. Either the Taiwanese were really friendly, or I look a lot more clueless than I hoped I do. I told him I was making sure this was the right entrance to get in, and he told me that the doors just opened, and we could go in for batting practice. We both went in the stadium, and he took me over to my seat up by the end of the dugout. We both sat down, and I asked him if he was sitting there, and he told me he had seats down closer to the dugout, but he wanted to make sure I was okay. He asked why I was there, and I told him, and he seemed okay with the answer. There was a crowd of people forming up by the dugouts to get autographs, and I told him I had to go take pictures of the stadium, and he wanted to go down and watch BP, so we parted ways.

I put one of my white towels on my seat so I could easily find it again, and went off to do what I do. When I came back for the game, I had a family with a small child on my left, and a guy by himself on my right. All of them seemed particularly interested in what I was doing when I was scoring the game, but none of them either got up the nerve or knew enough English to ask me.

One of the families sitting in the row in front of me had a very well-behaved baby, who stayed awake for the entire game and did not cry, which makes him better than most teenagers at the park in America.


The Game:

First pitch, Monkeys vs. Lions

This contest pitted the visiting Lamingo Monkeys against the Uni-President 7-11 Lions, which just rolls off the tongue. It was my first time seeing both teams, and the last that I would see a team I hadn't watched before, as I had now seen all four of the league's teams in play.

The game did not begin fortuitously for the Monkeys, who went 1-2-3 in the first three innings. The Lions avoided the same fate  by getting a leadoff single in the first that was erased on a field's choice before two ground-outs ended their inning. They did share the Monkeys fate in the second, going in order, but the bottom of the third was a different story. A Lions' leadoff single was moved to second on a one-out single to left, and then a double to deep center brough them both home. A fly out got the second out before a two-out single scored the runner from second. A fielder's choice ended the inning with the Lions up, 3-0.

The Monkeys got their first baserunner in the fourth with a leadoff walk. The runner promptly stole second and was brought home by a single to right. A double-play cleared the bases before a strikeout ended the half with the score 3-1, Lions. The Lions had a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth and nothing else, leaving the score as is.

A leadoff walk proved fruitful for the Monkeys in the fifth, as it moved to second on a single to right by the next batter. A double-play erased the first and last runners, but a two-out single to center brought the runner from second home before the batter was caught in a good-ole' 8-1-3-6 rundown to end the half. The Lions only managed a leadoff single (erased on a double play) in the bottom of the fifth with the score 3-2, Lions.

And then the Monkeys lost all momentum, going in order in the sixth and seventh. The Lions didn't fare much better, going in order in the sixth, and only having a two-out walk and stolen base to show for the seventh. It looked much the same in the eighth, as two strikeouts started things off for the Monkeys, but a two-out hit-by-pitch moved over to second on a stolen base and then third on an infield single to third. The starting pitcher for the Lions got chased, and a reliever got a pop out to short after a ground-out to first by the same batter was called back as a foul by the umpires.

Looking to get some insurance in the bottom of the eighth, the Lions got back-to-back singles to start the inning, leaving it first and third with no outs. A sacrifice fly to center brought in a run, and a two-out single almost set up some more damage before a fly-out to center ending the inning 4-2, Lions. Not content to go quietly into the... late afternoon, the Monkeys drew a leadoff walk from the Lions' closer. A fielder's choice changed up the runner at first with one out. A single made it first and second with only one out, but a routine grounder to short led to a double play to secure the Lions victory at 4-2.


The Scorecard:

Monkeys vs. Lions, 06/09/13. Lions win, 4-2.

I was using the BBWAA scorebook again, and while perhaps not as odd as the first game (or the ones to come) this one had some interesting scoring moments. The 2-5-3 double-play in the fifth was likely a first for me, as a failed bunt attempt led to a rather unique around-the-horn play. Yet another outfield assist followed on the 8-1-3-6 put-out. There was the play in the eighth, where the batter grounded out to first for a 3U, but it was subsequently (and after great arguments by both managers) called back as a foul ball before leading to a fly out to short.

Everything else was pretty much mundane from a scoring perspective.


The Accommodations:

Tayih Landis

As alluded to previously, I was in quite a nice hotel, the five-star Tayih Landis, part of the Landis chain of luxury hotels. It was smack in the middle of the city, right next door to one of the ritzier malls in Tainan. It was all first-class, from the huge entrance lobby, which had stores and a grand staircase leading up to the second floor, where more luxury restaurants lay, to the fitness center, which lay at the bottom of the atrium in the center of the guest rooms, visible from the top floor on down. (The hotel did have rope netting in the central atrium every few floors, whether a precaution against suicides or (more likely) drunk guests was never made clear.

My suite was in keeping with the surroundings. There were several large closets to the left at the entrance,  and the large bathroom had an entrance to the right. The spacious bathroom included a glass-walled shower to clean yourself and a big old tub to bathe in. Even the toilet had a satisfying giant big flush button located above the bowl.

The bedroom had two parts. Closets to the entrance was the huge-assed bed and opposite it was dresser space and a big flat-screen TV. In the back of the room was a set of easy chairs next to a table an ottoman, and a full-sized desk with glass work surface and fancy executive desk-chair.

The closets, of course, held a big fluffy robe that was my primary clothing whenever I was in the room, usually because I had just taken a shower or a soak in the tub, and getting into regular clothes meant admitting I was going back out into the unending heat and humidity of the Tainan days.

All gods welcome

The nightstand by the bed included a Bible and two copies of the teaching of Buddha, in addition to an emergency flashlight and some manner of safety hood for escaping fires, so I felt relatively secure. The small table by the easy chairs had free Dutch cinnamon cookies, and no matter how many I ate, every time I came back to the room, there seemed to be more of them. I didn't question it too much, because perhaps that would make the magic cookie fairy stop coming to my room.

On a Day Off, My Feet and Otherwise

Tainan from my hotel

Monday, June 10, 2013
Tainan, Taiwan


Outside the Game:
After the second game of the trip, I had another day off, thanks to Monday being an off day for baseball in Taiwan, as well as all of Asia for some reason. Last year, I went to Jeju, and the previous two years, I spent in Kyoto. Tainan, second only to Lukgang as a temple city in Taiwan, was as good a place as any to spend the day off down south.

The much complained-about drought in southern Taiwan got some love with a torrential rain storm early in the morning. It was over before I went down for breakfast, and what a breakfast it was. It was in the basement restaurant at the hotel, and the restaurant took up what looked to be most of the floor. It was easily the biggest breakfast buffet I had seen in my life. Each individual station was as large as a regular buffet, and there were about a dozen of them, for Chinese breakfasts, Japanese breakfasts, Western breakfast, vegetarian, eggs, cereals... it went on and on.

Small breakfast

I loaded up within an inch of my life, and then went to my reserved table. A young Chinese family were next to me, with their young daughter. She apparently found me alternatively amusing and terrifying gauging by her reactions. I ate my breakfast and read my free newspaper, and then went back up to my room.

Madame Linshuei's Temple

With the Monday devoid of any baseball, I set back out to complete my tourist sweep of the town that was interrupted by going to the ballgame the day previous. The first stop was Madame Linshuei's temple, who was some sort of patron for children. Even early in the morning, there were expectant mothers there asking for the Lady's protection. Nearby was Koxinga's Shrine, dedicated to the general of a deposed Ming dynasty line who came to Taiwan and tossed out the Dutch invaders. He, like Chang Kai-Shek after him, never lived to retake the mainland.

Koxinga

Tainan was similar to Lukang in that there were some many cultural treasures to see that you almost got overloaded with them. I rifled through so many that morning: Dongyue Temple, the City God Temple, the Altar of Heaven, and the God of War Temple. Each of them were alternatively tucked in little side roads or along long passageways, and they all were just filled with details and artwork that could keep you staring at them for hours, which is pretty much what I did.

Altar of Heaven

The last stop in town was the Chihkan Towers, built around the foundation of the old Dutch fort. It was one of the only Western-style buildings I saw in the country, so it was interesting in that regards, as well as the historical import of the site. The Towers shows off the archaeological Dutch foundations and the other masters the site has had throughout history. One building has been converted into a temple to the sea god, and there are several turtle statues with stellae on their back on the grounds as part of it.

Dutch-style window

As it was only early afternoon at this point, I decided to try and get to the other center of Dutch colonial buildings that were located in the west of the main city, across the river. Now, there would be those among you who would point out that there are tourist buses that go out there, or, barring that, convenient taxis that could take a person there. And all of those people would be quitters, because I thought that even though it was on the long side, I could easily walk the distance to Anping.

Which may have been true if I had gotten the route right. I decided to stay directly on roads that would take me straight where I wanted, which helped me make good progress, until I decided to take what I thought was a short cut. This, of course, threw me straight off the path, and, while wandering around with my map out, I managed to catch my foot on one of the uneven "sidewalks" on the road and roll my ankle pretty good. And here my excursion to Anping ended. With about half of the trip left and nothing compelling me to go out there, I decided to turn around and head back to the hotel for some R&R.

Which I did, and promptly made a wrong turn and went in the entirely wrong direction before discovering my error and heading back in the other direction. After all the extra walking, and my previous running about all morning, I was just about dead when I made it back to the hotel, where a nice person in a suit held open the door for my injured, sweaty self, and I crawled up to my room.

The clothes I had sent out for laundry were pressed and ready for me back in my room, and I promptly ignored them as I ran a hot bath while I took a shower. I settled in for a long soak, hoping my ankle wouldn't swell up, and the timely application of a long, hot bath seemed to help. I bundled myself into my fluffy bathrobe, and sat on the bed with my ankle elevated while I watched some late-afternoon TV. Convinced my foot wasn't likely to break in half, I got dressed in my clean new clothes and went across the way to the ritzy mall to walk around for a bit to test out the leg.

In the course of wandering around, I found an arcade/entertainment complex on one floor called "Tom's World." You had to change all your money into tokens, and then you could play video games or standard boardwalk games of skill (skee ball, coin pushes, etc) to win tokens that could be redeemed for prizes. After being addicted to the iPad skee ball application for so long, I felt compelled to play a bunch of that in real life, as well as other nostalgic games. There was also an action baseball game at which I spent a lot of time and tokens. It had a plastic cricket-like bat and a tube that used air to levitate up some hollow plastic baseballs. You then had to hit the balls into a scoring grid on the other side of the game in order to get tickets. I spent way too much time at that game. After all my shenanigans, I found myself with 60 tickets, which was just enough to get me a small pad of sticky notes with the "Tom's World" logo imprinted on them.

World of Tom

I took my outrageous winnings back to my hotel room, and decided to just order room service. A steak, a crème brule, and a Scotch soon made it up to my room, as I transitioned back into my bathrobe for the remainder of the evening. As I sat and looked out of the Tainan evening, drinking my Scotch and eating my steak, I though that, ankle aside, this wasn't that bad a day.

Small dinner

The Accommodations:
I spent a good deal of time today at the Tayih Landis later in the afternoon after the aborted attempt to go west and the incident with my ankle. Not to mention the room service I had for dinner. Look, I'm in a five-star hotel; I might as well enjoy it.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2013 Taiwan