2012!

» 01 January 2012 » In something else »

明けまして、おめでとうございます。今年も、よろしくお願いします。

Happy New Year!

It should be 2012 everywhere in the world right now, so wherever you are, I hope your 2012 is off to a great start.

良い年を！

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  1. Patrick
    Michael Westbay
    01/01/2012 at 7:44 am Permalink

    News like this to start off the new year makes me look forward to 2013. And just 10 years after I wrote this. I had seriously doubted I would see such a day.

    Anyway, I hope that 2012 provides you with a similar surprise. Have a fantastic new year.

  2. Patrick
    Patrick
    01/01/2012 at 9:51 am Permalink

    When I read that, I thought to myself “hey that sounds like Westbay-san’s idea.” I’m not kidding. I hope it come together for Son-san.

    Happy New Year to you and your family.

  3. Patrick
    Kyle
    01/01/2012 at 1:51 pm Permalink

    It does sound like a good idea. I’m not sure the CPBL is ready, but this may accelerate their development.

  4. Patrick
    Patrick
    01/01/2012 at 10:29 pm Permalink

    The CPBL would be the big question mark for me, with their history of gambling problems and rather poor level of play.

  5. Patrick
    Michael Westbay
    02/01/2012 at 8:19 am Permalink

    It would appear that the gambling issues have been cleared up. At least, there hasn’t been any such news yet this off season, unlike the past few.

    Taiwan’s short lived other professional league did have a good deal of talent, but the CPBL had all the money and marketing. When the two leagues merged, I expected the level of play to go up. With the loss of two teams over the past few years, I would also think that they’ve got a better concentration of better talent. But I’m not sure that either of these events has translated into more talent of the field.

    And that’s why I’m so excited about the prospect of a Pan-Pacific League. It’s like back in high school when I played on the tennis team. When I played against opponents who were worse than me, I played worse. When I played players much better than me, I played a lot better. So long as Taiwan is secluded, playing only among the 4 remaining teams, there is very little chance of improving. By mixing in more games with teams of higher caliber, the participating CPBL teams will mature.

    This will be good for baseball everywhere (in the Pacific at least), not just in Taiwan.

  6. Patrick
    Patrick
    02/01/2012 at 10:28 pm Permalink

    Well and on top of that, most of the best Taiwanese players flee to American and Japan after high school or college. National participation in a more competitive league might influence more top Taiwanese talent to play locally, and that would be a plus.

    That said, I watched a couple of CPBL games last year with the hope of learning more about the league, and I gave up pretty quickly. The defense in particular looked pretty bad in the games I watched.

  7. Patrick
    Michael Westbay
    03/01/2012 at 7:47 am Permalink

    – Well and on top of that, most of the best Taiwanese players flee to American and Japan after high school or college.

    That’s true. But very few seem to get out of the U.S. minor league system. And while I read about how the Giants are taking Taiwanese kids out of junior high and placing them in Japanese high schools to avoid the foreign player limits, I’m not seeing many reach ichi-gun. It would be a plus if such a league could stop the talent drain.