TAIPEI: Taiwan, once a mighty entity in the world of baseball, stands humbled, its confidence shattered. The island that has won 16 Little League World Series titles in the past four decades earned the silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and produced US Major League talent including New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang. It has seen its local squad go down to defeat time after time in recent international competitions.

Stinging defeats, compounded by multiple game-fixing scandals that have rocked Taiwan's professional baseball league over a decade, have goaded the authorities in action.

The government says it will spend $37.3 million over the next four years to clean up and revitalise the game.

The money will be used to spread the popularity of the game islandwide. Teams will be subsidized all the way from grade school right up to the pros.

"Baseball is not all about money. Enthusiasm is by no means less important," Richard Lin, secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Amateur Baseball Association, told AFP.

"But the government's fund certainly will help as the cost of purchasing baseball equipment and training programs would be quite a burden to some families."

Baseball had a glorious beginning on the island. Back in 1968 came Hong Yeh, a team from the east of the island that learned to play the game with clubs and stones. Then in two memorable exhibition games Hong Yeh crushed a visiting Japanese team.

Then came the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.Taiwan's team got by Japan and the United States, to enter the Gold Medal round. Taiwan lost to powerhouse Cuba for the gold medal - but still came away with the silver. After that the number of grade school teams soared to more than 400.

"Baseball teams at the elementary school level are the base of the sport," said Lin.

But the love of the game has waned in the past decade or so. A game-fixing scandal in the professional league in 1997 led to the disbanding of the China Times Eagles squad.

Media T-Rex was suspended from play late last year and later disbanded after three players and a coach were sacked amid allegations of game fixing.

Now baseball officials want to rebuild the sport. To do that they need to bring back the fans. Last year's baseball games drew only about 2,000 fans per game. At one time games drew an average of 5,000 spectators.

"The repeated game-fixing scandals really broke the heart of many local baseball fans," said Hsu Sheng-ming, the head coach of the Sinon Bull team.

"It was understandable that they felt deeply disappointed after finding their trust in the players had been betrayed."

Under the baseball rescue plan, each of the island's four professional teams could receive up to NT$10 million in subsidies a year to beef up their farm teams, and nurture new talent.

At least 10 amateur teams will be organized. At the present time there are only two. More training facilities will be built.

The scheme also aims to root out game-fixing, with a plan for stiffer penalties for those who break the rules.

This year's professional season got off to a good start. Ten thousand people packed into Tienmu stadium in Taipei for opening day, in late March. Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou was among the spectators. He even threw the ceremonial first pitch.

AFP

(HK Edition 05/27/2009 page2)