TAIPEI: Six individuals implicated in a professional baseball game-fixing scandal were detained by prosecutors early yesterday morning after being questioned in a case that threatens the future of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

The individuals detained included the suspected ringleader of the suspected gambling syndicate, bookmaker Tsai Cheng-yi, two former professional baseball players believed to have served as intermediaries with active players to get them to fix games, and three others involved in Tsai's gambling operation.

The two former players were identified as Chuang You-lin, who played for the Brother Elephants, and Kevin Huang, a Boston Red Sox pitching prospect who pitched briefly for the La New Bears in 2008 after he failed to make it to the Major Leagues.

Prosecutors are also expected today to question eight active players implicated in the case.

Six are members of the Brother Elephants - pitchers Tsao Chin-hui, Liu Yu-chan, Wu Bau-hsien, Wang Chin-li, and Li Hao-jen and catcher Wang Chun-tai - and the other two are both prominent players, power hitter Hsieh Chia-hsien of the Sinon Bulls and pitcher Chuang Chih-chia of the La New Bears.

Investigators also searched the residences of players from the three teams on Monday. Only players from one of the four CPBL teams - the Uni-President Lions - have yet to be implicated in the case.

The investigators from the judiciary department said they had gathered evidence indicating that the suspected players accepted cash payments to either throw games on purpose or manipulate the score in at least nine regular season games between May and September to allow Tsai's gambling syndicate to win bets.

Local newspaper reports, citing investigative sources, indicated that starting pitchers were paid NT$3 million and relievers NT$500,000 to cooperate with the scheme that was said to earn Tsai and his cohorts over NT$100 million.

Tsao, Taiwan's first pitcher to perform in the US Major Leagues, adamantly denied any involvement in the gambling scheme. But conflicting media reports citing investigators said that he met with Tsai on either one or multiple occasions.

Having just completed its 20th season, the CPBL could face extinction if the charges prove true.

Reeling from a major gambling scandal in the mid-1990s that drove average attendance from 6,878 at its peak in 1992 to a historical low of 1,676 in 2000, the league had regained some momentum in the middle part of this decade after Taiwan's team performed well at the Baseball World Cup in 2001 and competing professional leagues were merged in 2003.

Average attendance peaked at 3,505 in 2004 but was then driven to below 2,000 in 2008 after gambling scandals erupted in 2005 and 2008.

With the return to Taiwan of Tsao Chin-hui, who pitched for the Elephants, and the streamlining of the CPBL to four established franchises in 2009, attendance set a 13-year high at 3,742, but the investigation will only reinforce the league's credibility problem.

CPBL Secretary-General Wayne Lee and Elephants general manager Hung Rei-ho expressed their disappointment Monday that prosecutors launched searches and issued subpoenas without first notifying them.

They demanded that judicial authorities provide evidence to back up their suspicions, fearful that even if the charges go unsubstantiated, the league will suffer severe repercussions.

Hung, however, reiterated a commitment he made last year to disband the team if any players were proven to have engaged in game-fixing, an action that would surely mean the end of the CPBL.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/28/2009 page2)