TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's baseball team kicked off training at the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋) on Monday (Feb. 3) to prepare for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers set to begin Feb. 21.
The 36-player roster includes only Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) and Lyle Lin (林家正) from last November's WBSC Premier12 championship-winning team.
Chen will continue to serve as the captain of Team Taiwan. He expressed his happiness that people are paying attention to Taiwanese baseball and thanked everyone and everything that contributed to the WBSC Premier12. He said the experience has boosted confidence in baseball and made players even more eager to wear the Team Taiwan jersey.
Currently absent from training, Lin is in the U.S. handling contract matters. Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), president of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL, 中華職棒), said the league is assisting him. Head coach Tseng Hao-chu (曾豪駒) has prepared contingency plans, noting Lin's hand injury has healed, potentially allowing him to join training in a few days.
During the opening ceremony, Tsai emphasized Taiwan's commitment to fighting spirit and returning to the essence of baseball, aiming for strong performances in front of the home crowd.
