The Uni-President Lions of Taiwan lost to the Seibu Lions of Japan yesterday in the finals of the Asia Cup. They lost 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth. The Asia Cup is a tournament of the league champs from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China. They were not even expected to make it to the finals, but did so with a nice 10-4 stomping of the SK Wyverns of Korea. So here are two of my favorite Chinese baseball phrases:

Three up, three down: 三 上 三 下 ( san1 shang4 san1 xia4)

Swing and a miss: 揮 棒 落 空 ( hui1 bang4 luo4 kong1)

Pop at Southern Command told me that the runner who scored the game winning run should have been called out on strikes, ending the inning. Replays showed this to be correct. He then told me the ump was Korean. So here is one more baseball phrase commonly heard, this time in Taiwanese.

Thou hast on excrement 'pon thine eyes ( saved for use on umpires): Li ba zhu hou sai gou diou
I will not attempt to assign tone markers. Ask you Taiwanese buddy how to say it.

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Johnny Neihu said in last Saturday's column that " Many have become so disillusioned with our new leader that they have begun shortening his title from Ma zongtong (馬總統, “President Ma”) to matong (馬統), a homonym for “toilet.”

I said the same back in March. Why does it take so long for Taiwanese to come up with good catch-phrases and slogans? When a foreigner is beating you to the punch it is time to re-asses the efficacy of 抗議 to the millionth power. I would have given 壓 扁 阿扁 ( ㄧㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇ) - Flatten Ah-Bian to anyone in 2004 for a few Gold Medals.

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Why is there so much road construction going on? Anyone? Anyone? Well according the flyer posted outside my house by the Chinese Taichung City Government, it is to install broadband cable as part of Taiwan's program to... here, I'll let them say it: The “M-Taiwan Program” hopes to build Taiwan a “Brave New Mobile World”. It enables people to access multiple ICTs anytime, anywhere — it promises a better M-life.

December is also Information Month in Taiwan. There will be expos in Taipei, Taichung, Kaoshuing and Tainan. Actually the Info Month is from September 29th in Taipei to January 13th in Tainan. Dates for Taichung are December 12-17 at the old Taichung Airport at Shui Nan. Here is the main page with links for all four cities and here is a link with a map and times for Taichung. My Chinese teacher says usually you can only get marginally better prices but the freebies are worth the trip.

Monday Game Picture

This misleading picture maybe implying that Canadians are violent.

Pool B Wrap

The Philippines advanced to Pool A action this weekend by tying Thailand 0-0 this afternoon. That left them 2-0-1 to finish first.

I saw the game this afternoon. Thailand's pitcher, the one Dean and I saw pitch 6 plus innings Tuesday night vs. Hong Kong, took a 1 hitter into the tenth. Jeez. There wasn't even anyone warming up in the bullpen. Made the Philippines offense looked pretty anemic. Then again they probably are. For advancing, they get to play Japan Saturday night. They also beat Pakistan 2-0 and HK 4-1.

Thailand finished second at 1-1-1. In addition to the PH game they beat HK 8-4 and lost to Pakistan 5-3. Dean and I caught the TH-HK game Tuesday night. Truly some ugly baseball. Scattered moments of brilliance and excitement, but mostly just cold beer, cold wind and bad baseball. We left after the 7th.

HK finished 3rd at 1-2. They beat Pakistan tonight 8-6(I just got back). Down 6-2 in the 6th they loaded the bases with no one out and failed to score. They did it again in the 7th and this time got a bases clearing triple to pull within one. In the 8th they got 3 more to get ahead and seal it. They suicided in the last run. It wasn't pretty but they got him in.

Good on Pakistan for coming out. 0-3. Deep green unis with racing stripes. Too bad they had they meltdown in the late innings. I was rooting for them tonight. Dean was too until he started the HK rally in the 7th with his loud and profane exhortations for them to pick it up and make a game of it. To their credit, Pakistan played pretty well defensively making only 1 error.

HK was the worst fielding team I've ever seen. They need infield practice in a large way. They gathered in a big circle in front of the dugout after each inning to listen to the manager's pep talk. All players removed their caps when facing him. They ended their huddle with one of those everybody get your hand in there on top of everybody else's and make a big whooping GO TEAM! shouts before descending into the dugout. Though a night game, the manager wore sunglasses the entire game and took over coaching third in the late innings against Pakistan.

There was a lot of shouting and chanting and chatter by all the teams from the dugouts on every play. They reminded me of little league teams with their enthusiasm.
The mixtures of Thai, Cantonese, Tagalog, Urdu and English easily drowned out the crowds of 80 to 100 people. It was cold weather baseball though. Prob 14 degrees with the wind chill.

Admission was free.

We still saw people peering in through the barred gates on the second floor though. (?)

They had ball boys running around after foul balls in the stands. When a fan got one they were asked to hand it over. I've never seen the like. Baseball blasphemy. Is this because there was no admission?