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Traveling with the Team
Oct. 17 - Nov. 6, 2015
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Chandler and Taiwanese athletes, their coaches and city officials show off their paddles that they had autographed during the tournament. As a goodwill gesture, the Chandler National Little League All-Stars gave jerseys to their Tainan counterparts. Photo by Bob Liu
Baseball a way of life for Taiwanese, American families BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Chandler City Councilman Jack Sellers climbed aboard the tour bus with woodcarved trophy in hand, marking the Chandler National Little League All-Stars’ first place win at the Giant Cup 2015 International Little League Championship in Tainan. “My highlight was really seeing the sportsmanship of our team in general,” Sellers said after the fact. “You put 15 12-year-olds together like that and you don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s an awful lot of pent-up energy in them— particularly 15 athletes. “I felt really good about how our kids acted, how they performed and the sportsmanship.” Sellers said he credits the coaches and the parents for instilling that respect in the children. “I thought the coaches were just excellent; really good leaders,” Sellers said. “You have to give the parents credit, too, because instilling that kind of attitude in kids isn’t all together common these days.” The highlight for Sellers was watching one of the “friendly” games. “During that game, they mixed the kids from Tainan and Chandler and then had the mixed teams play each other,” Sellers said. “At the end of that, they exchanged jerseys. “I thought, ‘Who could ask for anything better than that?” The kids will be honored during the Monday, Nov. 16, City Council meeting when Mayor Jay Tibshraeny will present the Chandler team with the trophy, according to Sellers. “It’ll allow us to celebrate the team on our Channel 11,” Sellers said. Learning curve The boys had a quick history lesson during the games as well. According to former ASU student Kenny Chan, a Taiwanborn translator for the boys, in 1971, the Tainan Giant team took first place at the 25th Little World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
“The players of the Tainan Giant team consider the two “friendship cities.” in 1971 were mostly from the Sie-Jin “At the time, we agreed to create a Elementary School Baseball Team,” Chan friendship of two cities by baseball,” he said. said. “Tainan City is also a baseball city “The team in Taiwan. Many won a series of famous baseball the games in players come from order to attend Tainan City. This city the Little League wins many times, World Series. several times of The team did not championships in only win the first sports.” prize at the Little Lai said he, League World himself, is a big Series, but also baseball fan, let the Taiwanese however, “I’m a very people united bad baseball player.” together. Overall, “I cannot throw baseball became a baseball well,” a civil sport in he said with a shy Taiwan.” smile. “But I can Tainan Mayor be a good baseball William Lai fan. When I was a couldn’t agree student of Harvard, more. I went to Fenway “This is the Park. Originally I was Ethan Ludwig takes a swing during one of the first time we have games. Photo by Katie Ludwig a fan of the Red Sox. kids from United One year, I don’t States to Tainan know what year, but City to play as a congressman baseball,” he said. I went (on the) “It can (extend) invitation of the the meaning of state’s government. the friendship of I visit L.A. At the the two cities. same time I went to Chandler is a the baseball field to similar city.” see the game.” Previously, He was the Tainan City depressed because team visited Randy Johnson lost Arizona to play Dodgers vs. “Arizona baseball against Diamondsocks,” as the Chandler he called them, in National Little Los Angeles. Chandler National Little League All-Stars take League All-Star “I came to see part in a meet and greet with students at Sie-Jin team. When the Elementary School. Photo by Katie Ludwig Randy Johnson and Tainan delegation he lost,” he said. traveled Chan, a to Arizona, Lai said, Tainan signed a translator with the Chandler team, memorandum of understanding to said after the Lai became the mayor of
Tainan, he started working on making the municipality a “City of Baseball” in Asia. Therefore, he would hold a series of baseball events, games and even meetings. Challenging games Marcanthony “Chacho” Trejo said the biggest challenge of the experience was hitting. “I played pretty good,” Chacho said. “Their pitching was challenging. Some of the kids do it underhand. It was weird.” The pitching didn’t seem to affect Brok Liu, who hit a home run in one of the games. Brok, whose dad has family in Taiwan, enjoyed the experience as a whole. “Taiwan was really fun,” he said. “It was a really good experience. I liked the food and hanging out with the Taiwanese kids and my friends at the hotel.” Brok’s mom, Gina, was thrilled that he was able to experience baseball this way. “It was a great experience for the kids— not only playing baseball, but interacting with the other kids and figuring out how to communicate when they don’t speak the language,” she said. More than just baseball Beyond baseball, the boys and their parents had a crash course in Taiwanese delicacies, popular dishes and culture. Fish—complete with head, teeth and eyes—were served on a regular basis. “I thought it was great,” said Ethan Ludwig, of the fish. “Having fish here is different than having fish there. Fish here, it’s sometimes beer battered. There are all these other flavors, where in Taiwan, it’s just fish with heads, eyes and teeth. It was cool.” Toward the end of the trip, the boys and accompanying parents were offered, what Ethan’s dad Heath Ludwig called, the best meal of the trip. “It was a whole chicken—feet, head, beak,” he said with a laugh. “They give you gloves so one person can pull the meat off. see BASEBALL page 41