Wei’s ‘joke’ tarnished a moment of celebration

The Wei Chuan Dragons on Oct. 26 defeated the CTBC Brothers to win the best-of-seven Taiwan Series and bag their sixth baseball championship title. However, what should have been a moment of celebration for players, staff and fans was instead overshadowed by controversy.

After the game, Wei Ying-chiao (魏應交) — chairman of Ting Hsin International, which owns the Dragons — jokingly suggested that the team had given the Brothers “a chance and some hope,” after losing Games 4 and 5.

It was part of “meticulous planning” by Dragons manager Yeh Chun-chang (葉君璋), he said, which appeared to imply that the team deliberately lost to make the Series more exciting, which sparked a public backlash.

Wei’s joke touched on a sensitive issue in sports, and especially Taiwanese baseball: game-fixing.

ART OF BASEBALL

Baseball is a strategic game involving many variables, such as matching particular pitchers against certain batters, based on data analysis and player health. How a manager handles his players, prepares them for the field and sets batting order and field assignments is an art.

This year’s Series was a rollercoaster ride, with the Dragons winning three consecutive games to seemingly have the title within their grasp before the Brothers denied them twice in a row. Although the Dragons ultimately prevailed, blanking the Brothers 6-0 in Game 6, the Series showed how difficult each victory was and how an opponent can fight their way back from the brink.

However, the unspoken commercial reality of modern professional sports is that excitement drives ticket sales and sponsorships, builds fan loyalty and helps bolster a team’s brand.

KEEPING FANS ENGAGED

In the Western Conference semi-finals of the 2009 NBA playoffs, Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers were favored to defeat Chinese superstar Yao Ming’s (姚明) Houston Rockets. However, when the Lakers, up 3-2, lost Game 6, some in the Chinese media speculated that the defeat was intentional to keep Chinese fans engaged, given the value the NBA placed on that market. Ultimately, that theory made little sense, as Yao had already sustained a season-ending injury in Game 3 and was already out of the tournament.

Similarly, the Dragons-Brothers battles at the Taipei Dome attracted a record number of fans, demonstrating the value of the competitive match-up.

Fan mentality is also important. Most fans believe in and hope for their team’s victory, especially those supporting the perceived underdogs, who anticipated a triumphant comeback.

From that perspective, as the Series took six games to decide the champions, it was a satisfying conclusion for the teams and the fans alike.

Wei’s remarks and his subsequent apology serve as a lesson for leaders in professional sports: True professional sports management and development is making matches exciting or suspenseful, without making fans doubt the outcome of the games.

Taiwan’s professional baseball has been around for 37 years. This year’s Series was the first to attract more than 200,000 fans, with three of the six games reaching the Taipei Dome’s 40,000-person capacity. The Series was thrilling, but as the saying goes, “the devil is in the details,” and there is still room for improvement.

Tao Yi-che is a bilingual teacher at the Affiliated High School of National Chengchi University.