Muscle Sport Magazine
Home / Baseball / Watch Taiwanese Baseball Games in English

Watch Taiwanese Baseball Games in English

Eleven Sports Network

Baseball fans have been jonesing for over a month now since the corona virus shut down spring training. Opening Day came and went with nary a “Play ball” from ‘blue’ and there is no way of even guessing when or if Major League Baseball will begin playing again. There have been rumblings that all 30 teams could play a shortened season quarantined together in Arizona, holding triple headers in a few different locations (spring training ballparks and the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium), but the logistics of it – players being totally away from their families, the need to leave the hotel due to injury, etc. – may and most likely will be roadblocks.

But there is one place that has decided to play games in fanless  – albeit not empty nor quiet – stadiums and that is in Taiwan. The island off mainland China has been able to contain the spread of the corona virus (only 400 cases and six deaths for a population of 24 million) and the Chinese Professional Baseball League began as scheduled on April 11.

Eleven Sports Network has been live streaming the home games for one of the league’s five teams – the Rakuten Monkeys – on their Twitter page. The key component is that these broadcasts are in English, so fans in many different countries can watch and enjoy pro baseball while the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown continues.

There is a 12-hour time difference, so games begin as early as 5:30 AM EST.

To mimic the missing crowd, the CPBL has used mannequins and robots in the stands, as well as having the usual fan chatter and chants being piped in over the PA system.

CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW ELEVEN SPORTS NETWORK ON TWITTER.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *