Contrast him with Wei-yin Chen. When asked by the Taiwanese media about his participation, he said something to the extent of, “I need to get my team’s permission. I’m only in the second year of my contract. We’ll see what my team says.”
I would personal love to have represented Taiwan in the WBC. But to be fair, choo is already an established MLB player that’s a vet and a 20 20 player.
Wei hasn’t done too well, not terrible but he’s definitely in a position to lose his spot in a rotation. So I think he wanted to make sure he’s ready for the season and get his money
Having lived and worked in Korea and having dealt with the feverish nationalism that would be paired with racism and xenophobia for those that weren’t Korean pureblood, I find it refreshing that Taiwanese aren’t as rabid and brainwashed about their national identity. They’re, on average, more open-minded and individualistic than their East Asian neighbors.
I hate to say it this way but Wei got lucky with Jose Fernandezs death. He is a veteran pitcher had a few good years. But was struggling a little. But he was def only a 3-5 spot guy on a team. And he was a couple bad outings away from being sent to the minors. But the marlins just suck to bad and they needed his at least somewhat decent stability. He wasn’t going to give you shut out 9 innings but he was going to give you 6-7 innings of 2-4 run baseball which is not bad. Teams need guys that can do that, and he still has flashes of greatness with that lefty slider when he can locate.
Chen has caught a lot of flak for this issue from some Taiwanese baseball fans. So far there has been 4 WBCs. Chen missed out on every single one of them, despite basically being on the initial Team Taiwan roster every single time.
Chen was definitely hurt prior to the 2006 WBC, so no one could fault him on that. For 2009 he had just recovered from an injury and didn’t perform well the previous season, so he turned it down. He pretty much entered DL right off the gate in 2009 as well, so it’s also pretty understandable.
Some fans weren’t happy about how he missed the next two WBCs. The preliminary rounds of the 2013 WBC was held in November of 2012. Chen was already a starting pitcher of the Orioles. He pitched in the post season in October and got a win against the Yankees, so he was still in playing condition. Chen’s official reason for turning this one down was that they are expecting the arrival of his son. That one kind of became a mime amongst some fans.
He turned down the latest one because as the article quoted, that he wanted to get his team’s permission. That further antagonized some fans.
I personally have no issue with him turning the last two down. I can understand wanting to be there for his newborn child, and I think his latest refusal has more to do with how the MLB is handling the WBC internally than Chen himself.
Him missing out on these big international competitions doesn’t sit well with a small portion of fans though, and it’s a reason why Chen isn’t as big as of star compares to Wang here in Taiwan.
To his defence, Chen did pitch in the 2008 Olympics. Too bad that was an memory that most Taiwanese baseball fans wants to erase from their heads.
Always have liked Chen over Wang, as Chen played for one of my favorite teams before going to Marlins. Wang seemed less personable or a bit standoffish (maybe that’s just his style).
FTV must’ve signed a long-term contract to just broadcast Yankees games, starting off when Wang was big with them, because it seems that all they would broadcast were Yankee games on FTV even after he was let go.
Anyone know how Taiwanese players have gotten along in the U.S. (besides having children there, like Chen)? Do they assimilate by trying to learn the language, etc.?
I watched a whole bunch of those discussion shows they had after the World Classic last year. I can’t remember where I heard it from, but one of the older guys said he talked to 胡智為and said he wanted to play, bit didn’t because of all the chaos that was going on.
