Taiwan takes WBSC U12 Baseball Championship

[OysterOmelet]

Wow this is huge!!! Taiwan wins U18 championship from the USA. This is eighteen-year olds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=tkEuvezmpUM&fbclid=IwAR3KaNyZEXjLmMk22oj_x2x8oTi1Og3f7QJo2Uz63wF5pAKyk4GzqogK6ZU&app=desktop

[hansioux]

Most English broadcast videos have been removed for some reason…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_rFzv8EutQ

The two diving catches by Lo Wei-jie are spectacular. This is a well earned victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn94J-rODis

[bojack]

I bet the American kids had beautiful swings, tho. Of course they had only a limited idea of how to field a ball, and even less interest, so there’s that. I hope nobody in the outfield was plonked in the forehead by a fly ball.
/snark

Congratulations to Taiwan! I hope this helps grow youth baseball here. Huge news.

[Andrew0409]

@RogerRabbi

I think you are confused as to what travel baseball is. Our high school-aged team (not high school team) had some of the best players from five states and we traveled around the country playing the best teams

I have no doubt you guys were phenomenal. But I’ve known these teams and I’ve played with many players who played on them and was probably the worst player myself. Most of them I played with played D1 and a few were drafted. The best I’ve played with is a AA-AAA pitcher who threw 95+ when we played. He was called up to the majors but sent back. He might have been the only player who probably could play in the CPBL at 18 with a 95 plus heater. I have a hard time picturing HS age players beat pro teams in the CPBL who imo are single A level imo.

But what do I know. Maybe you guys were that good and had most of the guys drafted out of HS. Must have been cool to play on one of these teams.

[OysterOmelet]

@bojack

I bet the American kids had beautiful swings, tho. Of course they had only a limited idea of how to field a ball, and even less interest, so there’s that. I hope nobody in the outfield was plonked in the forehead by a fly ball.
/snark

Congratulations to Taiwan! I hope this helps grow youth baseball here. Huge news.

You’re not too far off. Whenever the US doesn’t win it all in baseball, it’s due to apathy.

As soon as the US started taking things seriously, they won the Classic, the U12 three straight years, the U18 five straight years.

[OysterOmelet]

That was classy of the US player to tip his hat after Lo robbed him.

Also, it bugs me Korean announcers call our country by its real name and our own commentators use the demeaning Chinese Taipei.

[hansioux]

By the way, this will also mark the last standard 9-inning-game tournament in WBSC U series. After this, all future U18 and U23 games will only be played for 7 innings. The pitchers will be significantly more important, as a good starting pitcher will likely be able shut the other team down for all 7 innings.

[OysterOmelet]

@hansioux

Most English broadcast videos have been removed for some reason…

Finally, full game.

Chinese Taipei v USA - U-18 Baseball World Cup 2019 - World Championship Final

[OysterOmelet]

@hansioux

I’m not sure the strong pitching and weak batting image still applies here in Taiwan. Perhaps it is still somewhat true in high school, however many coaches at the college level have a much better understanding of new hitting strategies and as a result churned out many sluggers.

At the same time, there has been a pitching drain. It is very rare these days for Taiwanese high school pitchers to throw above 150kph. Back when Wang Chien-min, Kuo Hong-chih and Tsao chin-hui were in high school, there would be at least 3 or 4 such pitchers every year.

That too is slowly changing. So far this year, 3 high school pitchers pitched above 150kph. So perhaps baseball here will be at a higher level 5 years later.

Five this year.