Left field

A photo caption by Taiwan’s Central News Agency on Tuesday says it all: ”Taiwan gets revenge.”

The agency elaborates in its story about a baseball game on Monday between Taiwan’s Chinese Taipei team and China.

China, though economically and militarily dominant, has never been a baseball powerhouse while Chinese Taipei is seen as a major team in Asia. “Taiwan slaughtered China 13-1…wiping out a grievance resulting from humiliating defeats to China in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and World Baseball Classic in March,” CNA wrote.

Taiwan‘s resulting silver medal at the amateur-level Asian Baseball Championship in Japan raises hopes that it can compose a winning team for the higher-profile Asian Games next year in China. 

But what matters most is now is erasing memories of the close but shocking 8-7 loss to China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics followed by a 4-1 loss to the same team in the March 2009 World Baseball Classic, the media remind Taiwan.

“China is a big country. It’s getting stronger,” said Andrew Yang, a professor who specialises in China studies at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. “At the last Olympics, we performed badly, so people consider this a make-even in a way, meaning we still have potential to be one of the best teams in Asia.”