Professional baseball is back — in Taiwan, where robots will be the spectators
The stands will be empty, but for a handful of mannequin robots posing as
fans of the champion Monkeys.
America's pastime is returning this weekend, nearly 8,000 miles away from the
sport's birthplace — in front of robot mannequins in the stands.
Taiwan, credited for early detection of the novel coronavirus, will reap a
very American reward for its efforts on Saturday as island residents tune
into the world's first competitive pro baseball game since the pandemic led
to a mass economic shutdown.
The coronavirus pandemic forced a timeout for virtually all world sports last
month, with Major League Baseball suspending play during spring training,
about two weeks before the start of real games.
And while MLB officials and players weigh unconventional plans to get the
sport restarted in North America, the defending Chinese Professional Baseball
League champion Rakuten Monkeys and traditional power Chinatrust Brothers get
to play for real.
"Luckily we can play baseball, it is the most lucky thing in the world,"
Monkeys General Manager Justin Liu told NBC News on Friday.
The game is set for Taoyuan International Stadium in Taoyuan City, about 25
miles west of Taipei. Weather permitting, the first pitch will be at 5:05
p.m. local time, which is 5:05 a.m. ET and 2:05 a.m. PT in the United States.
Cable network Eleven Sports announced Friday that it would stream the game
worldwide, outside of Taiwan and Japan, in both Mandarin and English.
"It is not only for Taiwan but it is also globally because our league, the
CPBL, will be the first professional baseball game played in the world," Liu
said. "This is a going to be a symbol and an accomplishment."
By late Friday night in Taiwan, there had been 380 positive cases of
coronavirus and five ensuing deaths on the island of 23 million residents. As
a point of comparison, the state of Florida, with 21 million residents, has
already topped 17,000 cases with at least 390 COVID-19 fatalities.
Liu said players are being kept in dorm-style housing and their travels are
limited to the ballpark.
Zachary Binney, an adjunct instructor of epidemiology at Emory University's
Rollins School of Public Health, praised Taiwan's handling of the outbreak,
but said he's still worried about starting games on the island now.
"The country has shown a degree of responsibility," Binney said Friday. "But I
’d just rest easier if they had a completely closed system, so no support
staff, no family, no one had any outside contact."
http://tinyurl.com/sb9webl
翻译:
美国媒体NBC此篇文章推崇台湾防疫成功，
谈到新型冠状病毒大流行迫使几乎所有世界上的体育运动停摆，
MLB也在春训期间暂停比赛，
而台湾防疫成却能让职棒开打，
但美国疾病专家同时也对中职此时开打担忧。
NBC记者文中专访了冯胜贤和刘玠廷，
刘谈到这次让世界看见台湾与CPBL；
冯则说这表示我们有能力战胜新冠病毒。
文末提到了乐天准备了机器人应援和无观众开打，
最后也提到了台湾对抗新冠病毒受到赞赏获得国际认可，
但在中国打压下并无法加入WHO。