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Many players in the North America n Major League Baseball 's minor league systems were attracted to play in Taiwan since the average yearly salary for a good foreign player, at $60,000 US Dollars , is very competitive comparing with A, AA, or even low level AAA minor league salary. While this has contributed to a relative high level of baseball playing, many people had criticized that hiring so many foreign players hinders growth of local players. In respond to the criticisms, CPBL limits the number of foreign players who may play for each team. The current limit is four per team, although in the 2006 season, in light of the rumored involvement of foreign players in recent scandals (which may turn out to be overblown, however), CPBL is considering to reduce the limit to two per team. Foreign players (other than Japan ese and Korea n players, whose names are already written in Chinese characters) are given Chinese Epithets , usually two to three characters in length, as names to increase familiarity with Taiwanese fans. These epithets are generally (but not always) loose Transliterations of the players' names and are generally chosen as terms meant to convey strength or might. One example is the below-referenced Jeffrey Andra, whose epithet is ''Feiyong'' (飛勇) -- meaning, literally, a flying brave man. (La New Bears appears to buck this trend; their foreign players' epithets are generally simple transliterations.) GAME-FIXING SCANDALS Despite its young age, CPBL and professional baseball in Taiwan as a whole, had endured two game-fixing Scandal s. Both times had led to sharp decline in game attendance and broke many fans' hearts. However, many die-hard fans do not blame the players. Instead fans blame gangs and gamblers for their greed and forcing players to participate in game-fixing with violence and threats. They also blamed the police and the league for unable to provide a safe environment for players to play in. During the late 1990s , the first game-fixing scandal erupted. The average attendance for a CPBL game dropped from around 7000 to around 1500. Some games with less popular team-combinations drew less than 1000 pay-attendance at times. This scandal led to the permanent expulsion of many players and disbandment of China Times Eagles and eventually the Mercuries Tigers and Wei Chuan Dragons a few seasons later. In July 2005 , another gambling-related scandal erupted, this time centered around foreign players in the league, but also involved some local players. Investigation is still on-going. So far, the only player arrested is La New Bears Catcher Chen Zhaoying (陳昭穎), who was immediately expelled by his team. Macoto Cobras minor league manager Cai Shengfeng (蔡生豐) was also arrested. However, on August 22, both Chen and Cai were suddenly released after, according to the prosecution, they made full confessions. Sinon Bulls pitchers Ho Chi-Hsien (何紀賢) and Yang Jen-Ming (楊仁明), Macoto Cobras Shortstop Hsu Sheng-Chieh (許聖杰), La New Bears Pitcher s Tai Lung-Shui (戴龍水) and Hsu Chih-Hua (許志華), Outfielder Hsu Yao-Yuan (許堯淵), Infielder Kuo Chang-Ting (郭昌庭), Americans La New Bears Third Baseman Victor Rodriguez and Sinon Bulls pitching coach Jeffrey Andra (飛勇), and Dominican Chinatrust Whales pitcher Emiliano Girón, were implicated, but none has admitted guilt. They were released after interviews with the prosecutor, as was Macoto minor league pitcher Chen Chih-Cheng (陳志誠). It is still unknown how many other players are involved. With the recent lack of investigative advances and indictments, there is growing suspicion that no indictments would be forthcoming. CPBL TEAMS Current Teams are owned by and named for large Taiwanese companies, as in Japan. Each team manages a regional "market", as in "home city", but does not play its games exclusively in that market. The "home city" breakdown for the six teams are:
Besides these home cities, regular games are also held in Hsinchu , Douliou , Chiayi , Pingtung , Luodong , Hualien and Taitung with less frequency. Defunct
TML TEAMS During TML's short 6-year history, all 4 teams were directly controlled by TVBS media group, which was chaired by Chiu Fu-sheng during that period. Chiu established TML in 1996 shortly after TVBS lost the bid to broadcast CPBL games from 1997 to 2006 (TVBS won this bid earlier from 1993 to 1996) in anticipation to maintain advertisement revenue as well as revenge CPBL. Throughout TML's history, TML had been luring active CPBL players to break their CPBL contracts and join TML by paying them high salary in excess of market value. A total of near 30 CPBL players were attracted to TML, however because of Chiu's indecent incentive to form TML, many these players' fans ceased to support them and called them "traitors" henceforth. Chiu annually leased the 4 teams' logos and legal rights to different sponsors for advertising purpose, so every year each team would bear different name from different sponsors, only with home city and mascot remained the same. All these TML's policies were highly controversial; plus TML's single-company nature, TML never gained popularity. Despite nice pay, young, potential players hesitated to join TML because its games were not competitive enough, and sponsors gradually disappeared. In January 2003 Chiu finally decided to end TML after long loss (an estimated 1.6 billion NT$ loss was amassed during the 6 seasons) and political pressure from President Chen Shui-bian ; Chiu also quitted TVBS's chair later. President Chen found local Macoto Bank and First Financial Holdings to sponsor the 2 absorbed TML teams. Macoto Bank went on running, while First Financial Holdings sold Agan to La New Corporation one year later, forming today's CPBL. Before CPBL's 2003 season started, CPBL decided to fine each former "traitor" player who returned back with Gida and Agan for 1~4 million NT$ because of their previous contract-breaking. Both Macoto Bank and First Financial Holdings originally refused to pay the fine, so during 2003 these "traitor" players had no game to play. However in 2004 Macoto Bank and La New Corporation finally paid the fine by adding extra limitations in their contracts. These players could finally show up in CPBL again after 8-year absence. The mascots Gida, Agan, Luka and Fala originated from Taiwanese Aborigines symbols.
Like CPBL, TML games were also occasionally held in minor cities as listed in CPBL section. TALENT EXPORT While Taiwan has been producing great baseball talents for the last few decades, its best players usually leave the domestic league to play for professional teams in Japan or North America . In the 1980s, Taiwanese pitchers such as 郭泰源 ( Taigen Kaku ) and 莊勝雄 posted impressive numbers for Seibu Lions and Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese baseball league, respectively. More recently, a slew of young stars (hitter Chin-Feng Chen and pitchers Chien-Ming Wang , Chin-Hui Tsao and Hong-Chih Kuo ) became the first group of Taiwanese players to reach the North American Major League Baseball . CHAMPIONSHIP BY SEASON CPBL
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