Three Taiwan Players Confess to Game Fixing
Three Brother Elephants confessed to fixing baseball games and returned the gains they accrued from the fix. Pitchers Li Hao-jen, Wu Bao-hsien and outfielder Chu Hung-shen admitted their roles and returned a total of NT$350,000. The management of the Hotel Brother Elephants showed no sympathy to the admission and released the players. They also indicated that they would not renew the contract of ex-major league pitcher Tsao Chin-hui, who has also been implicated in the game fixing scandal.
The Brother Elephants are the most popular team in Taiwan and with 12 of their players implicated in gambling allegations the team will have to regroup or disband. It would be similar to half the Yomiuri Giants or New York Yankees roster implicated in a gambling sting.
To read full story go to http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2009/10/31/230810/p1/Three-players.htm
Reports are that starting pitchers earned NT$3million per game, which is the equivalent of $90,000 per game.
To help subsidize the league and save it from the gamblers the government and President Ma Ying-jeou plans to give each team NT$10. When you realize that each pitcher was given NT$3 million just to throw a game that doesn’t appear to be a big incentive. Because baseball is the national sport in Taiwan the President will do whatever it takes to save it from “external forces”.
Read that article here: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/11/01/2003457352