Staff writer, with agencies

BASEBALL

Monkeys top KT Wiz, Eagles

Taiwan Series champions the Rakuten Monkeys yesterday beat South Korea’s KT Wiz of the KBO League 6-3 in the final game of the Asia Professional Baseball Exchange Series in Taoyuan. The three-day series of exhibition games, designed to showcase South Korean and Japanese baseball to a Taiwanese audience, started on Friday with the KT Wiz playing Nippon Professional Baseball’s the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, with the game ending in a 1-1 tie after nine innings at Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium. In Saturday night’s Rakuten faceoff, the Monkeys topped the Eagles 3-1, while their Japanese counterparts brought out their Taiwanese stars to play with compatriots, including Yang Po-hsiang on second base and fellow Taitung County native Sung Chiao-hao, who pitched for Taiwan in the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics.

Photo: CNA

BASEBALL

Baseball legend honored

The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association on Friday congratulated baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, a citizen of the Republic of China (ROC), on receiving Japan’s prestigious Order of Culture at the age of 85. Japanese Emperor Naruhito on Monday last week presented Oh with the honor, making him only the second baseball player to receive the award. Oh, whose Chinese name is Wang Chen-chih, was recognized for his outstanding contributions to sports development over his illustrious career. Association chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr in a statement congratulated Oh and said he had invited the legend to visit Taiwan at the end of February next year with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks for exhibition games that would serve as warm-ups for the World Baseball Classic. Oh is chairman of the Hawks. Koo also invited Oh to hold special coaching sessions with Taiwan’s team ahead of the world tournament, which Oh apparently accepted as long as his health permits, the association said. The world career home run record holder with 868 homers, Oh is the fourth Japanese athlete and the second baseball player to receive the Order of Culture since its establishment in 1937. Born in Japan in 1940 to a Japanese mother and Chinese father, Oh has lived in Japan all his life, but holds ROC citizenship. Oh has turned down multiple opportunities to become a naturalized Japanese citizen in accordance with his father’s wishes.

RUGBY

Australia dominate Ashes

After a 22-year wait for a rugby league Ashes series, England fans had hoped home advantage would give them a fighting chance of challenging their Australian counterparts. Instead, a series whitewash only highlighted the gap between the old foes. A first successive Ashes series whitewash since 1986 was sealed with a comprehensive 30-8 Australian victory in the final test at Headingley on Saturday, another occasion when England were vastly inferior. England supporters sang “you’re getting sacked in the morning” in the direction of coach Shaun Wane as the match wore on, with a World Cup to come next year. “I don’t believe, I know I am” the right man to lead England into the Rugby League World Cup, Wane told reporters. “The only people who I want on my side are the players and the staff, and I know I’ve got that.”