Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

If a Taiwan professional baseball game is your first baseball game, you probably won't like the MLB that much. Just sayin.

As a sports fan, I've been in Taiwan far too long to not have been to a CPBL game. It was definitely on my check list of things to do while in Taiwan, but it needed to become a reality after making a friend on my flight back to Taiwan who is an absolute die-hard Brother Elephants fan. She loves baseball.

A few weeks later, I was on the horn gathering up a proper crew of 11 people for a Saturday evening ballgame. The day started at noon at Hooters in Taipei, where we enjoyed drinks, quality service, and a matinée hula hoop show by our waitress.

Later, Rory and I did whatever it took to win free paraphernalia.

Onto Tianmu Baseball Stadium, with a modest maximum capacity of 10,500. With that being said, at the box office window outside the stadium (US$9.43 a ticket), we already heard the crowd roaring. As our large group of mostly foreigners waded through a massive sea of yellow jerseys finding our seats, it was pretty clear that we stuck out. Everyone was wearing and/or holding something yellow in support of the Brother Elephants.

Not even 5 minutes after I sat down, I got sucked into the buzz and went and bought a jersey. I was watching the game on the TV in line and suddenly saw all my friends waving at the camera.

The cheering didn't stop the entire game. It seemed like every game situation had it's own song or chant with choreographed hand motions. There was so much passion from the fans and it was impossible to not get into the game, even for my non-American friends who had already labeled it the All-American Saturday. We all cheered for the Elephants as die-hards when they won on a walk-off single.

I've been to a handful of games in the U.S., but not nearly enough to cast a blanket statement over MLB baseball. After being at to this game, every game that I had been to before became retrospectively boring. Of course people cheer, especially if your team is winning. Nine out of ten times, it's usually "Let's go _______, clap-clap-clapclapclap!" Sometimes it's just that drunk guy in the upper deck screaming his face off while everyone else pretends not to hear him.

The Brother Elephants have a pep band (and I'm sure the other 3 teams in the CPBL do as well).

One of the players even has his own song that's actually really elaborate. The whole place goes nuts for a full 9 innings, pretty much making sure that nobody gets bored enough to keep score on their own scorecard.

It was so much fun that I went back the next day and saw the Elephants win again with a 3-run comeback rally late in the game.

(I made the highlights!!! You can see pretty clearly I don't know how to do the songs!)

[Other perks: you can bring anything into Tianmu Stadium, including food, beer, or bottles of whiskey to mix with the bottles of Coke you brought. There's also a place to refill water bottles]