The Dynamic Duo is back intact at the World Baseball Challenge.
Today will mark the return to Citizen Field of two legends of Chinese Taipei baseball when second baseman Lin Han and shortstop Po Ting Hsaio take their cuts against Team USA, starting at 3 p.m.
Han and Hsaio were all-star infielders at the 2011 WBC, leading Chinese Taipei into the championship game, which they lost 9-5 to Cuba.
As good as they were in that tournament with their incredible quickness and clockwork defence, Han and Hsaio proved equally adept with their bats. Han ranked as the third-leading batter in 2011 with a .455 batting average. He had 10 hits, drove in seven runs and drew three walks in 22 at-bats. Hsaio wasn't far behind, fifth in the tournament standings with a .429 average with 12 hits in 28 plate appearances. He collected 12 hits, one home run and 11 RBI.
The 28-year-old Han played for Chinese Taipei in the 2013 World Baseball Classic in March, helping his team advance to the second round. Consecutive losses at the Tokyo Dome to Japan and Cuba eliminated Chinese Taipei.
The Toronto Blue Jays' Prince George connection is coming home.
Stephen Brooks, senior vice-president of business operations for the Jays, is flying in Friday afternoon from Toronto for the weekend and he'll be bringing his three-year-old son Charlie. Two years ago, held in his father's arms, Charlie was on hand to help deliver the ceremonial first pitch in the Cuba-Canada game.
"Charlie loves baseball," said Stephen's mom in Prince George, Bev Ramage. "He's been to more games than I've been to in my lifetime, and he's only three."
The younger Brooks plays baseball on a team in Toronto and he's already hitting balls that almost clear the infield.
"They're amazed at his form," said Ramage. "He's enjoying every minute of it."
Stephen Brooks and his wife Connie celebrated the birth of their second child, a son, Henry, who was born July 17.
Mom and the baby are staying put this week in Toronto.
Cuba and Japan face each other tonight at 7, the opener for both teams, and it will be a somewhat historic encounter.
Representing the Japan Intercity League as champions, JX-Eneos will be the first industrial league team from Japan to play a Cuba National Series team - the Ciego de Avila Tigres - who earned the right to play in Prince George when they won the 2011-12 league title.
Sponsored by Nippon Oil, JX-Eneos is used to success, having won the Japanese equivalent of the triple-A title 11 times. They beat Toshiba, the Japanese team in the 2011 WBC, in a semifinal playoff last month. Koji Uehara, the current Boston Red Sox closer, used to pitch for JX-Eneos.
Having two Asian teams in the WBC gives fans in Prince George a rare glimpse of how baseball is played on the other side of the Pacific.
"Compared to what we are used to seeing on TV in North America, or at MLB parks, they play the game in a different way, with a different style, with a different approach - and they play it very, very well," said WBC co-chair Jim Swanson.
"There is a structure and a discipline to their game that other countries have tried to emulate for decades, but have never quite found it. The respect they bring to the field, their stoic determination to win, no one has ever taken a game against Japan or Chinese Taipei for granted because you know they won't take a pitch off.
"Anyone who saw Chinese Taipei beat Cuba in extra innings in the first playoff game [in 2011], or saw Japan go pitch-for-pitch with Cuba on the first day of that tournament, has fond memories of outstanding performances."
Canada has a day off today and returns to the field Thursday night to play Japan.
