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這是我棒球版的首po，希望大家鞭小力一點。




一邊翻譯的時候，我的心其實一直在淌血，希望中職未來都不要有假球，球員也可以有一
個可以安心打球的環境


原文鏈接：

http://ppt.cc/umow



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Nearly 10 years ago, Taiwanese pitcher Chin-hui Tsao was considered a top 25
baseball prospect. He had a powerful fastball and was deemed a future ace. In
his first professional season in the United States in 2000, a 19-year-old
Tsao struck out 187 batters in 145 innings. By 2003, Tsao was pitching for
the Colorado Rockies.





But several arm and shoulder injuries derailed his career, and in 2009 he
returned to Taiwan to play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League
(CPBL). He has not pitched in the U.S. since.


但是好景不長，幾次嚴重的手肘傷勢斷送了他在美國的職業生涯。身為自由人的曹錦輝於
2009回到了故鄉台灣，並加入中華職棒（CPBL），從此再也沒有回到美國球界。


Last week, reports surfaced that the Los Angeles Dodgers were close to
signing Tsao, now 33, to a minor league contract—a transaction that would
hardly be notable if not for the fact that Tsao hasn't pitched professionally
since that 2009 season in Taiwan, a result of having been named in a
match-fixing scandal in his home country. Tsao was banned for life from the
CPBL despite a Taiwanese court having acquitted him of any charges.





Although he was not convicted, the acquittal papers alleged that Tsao had
conspired to fix two games; one of which never occurred because of a rain-out
and the second of which was allegedly not fixed after several players backed
out. Still, the accusations were enough to kill Tsao's career in his home
country.





The first player from Taiwan to appear in the major leagues, Tsao—who
received a still-record $2.2 million signing bonus in 1999—has become a
symbol for the CPBL's new, tough stance on game-fixing.


作為第一個在大聯盟出賽的台灣人，家喻戶曉的曹錦輝代表了中華職棒對抗假球的零容忍
政策的一個象徵。


The CPBL so believed that Tsao's ban was necessary to maintain the integrity
of Taiwanese professional baseball that last month the league pressured the
Australian Baseball League to nullify Tsao's contract agreement with the
Adelaide Bite, where Tsao had hoped to showcase himself to major league teams.





Why would the CPBL take such a hard stance against a prominent player? Quite
simply because game-fixing has threatened baseball in Taiwan for nearly 20
years.


為何中華職棒要對一個如此家喻戶曉的球員這麼的嚴苛呢？這道理十分簡單，在過去的二
十年間，台灣棒球因為層出不窮的假球事件已可謂是遍體鱗傷。


Baseball has been Taiwan's most popular sport for more than a century.
Japanese occupation of the island brought the sport to Taiwan in the late
19th century. Baseball thrived despite a lack of support from the Chinese
nationalist party after World War II. By the late 1960s, baseball had become
a source of pride for Taiwan, which, under pressure from China, had lost its
United Nations seat.





So while Taiwan faced political international ambiguity, the country's youth
baseball teams helped establish an identity for the island. Taiwanese youth
teams won 10 of 13 Little League World Series titles from 1969-81. Tournament
organizers banned foreign teams from the 1975 Little League World Series in
large part because of Taiwan's dominance.


當台灣在國際社會面對各種尷尬的政治問題時，該國少棒隊的精彩表現讓全世界用不同的
方式認識了台灣。台灣少棒於1969至1981年豪奪10次由美國舉辦的世界少棒大賽（
Little League World Series）冠軍，並迫使該賽事的組織者於1975年開始禁止國際球隊
參賽。


On October 23, 1989, several businessmen agreed to found the CPBL with four
teams backed by Taiwanese companies: Wei Chuan Corp., Uni-President
Enterprises Corp., Mercuries & Associates, and Brother Hotel, Inc. Attendance
was nearly 5,000 fans per game in that inaugural 1990 season. The league
expanded to six teams in 1993, and then added a seventh team in 1997.





But the China Times Eagles were soon disbanded after the first major
game-fixing scandal in 1997. Several investigations revealed that players
from the Eagles, the Mercuries Tigers, and the Wei Chuan Dragons had
participated in game-fixing after having been physically threatened by
gangsters. At one point, gangsters even stabbed Wei Chuan's manager, Hsu
Sheng-ming, a Taiwanese baseball legend, after he refused to participate in
game-fixing.





Similar scandals arose in 2005 and then again in 2008, which resulted in the
disbanding of several other teams and a complete reorganization of the
league. But not even that could prevent the 2009 scandal involving Tsao and
his Brother Elephants team—the country's most popular player and most
popular franchise. Taiwan was not past its corruption problems, and
previously attempted solutions had proven to only be cosmetic.





"Instead of going after some of the source problems—organized crime and
dirty politicians—they quickly cut loose all the players brought up on
allegations, whether they are guilty or not," said one Taiwanese baseball
insider who did not want to be identified because of the sensitive nature of
the topic. No source who spoke to VICE Sports for this story wanted their
name used.



。


The CPBL is susceptible to match fixing for several reasons: first, the Asian
gambling market is a billion dollar industry and it infects all countries in
the region in some way.


中華職棒層出不窮的假球基本上可以被歸結為以下幾個原因：第一，亞洲的賭球市場非常
的大，大到甚至可以牽動該區域所有的國家


Second, Taiwanese players are among the lowest paid in professional baseball.


第二，台灣球員基本上是職業棒球世界薪水最低的一群人。“這個聯盟一點都不尊重他們
的球員”，一位駐台球探這麼說道，“這個聯盟非常的不專業”。


"The league just doesn't respect the player," said one scout based in Taiwan.
"The league is just not professional."
Players earn a base salary of just over $2,000 per month, which is not
guaranteed. A player, despite having a multi-year contract, can be released
at any time. There is also no true free agency and no real minor league
system. Some teams make players stay at high school dorms during spring
training, and many players are obligated to perform clubhouse attendant
duties.





It is also worth considering the socio-economic backgrounds of some of the
players. As a result of baseball's popularity in the 1970s, Taiwanese schools
began to offer the sport almost as a vocational class. Young Taiwanese kids
essentially began to focus on baseball rather than on academics.





Players spent more time training than they did in the classroom, and schools
recruited players from afar to improve their baseball teams to participate in
ultra-competitive leagues.


小球員花費在訓練上的時間與精力大大超越了他們正常的上課時間，學校甚至會跨縣市招
募有資質的小朋友來幫助球隊。


"It becomes baseball training for most of the high schools," said the
Taiwanese baseball insider. "Even though it's school, academics are not part
of their education."


“訓練基本上成為了他們高中的全部”一位相關人士這樣告訴我，“雖然他們在學校，但
是學業並不是他們教育的一部分”


Schools began to recruit players from some of Taiwan's most impoverished
neighborhoods.Aboriginal Taiwanese—like Tsao—who had grown up without much
of an education, and had been some of the country's most marginalized
citizens, were particular targets. As a result, a large chunk of the CPBL
player pool became comprised of aboriginal Taiwanese.





All of this helped create an environment where players became willing
participants in game-fixing because they needed money to supplement their low
salaries, or because they had grown up in an environment of economic survival
where crime was not necessarily seen as an illicit activity, or they simply
lacked the education to make better decisions.





"With game-fixing problems, the players' social background and value system
and what type of character development they received are things that need to
be considered," the Taiwanese baseball insider said. "When they don't get
character development as part of their education, and they begin to have
values that are more about money, how do you overcome these pressures as
adults to make the right judgments?"





Game-fixing followed a similar path, according to sources. A former teammate
or a friend would introduce players to gangsters. This usually happened
during a social outing where players were treated to drinks and, often,
sexual favors. Once in contact with the gangsters, these players were soon
asked to fix games, sometimes forcefully.





Some gangsters were powerful enough where they could directly call into the
clubhouse to check on their investment.


一些特別強大的黑道甚至可以直接打電話給球隊來確認假球的進度。


The league has tried to combat this criminal element by forcing players to
attend anti-gambling seminars during spring training. Players are also made
to sign consent forms that allow league officials to monitor their cell
phones.


聯盟有嘗試過對抗這些犯罪行為，其內容不外乎讓球員於春訓時參與所謂的反賭課程，球
員也必須簽署讓聯盟監控他們手機通訊內容的同意書。


Yet that might still not be enough.


但這些可能都還是不足以防止假球的再一次發生。


"People I've talked to still think it's probably going on in some form," said
one American League team scout. "There hasn't been a high profile bust like
when Tsao was indicted, but the gangster/mafia culture is so prominent in the
country it's tough to root it out of baseball."





And that's why the CPBL believes Tsao's case has become so important.


這也就是為什麼中華職棒認為曹錦輝的例子是如此的重要。


In June 2010, shortly after he had been banned in Taiwan, Tsao worked out for
several major league team scouts in the U.S. He did well enough in those
tryouts to attract some interest.


2010年六月，就在他被台灣禁賽不久後，曹錦輝在美國讓幾位大聯盟球探做了測試。結果
非常不錯，而曹錦輝的表現也引來了許多關注。


But MLB was hesitant to approve any deal until a full investigation had been
conducted. In order to fully vet Tsao, MLB deployed its investigative unit—
the same group that had been put together to untangle PED use, and had also
helped curb illegal activities in the signing of Latin American amateur
players. After a lengthy investigation, Tsao, according to several sources,
was cleared to sign with a major league team.




This has been Tsao's biggest claim to innocence. But Tsao remained unsigned
until now. It was only after Tsao's workout for MLB team scouts in November
2014 that interest in him arose again. During that tryout in front of about
15 teams, Tsao threw 92-93 mph and appeared in good shape. Yet that was only
good enough to get him a minor league deal.





"At the end of the day, he's had so many injuries and some of the baggage he
brings was just not worth the risk," said one National League team scout, who
said he had been impressed with Tsao's workout. "If we would have signed
Tsao, it would have created some commotion."





He added: "As far as I know, I think he's innocent. But there's a lot of gray
area out there."


他接下來又說道：“我認為他是清白的，但是這些事情總是有許多灰色地帶的，不是嗎？
”

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