In the cradle of baseball

On my trip to the southeastern county of Taidong (台東) several friends of mine suggested we visit the place “where it all began.” According to them it was Hongye Elementary School (紅葉國小), present-day Mecca of baseball fans in Taiwan.

Hongye is a small aboriginal village perched on mountain slopes in the middle of Taidong County. It consists of several unimpressive houses, a dusty parking lot with a coffee stall with catering to visitors. The most impressive building – the local elementary school. A mountain village like hundreds of others. Except for one tiny detail – it is a place where a true Cinderella story took place in the 1960s.

The story involved local students with a passion for baseball. Even though they lacked proper equipment, their love for the game and unbelievable determination made them practice even with wooden sticks and pebbles. In 1968, Hongye Elementary School team played a series of matches against a Japanese Little League team.

Local players, mostly belonging to the Bunun tribe, faced off against the older, more experienced Japanese – and in another example of a David vs. Goliath duel, Taiwanese David beat the pants off Japanese Goliath! It was not just any victory; they trounced them 7:0. And then again 5:2. It was a very encouraging event for the whole nation going through rough times and the victory over former colonial masters gave it a considerable sense of pride.

What’s more, the victory launched a remarkable era of Taiwanese baseball. In the following year Chinese-Taipei went on to win the Little League World Series and in the following decades Taiwan reaped an amazing 17 titles.

The village of Hongye is about a 15-minute drive from Luye (鹿野), first up road No. 9 and then you need to follow signs up a winding mountain road. The school itself is very easy to identify thanks to a sculpture of a bat-holding hand on its rooftop.

On the first floor is a memorial hall with showcases of memorabilia including old bats, jerseys and worn balls from the glorious era. Another shelf displays a collection of trophies won by the team, while walls are decorated with photographs of players and snapshots from matches.

Since you are in an aboriginal village, you can also peruse an exhibition of ethnological artifacts on display in another room on the second floor. The final, third part of the "memorial“ is an exhibition of students‘ artwork in yet another room.

Probably not very much has changed in the lives of the villagers since the sixties. The village is still far from the bustling life of big towns, surrounded by the lush green of mountain slopes. There is, however, one difference. Local kids seem to have found a new sport of choice – basketball. Is there another miracle coming?

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