International Baseball Development Programme sees Palau baseball team visit Taiwan

Former Chinese Taipei ace Chien-Ming Wang showed up at the National Taiwan Sports University’s baseball field to meet with the baseball team from Palau, a 25-man team ranging from 17 to 33 years old, for an one-hour plus clinics in the training facility. Palau, currently ranked #73 on the WBSC Men's Baseball World Ranking, is preparing for the upcoming Pacific Mini Games in June.

“We came here in mid-April and will leave Taiwan at the end of May,” said Radley Kazuma, the Palau NOC representative with the team. In 2023, Palau’s archery and swimming teams were invited to conduct training in Taiwan, and the baseball and table tennis teams were invited this year.

“We train all of them together regardless of the age differences,” said Kazuma. “We assembled the team and started the training in January after the league finished its schedule in December.”

Joseph Oscar Gates, a 17-year-old left-handed pitcher, is the youngest member on the team. “I started to play baseball from Little League Baseball, and it’s my first time being here in Taiwan.

"I like Anthony Rizzo of the Yankees; he is a lefty, too,” Gates added.

Chien-Ming Wang, who won back-to-back 19 wins for the New York Yankees in 2006 and 2007, is one of the most popular baseball stars in Taiwan. “We have our own Major League player, too,” said Kazuma. Bligh Madris, the first American Palauan player in Major League Baseball history, was born to a Palauan father and a US mother from Nebraska.

“Madris came back to Palau with Jessica Mendoza, a former softball player and sports commentator, last November, on a US State Department’s Sport Envoy programme. Madris is the first Palauan to play in Major League Baseball. We are very proud of him,” Kazuma added. “Madris’ visit last year was very inspiring to our players; he was hailed as a national hero. When we were watching the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup games on TV and awed at the plays by other national team players, I told my kids that it is our goal to play like that on the international stage,” Kazuma said.

After the clinics, Wang commented on the players “with great talent and solid foundation.” Pitcher Ray Rdialul Rumong also described Wang’s teaching “extremely detailed, and made us very clear about the difference on pitch selection and control.”

John Paul Andrew Ililau is the catcher on the team. “I got my left wrist injured now, but I should be okay with playing on Thursday,” said Ililau. “With Ray Rdialul Rumong and Tejeda Tmekei Kumaichi, the three of us will join the Taiwan team and play the exchange games in Fukuoka from May 9. I am really looking forward to it,” he added.

Ililau is very positive about the experience of visiting Taiwan and the baseball programmes: “I like it here. I think I will definitely come back for vacation in the future.”

As part of the trip, the Palau baseball team has been invited to the Taipei Dome to watch the CPBL game between the Monkeys and the Dragons.