CPBL to bring baseball musical saga to National Concert Hall on Oct. 14

Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Monday announced a musical performance scheduled for Oct. 14 at the National Concert Hall which journeys through the history of baseball in Taiwan.

The concert, titled "Formosan Baseball Saga" (台灣棒球音樂詩篇), is being organized in partnership with the Octangle Male Choir, CPBL told a press conference.

The league said music is deeply rooted in the history of Taiwanese baseball since it first became the nation's pastime.

CPBL added that in each baseball fan there exists at least one quintessential song that defines a generation.

With people associating certain moments in Taiwan's baseball history with specific tunes, music eventually became a staple in the sport, going as far as to develop special songs for certain players and unique numbers to provoke opponents.

The upcoming musical feast seeks to put as many of these tunes together as possible to present a never-before-seen musical performance, the CPBL said.

The choir's head, Cheng Mu-chun (鄭睦群), revealed during the press conference that he is also a baseball fan and played the sport at amateur level.

As such, this collaboration with the CPBL is a dream come true, Cheng said, adding that an indication from the league's commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) that he was interested in making the musical performance a reality was very meaningful.

Cheng went on to elaborate on the different acts in the performance.

He said the first act pays tribute to the sport's history in Taiwan, for example with the school song of Taiwan's Kano baseball team, the first team from Taiwan to make it to the championship game of Japan's prestigious Koshien high school baseball tournament during the Japanese colonial era. Another example is "Chen 52" (曾經瘋狂), a song written by Taiwan rock band Fire EX. (滅火器) to commemorate the retirement of Taiwan's legendary Indigenous batter Chen Chin-feng (陳金鋒).

The second act of the performance focuses on baseball's domestic and international presence, with the choir performing baseball tunes from the United States and Japan before singing the songs of all six of Taiwan's current professional teams.

A celebrity sportsman invited to Monday's press conference was Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) of the CTBC Brothers who will retire at the end of the year.

In line with the focus of the event, Chou told the presser that the baseball-related song which is most significant for him is "Set out again" (再出發) by Taiwanese singer Richie Jen (任賢齊) and Malaysian singer Aniu (阿牛), since Chou himself is one of the many baseball players featured in the song's music video.

Chou went on to say that the power of music can be very effective, noting that he often used it to hype himself up but also calm his nerves before and during important games such as the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

According to the CPBL, tickets to the concert will go on sale on Friday at 12 p.m. over ticketing website Opentix and purchases made before Sept. 14 will enjoy an early bird discount.