INTERVIEW/Taiwan career a life-changing experience: A's John Foster

Phoenix, Arizona, March 7 (CNA) John Foster, who now coaches in the Athletics' minor league system, looked back Wednesday at his many years as a pitching coach in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and said they changed his life.

The 46-year-old Foster is now the A's minor league pitching rehab coordinator, and in an interview with CNA at the A's training complex in Arizona, he remembered his time as the pitching coach of the CPBL's CTBC Brothers and how it will help him in his new job.

"My time in Taiwan was really, really special," he said, explaining how working with a professional team in Taiwan helped him prepare to deal with meetings and other situations in his current position.

"That experience has been so beneficial in so many ways," Foster said.

"Being in those pressure situations, being in the major leagues [in Taiwan] and having to make those big decisions, that really means a lot when you're in the meetings now and everything. So it kind of gave me, really, a course on pressure situations and how to make decisions," he said.

"Taiwan changed my life."

Foster also praised four Taiwanese players -- pitchers Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), Lin Wei-en (林維恩), and Zhuang Chen Zhong-ao (莊陳仲敖) and catcher Lyle Lin (林家正) -- who have signed minor league contracts with the A's.

"The sky's the limit. They have a high ceiling," he said.

"I've seen them while I was in Taiwan, forever. I've always kept up with them, and now they're here. It seems that Taiwan is coming with me," said Foster, who was in Taiwan from late 2017 to late 2024.

Reflecting on Taiwan, Foster said it had become home, and one of the things his family misses the most about it is its 7-Eleven stores for their convenience and affordable prices.

"My family actually just left Taiwan about a week ago, and they were all crying when they left because that's home to them," he said.

"My kids are 13, 11 and 5. I was in Taiwan for seven years. So Taiwan is home for us."