You could say that I’m more than just a casual sports fan — at least when it comes to the teams I love. I’ve been known to stay up late or wake up at strange hours to watch the Kansas City Current or U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team play games in some other part of the world, and Matt and I have even flown to Liverpool for Chiefs Super Bowl watch parties the last two years. And even for the sports I don’t really follow as closely, I’m always happy to go along for a game. So when I learned that baseball in Taiwan is kind of a big deal, I knew we had to catch a game while we were in Taipei.
Having obviously been to American baseball games in the past, I thought I had a general idea of what to expect from baseball in Taiwan — but I was wrong! So, here’s what you need to know about baseball in Taiwan and why it should be part of your Taipei itinerary.
About Baseball in Taiwan
While baseball might be “America’s pastime,” it’s typically considered Taiwan’s national sport. Baseball was introduced to Taiwan for the first time around 1897 while the country was under Japanese colonial rule, but it quickly grew in popularity and became a point of national pride as Taiwan — a small island — found a lot of international success and recognition through the sport.
Today, the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is Taiwan’s top-tier professional baseball league. There are six teams as of 2025 — the CTBC Brothers, the Fubon Guardians, the Rakuten Monkeys, the TSG Hawks, the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, and the Wei Chuan Dragons — as well as four defunct teams, since the league has been around since 1989.
Each team has a home city, but they’ll typically play games all over the country since the league is so small. In fact, there are 19 different possible stadiums where games can take place!
So when we were planning our baseball in Taiwan experience, I started by looking at the CPBL schedule online to see whether anyone was playing in Taipei. It’s pretty easy to read the schedule, especially considering there are only three games on any given day. We were looking for a game at TPD, or Taipei Dome, which we found! Here’s an example of what the schedule looks like.
How to Buy Tickets for Baseball in Taiwan
It looks like there is technically the option to buy tickets in advance, but actually when I click that button there’s an error — and we just bought our tickets at the box office before the game anyway. At the Taipei Dome, apparently the box offices are located at gates 5, 7, and 9. I read online that they’re supposed to open three hours before the game, but that wasn’t true. Also, we ended up buying our tickets at a box office next to Gate 4 — you can see it off to the left side below.
We showed up about 45 minutes before the game and of course, we had no problems getting tickets. We were even able to pay with a credit card, which was a pleasant surprise. It cost about $38 USD per person, but we didn’t buy the *absolute* cheapest seats. But most likely, a lot of the worst/cheapest seats won’t even be available because the stadium doesn’t even get close to selling out, so they don’t have every seating area open. That’s what happened when we were there.
With tickets in hand, we went through the small security (bag) check and entered the stadium. After we were through, we each received a flashing red wristband, which we had no idea what it was for, and it was just one of the many surprises that were in store for us that night.
The Taiwanese Baseball Gameday Experience
One thing that we learned prior to going to the game is that you can bring your own food and drinks into the stadium when you attend a baseball game in Taiwan. While there is a small selection of stadium food available — and it’s certainly different than the stadium food we’re used to in the U.S. — most people choose to bring their own food. We saw people who had brought in pizza boxes, bags of takeout from nearby restaurants, and even McDonald’s. We didn’t really bring anything in with us, but Matt got some takoyaki from one of the food vendors.
After doing our customary lap of the stadium, we settled into our seats and waited for the game to start. As we were waiting, we decided to investigate the rules of baseball in Taiwan — would it be the same as in the U.S.? It turns out that it’s pretty similar, with a few key differences:
- 25-second pitch clock with runners on base; 20-second pitch clock with empty bases
- Limit of 12 innings when game goes to extra innings during regular season
- Season has two halves and teams compete to win each half-season, which can have playoff implications
The teams that were playing that night were the Rakuten Monkeys and the Brothers (whose mascot is an elephant). Since the Monkeys seemed to be that day’s home team, we were seated in the Monkeys section. The Brothers had their own bright-yellow cheering section on the other side of the stadium. And pretty much everyone in the stadium was decked out in their favorite team’s gear. The stadium might have only been 20% full, but everyone was high energy and excited for the game to start.
The Rakuten Girls
Before the game started, there was a dance performance by the “Rakuten Girls” — essentially, the cheerleaders for the Monkeys. I definitely thought they would be more like NFL cheerleaders where they’re kind of symbolic and not really that noticeable throughout most of the game. But I was wrong about that. The Rakuten Girls were very noticeable, and they were probably one of the best things about the game.
When the Monkeys were at bat, the Rakuten Girls would stand on the roof of the dugout and lead cheers, singing and dancing, the ENTIRE half inning. Whether it lasted 2 minutes or 20 minutes. They would not stop, and these were not low-energy “Go Team” type cheers and dances, either! Also, the crowd was SO INVOLVED. A good chunk of them would stay standing the entire time as well and do the cheers and dances along with the Rakuten Girls. Also, the songs were pretty catchy. I even was singing along to a song that seemed to last forever (it was a long inning) and while I couldn’t understand most of it, I could sing the “We are Rakuten” part that was in English. 😂
And on the other side of the Taipei Dome, the Brothers fan group had an entire brass pep band that they’d brought into the stadium. When their team was at bat, they were playing and chanting songs of their own.
It led to an extremely high-energy, highly engaged baseball game! Which I don’t think you could ever use either of those words to describe most American baseball games unless it’s the playoffs or something. But this was just a random Friday night in Taipei, and everyone was having that much fun.
The Baseball Game Itself
Honestly, it was easy to miss what was happening in the actual baseball game itself because of the Rakuten Girls and other performances and things that would take your attention away from it, lol. Also, I’m pretty sure that there was only one hit in the game until like the 5th inning, and it’s apparently pretty rare to have so few hits in the CPBL — but the Brothers eventually jumped out to a big lead later in the game that the Monkeys couldn’t recover from.
It didn’t matter though, because everyone was having so much fun.
The Concert After the Game
So, this probably doesn’t happen after every game, and we just got lucky. But we finally found out what the red flickering wristbands were for! After the game, there was a small concert on the field — first, by a Taiwanese indie soft-rock group called The Chairs, and then by American Mandarin singer Nicky Lee. We didn’t understand much of anything that was going on (or being sung) but it was still cool to see a free concert!
Overall Thoughts on Baseball in Taiwan
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from going to a baseball game in Taiwan, but I’m sure glad that we went! The energy in the stadium, even though it wasn’t very full, was so much more similar to what you feel at a soccer or football game, and it was so cool to experience that for baseball.
I know that we were in the Taipei Dome, which is of course the biggest and nicest stadium in Taiwan, so I’m curious to know what it would be like to go to a game in a different stadium. But I would absolutely do it again, whether in the Taipei Dome or somewhere else, during my next visit to Taiwan — and I highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting Taipei, whether you’re a sports fan or not.
What do you think? Would you ever watch baseball in Taiwan or another country? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
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