[外電] NBC/台灣職棒回來了 機器人當觀眾

Professional baseball is back — in Taiwan, where robots will be the spectators

The stands will be empty, but for a handful of mannequin robots posing as
fans of the champion Monkeys.

America's pastime is returning this weekend, nearly 8,000 miles away from thesport's birthplace — in front of robot mannequins in the stands.

Taiwan, credited for early detection of the novel coronavirus, will reap a
very American reward for its efforts on Saturday as island residents tune
into the world's first competitive pro baseball game since the pandemic led
to a mass economic shutdown.

The coronavirus pandemic forced a timeout for virtually all world sports lastmonth, with Major League Baseball suspending play during spring training,
about two weeks before the start of real games.

And while MLB officials and players weigh unconventional plans to get the
sport restarted in North America, the defending Chinese Professional BaseballLeague champion Rakuten Monkeys and traditional power Chinatrust Brothers getto play for real.

"Luckily we can play baseball, it is the most lucky thing in the world,"
Monkeys General Manager Justin Liu told NBC News on Friday.

The game is set for Taoyuan International Stadium in Taoyuan City, about 25
miles west of Taipei. Weather permitting, the first pitch will be at 5:05
p.m. local time, which is 5:05 a.m. ET and 2:05 a.m. PT in the United States.

Cable network Eleven Sports announced Friday that it would stream the game
worldwide, outside of Taiwan and Japan, in both Mandarin and English.

"It is not only for Taiwan but it is also globally because our league, the
CPBL, will be the first professional baseball game played in the world," Liu
said. "This is a going to be a symbol and an accomplishment."

By late Friday night in Taiwan, there had been 380 positive cases of
coronavirus and five ensuing deaths on the island of 23 million residents. Asa point of comparison, the state of Florida, with 21 million residents, has
already topped 17,000 cases with at least 390 COVID-19 fatalities.

Liu said players are being kept in dorm-style housing and their travels are
limited to the ballpark.

Zachary Binney, an adjunct instructor of epidemiology at Emory University's
Rollins School of Public Health, praised Taiwan's handling of the outbreak,
but said he's still worried about starting games on the island now.

"The country has shown a degree of responsibility," Binney said Friday. "But I’d just rest easier if they had a completely closed system, so no support
staff, no family, no one had any outside contact."

http://tinyurl.com/sb9webl

翻譯:

美國媒體NBC此篇文章推崇台灣防疫成功，
談到新型冠狀病毒大流行迫使幾乎所有世界上的體育運動停擺，
MLB也在春訓期間暫停比賽，
而台灣防疫成卻能讓職棒開打，
但美國疾病專家同時也對中職此時開打擔憂。

NBC記者文中專訪了馮勝賢和劉玠廷，
劉談到這次讓世界看見台灣與CPBL；
馮則說這表示我們有能力戰勝新冠病毒。

文末提到了樂天準備了機器人應援和無觀眾開打，
最後也提到了台灣對抗新冠病毒受到讚賞獲得國際認可，
但在中國打壓下並無法加入WHO。

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