The Victoria HarbourCats are hoping for a few weekends at Bernies this season. Not to mention a few weekdays, as well.
Their prize recruit from Taiwan, the club鈥檚 first overseas player in five seasons of franchise history, is named Po-Hao Huang. But just call him Bernie, which is the 鈥淓nglish name鈥� the slugging 20-year-old left-fielder, first baseman and third baseman prefers.
Because of a miscommunication, and Huang鈥檚 limited English, HarbourCats staff first began referring to Huang as 鈥淏unny鈥� and not Bernie. That wasn鈥檛 cleared up until there were a few exchanges that left both parties rather perplexed. Be assured this sophomore from Fu Jen Catholic University is no bunny at the plate.
This is Huang鈥檚 second year in North American summer-collegiate ball after hitting .260 with a homer, 17 RBIs, five doubles and two triples in 28 games last season with the Elmira Pilots of the Perfect Game Baseball League.
Huang took batting practice Monday at Royal Athletic Park and happily proclaimed it a hitters鈥� ballpark.
Jim Swanson, the HarbourCats co-owner and managing partner, has ties to Taiwanese baseball and said this is a trial and there could be more overseas players in the seasons ahead.
Huang will be part of the HarbourCats鈥� early roster tonight when the West Coast League club takes on the Victoria Mavericks all-stars in a 12-inning game at 6:30 p.m. at Royal Athletic. The extra innings are to get the HarbourCats as much action as possible ahead of the WCL season opener Thursday night in Port Angeles against the Lefties.
Taiwan, which competes as Chinese Taipei internationally, is a core baseball-playing nation and was the bronze medallist in the 1984 L.A. Summer Olympics, silver medallist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and top-five in both the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. It has won Asian Games gold and has competed in all four World Baseball Classics.
So it鈥檚 not surprising Huang remembers being inspired as a kid, in his hometown of Kaohsiung City, by watching the emergence of current Miami Marlins pitcher Wei-Yin Chen. Now Huang is in the midst of his own journey and says his goal is also pro ball, either in Taiwan or North America.
Huang is being billeted in Victoria by a Mandarin-speaking family.
鈥淭hey are making me speak English,鈥� he chuckled, with the aid of an Internet language translator on a cellphone.
But this is a guy who will clearly do his talking on the diamond.
The other HarbourCats players are arriving by dribs and drabs from their NCAA teams in the U.S. The defending North Division champions will have 23 players on the roster for their league opener Thursday in Port Angeles.
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