Uni-Lions Unveil “Lion Temple” Uniform
Is this the first religion-themed uniform in CPBL history?
On May 2, the Uni-Lions unveiled the “Lion Temple” uniform for their upcoming Temple theme night on May 12-15. It is worth mentioning that the Uni-Lions have joined forces with design studio Plugin B&V for this project, moving away from their usual partner, Filter017.
According to the team, the uniform design uses black and vermilion as the primary colours. The vermilion, which is a standard temple colour, is done in a gradient treatment on the side of the uniform. In a way, it represents the pillars of the temple.
There is also gold piping that connects from the collar to the shoulders and extends down to the waist to provide additional contrast.
Since this is the temple themed uniform, the design team created a unique Lion Temple emblem on the back of the uniform. There is also temple-themed artwork on the sleeves that infuses baseball with folk religion.
Vermilion in Asian Cultures
In many Asian cultures, the colour vermilion (reddish-orange) means new life, eternity, strength and hope. It is commonly used in royal palaces and temples.
The usage of vermilion can be dated back to the Zhou Dynasty from 1046 to 256 BC. The people at that time saw the colour as a representation of the Rising Sun, Fire and Blood.
Red as a royal colour briefly went away after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty and went to the colour black during the Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BC). It did not go away for too long, as vermilion eventually returned as a royal colour in 202 BC under the Han Dynasty.
Former MLBer Josh Reddick, who is playing in Mexico for the Monclova Acereros this year, has just signed a contract to play in Australia next winter. If he hits in Australia, he might be a candidate for the CPBL in 2023. He’s be 36 next year, but does have an MLB pedigree, and he’s willing to play abroad.
Would be very interesting to see next year if CPBL teams are still interested in this “foreign hitter concept”.
The Dragons will no longer that that extra foreign player incentive next year. So, it is pretty safe to assume they will go with all foreign pitchers format.
When CPBL expands to six teams, there will be more need for foreign position players, I would expect at least a couple of teams to sign foreign position players.
Looks like you were right about Logan Ondrusek pitching well in the CPBL, although I liked him too, as he kind of reminded me of Josh Roenicke in terms of his past high level professional experience. Position players I like for the CPBL in 2023, who might reasonably be available, include SS Dixon Machado (his glove was highly regarded in KBO) and OF Mel Rojas Jr. (hasn’t hit in NPB and may be blackballed by KBO teams for jumping to NPB).
Ondrusek fits the “foreign pitcher profile”, very tall, a good vertical movement breaking pitch and decent command. The Uni-Lions is lucky to have him, very good signing.
As for position player, Xavier Batista is on thin ice now. Both the GM and manager have put him on notice already.
The Guardians are now looking for a middle infielder. So yeah, Dixon Machado would be perfect.
As late as 1960, there was a prejudice in MLB against tall pitchers, which at that time meant taller than 6’4″. It was something about throwing at too steep an angle that was supposed to make it hard to get good movement on the ball or throw strikes or something like that.
One of the first pitchers to kind of explode that myth was 6’8″ Gene Conley. He went 91-96 as a starting pitcher in a major league career that ended after the 1963 season, and he played power forward for the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks during the winters.
Certainly, the prejudice against tall pitchers did not survive 6’10” Randy Johnson’s Hall of Fame career. Pitchers taller than 6’5″ is pretty common now, at least in the MLB system.
For the case in Taiwan, from my understanding, the team prefer tall pitchers because the local hitters here are not used to seeing pitches being thrown at such high angle. A lot of them will describe hitting a spitter is like trying to hit a pitch that was thrown from 2nd floor.
By the way, this is a very generalised statement, I’m sure teams do considered other factors when it comes to foreign pitchers signing.