Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) The New York Mets baseball team will hold its 17th annual Taiwan Day at Citi Field this Sunday, with the division-leading club set to face off against the visiting Colorado Rockies at 1:40 p.m.
In an announcement on its website Tuesday, the team said it had sold all 4,000 promotional tickets for the game with purchasers to receive a free Mets replica jersey with the word "Taiwan" and the number 1 on the back.
The team also said it had invited Taiwanese former baseball player Peng Cheng-min (彭政閔) to throw out the game's ceremonial first pitch.
Peng, now an assistant manager of the CTBC Brothers in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), flew to the U.S. last week to watch Taipei's Fulin Elementary School compete in the Little League World Series.
The Mets have hosted a Taiwan Day event every year since 2005, and currently lead their NL East division with a 79-46 record.
In 2021, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) addressed the Taiwan Day crowd via video, while Hsiao Bi-Khim (蕭美琴), Taiwan's top representative in the U.S., threw out the first pitch.
Other famous Taiwanese to throw out the first ball at the annual celebration include Oscar award-winning film director Ang Lee (李安), Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng (曾雅妮), Taiwan's only Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), and Taiwanese Youtuber Tsai Aga (蔡阿嘎).
