棒球在台湾意味着什么?汗水,热闹和身份认同

TAOYUAN, Taiwan — As the batter steps to the plate, the clamor reaches its crescendo, a rhyming, thumping chant, often tailored to his name.
台湾桃园——喧哗声随着击球手踏上本垒板而达到高潮，人们反复呼喊押韵的、通常专为球手名字设计的口号，为他加油。

Cheerleaders prance atop the dugout, accompanied by blaring recorded music or even live drums and brass instruments. Fans wield all manner of noise makers — clappers, pairs of plastic bats, small vuvuzelas — pretty much nonstop for nine innings.
拉拉队员们在球员席上火辣起舞，伴随著录制好的响亮刺耳音乐，甚至现场演奏的鼓和铜管乐。球迷们用各种各样的东西制造噪音——竹板、塑料球棒、小呜呜祖拉，九个局次几乎没有间断。

They are not trying to distract from the opposing team’s batter, but to cheer on their own. How any batter manages to concentrate enough in the din to get a hit is anyone’s guess.
他们并不是要分散对方击球手的注意力，而是在为自己的球队加油。天知道击球手怎么能在这样的嘈杂声中集中足够的注意力，击中棒球。

“Yi qi an da! Yi qi an da!” (pronounced ee-chi-ahn-dah) goes one of the more general chants, which is, roughly, the way to say, “Let’s get a hit together.”
“一支安打！一支安打！”是比较常用的加油口号之一，大意是：“大家一起来一次安打吧。”

On a recent night, Chin Jou-lin, an ebullient 28-year-old fan, was sitting along the right-field line at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium in this city in northwest Taiwan. She said she had heard that in America you could actually hear the crack of the bat hitting the ball. She giggled, incredulous.
在最近的一个晚上，情绪高涨的球迷、28岁的金周琳（音）坐在台湾西北部的桃园国际棒球场右外野边线旁。她说，她听说在美国看棒球可以听到球棒击球的声音。她咯咯笑起来，对此表示怀疑。

“I can’t imagine,” she said.
“我不能想象，”她说。

To say baseball is a national obsession in Taiwan might be an overstatement since its fortunes have risen and fallen over the years. It does, however, seem deeply ingrained in its national identity as a small but spirited bastion of democracy.
说棒球是台湾的全民狂热运动可能有点夸张，因为它的命运多年来一直起伏不定。然而，作为一个规模不大但充满活力的民主堡垒，在台湾的国族身份中，这项运动有着根深蒂固的地位。

The 500-note of the island’s currency, the New Taiwan Dollar, depicts a baseball team, paying homage to its phenomenally successful youth teams, which, as any ex-Little Leaguer of a certain age will recall, dominated the Little League World Series from 1969 to 1996, winning 17 of 28 finals.
新台币500元纸币上就印着一支棒球队，是在向一支取得傲人战绩的台湾少棒队致敬，在某段时间参加过少棒大赛(Little League World Series)的人都记得，从1969年到1996年，台湾的少棒队曾在这项赛事称霸，28次打入决赛17次夺冠。

At a time when China endeavors to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, baseball remains one of the island’s potent instruments of soft power and a path to international recognition. When the sport debuted in the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992, Taiwan won the silver medal, losing the championship game to another small, baseball-crazed island, Cuba.
在中国努力在外交上孤立台湾之际，棒球仍是台湾强大的软实力工具之一，也是台湾获得国际认可的途径。棒球运动在1992年巴塞罗那奥运会上首次亮相时，台湾获得了银牌，在决赛中输给了另一个爱棒球爱得发狂的岛国古巴。

“Brazil has football,” said Shih Fu-dao, a taxi driver, as he drove a colleague and me to another game, this time in Tainan, in southern Taiwan. “Taiwan has baseball.”
“巴西有足球，”出租车司机施复道边开车边说，他在送我和一名同事去台南看另一场比赛。“台湾有棒球。”

Quoting taxi drivers is a journalistic cliché that is best avoided, but Mr. Shih knew whereof he spoke. His son, Hsiang-kai, played professionally here for four seasons, from 2004 to 2008.
虽然引用出租车司机的话是新闻报道中最懒的做法，最好避免，但施复道是有资格的。从2004年到2008年，他的儿子施翔凯曾在这里打过四个赛季的职棒。

For all its obvious connections to the American pastime, baseball is not an American import. It came through Japan, where baseball had already been played for a quarter century when the Japanese seized Taiwan in 1895. At the time, Taiwan was controlled by the Qing-era rulers of China.
尽管棒球显然与美国人的娱乐活动有联系，但台湾的棒球并不是从美国引进的，而是来自日本。1895年日本占领台湾时，日本人打棒球已有25年历史了。那时，台湾还在中国清朝统治者的控制之下。

Andrew D. Morris, a contributing writer to “Baseball Beyond Our Borders: An International Pastime,” wrote that the Japanese legacy shapes the game to this day, one more thing that distinguishes Taiwan’s identity from China’s.
曾为《美国之外的棒球——一种国际性的消遣》(Baseball Beyond Our Borders: An International leisure)一书撰文的安德鲁·D·莫里斯(Andrew D. Morris)写道，这个日本人遗留下来的传统一直影响着台湾的棒球运动，这是台湾身份认同感有别于中国的一个地方。

After the forces of Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan and established the Republic of China following the Communist Revolution in 1949, the new government sought to erase the vestiges of Japanese rule, except for baseball.
中国的共产党革命在1949年成功后，蒋介石的军队撤到了台湾，中华民国也把政府搬到了岛上，民国政府曾试图扫除日本统治的残余影响，但保留了棒球。

The game’s history since then has been as turbulent as the island’s transition to democracy.
从那时起，棒球的历史就像这个岛屿走向民主进程一样汹涌澎湃。

The Chinese Professional Baseball League — its very name a reflection of Taiwan’s complicated history with China — formed only in 1990, after a long era of martial law that ended in 1987.
中华职业棒球大联盟——其名字本身就反映了台湾与大陆的复杂历史——1990年才成立，那是在1987年台湾结束了长期戒严令之后。

Teams have formed and folded, the league expanding and contracting. Scandals over gambling tarred the game. In 1996, gangsters kidnapped players who apparently did not follow through on a fix.
球队有聚有散，大联盟规模时扩时收。赌球的丑闻曾给棒球带来污名。1996年，有球员因为没有按照预先的安排打球而被黑帮绑架。

An even broader betting scandal erupted in 2008, leading to accusations against scores of players for accepting cash and sex with prostitutes to fix games. One team was expelled; another withdrew.
2008年还爆发了一场范围更广的赌球丑闻，数十名球员被控收受现金和性招待，换取在比赛中放水。一支球队被联盟开除，另一支退出了联盟。

A year later scandal flared up again, implicating players from the Brother Elephants, one of the league’s most popular teams.
一年后，丑闻再次爆发，这次受牵连的是中华职业棒球大联盟最受欢迎的球队之一“兄弟象”的球员。

Attendance plummeted. Some blamed the scandals, but others blamed the increasing numbers of foreign players.
观看球赛的人数直线下降。一些人把原因归咎于丑闻，但另一些人则把原因归咎于越来越多的外籍球员。

A newspaper columnist complained in 1998 that so many foreign pitchers were being signed that the pitchers’ mound was practically a “foreign concession,” a bitter allusion to China’s experience as a nation exploited by the colonial powers of Europe.
1998年，一位报纸专栏作家抱怨说，签了这么多的外国投手，以至于投手土墩简直就是一个“租界”，这是对中国被欧洲列强压榨经历的苦涩隐喻。

At the game’s nadir in 2009, Taiwan’s government and league executives intervened and vowed to clean up the sport, improving salaries and policing gambling more aggressively.
2009年台湾棒球处于最糟糕的境地时，政府和联盟管理层进行了干预，他们誓言整顿这项运动，提高球员的工资水平，加强对赌球的监管。

The league since then has settled down with four teams: the Lamigo Monkeys; the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, named after the convenience store, which is ubiquitous here; the Chinatrust Brothers, the franchise that emerged from the tainted Brother Elephants; and the newest, the Fubon Guardians.
自那时起，职业棒球大联盟和四个球队达成了协议：Lamigo桃猿、统一7-ELEVEn狮（以这里随处可见的便利店7-Eleven命名的球队)、中信兄弟（“兄弟象”因丑闻声名狼藉后改用的名字），以及最新的“富邦悍将”球队。

The Monkeys, winners of the championship three of the last four years, play their home games in a stadium beside the high-speed train station in Taoyuan. The Guardians signed a lease last December to play theirs in a stadium in New Taipei City. The other teams rotate among several stadiums, though they are broadly associated with their cities: the Uni-Lions in Tainan and the Brothers in Taichung.
四支球队中，在过去四年中三次获得冠军的Lamigo桃猿有自己的专用主场，位于桃园捷运车站附近。去年12月，富邦悍将队签署了一份合约，进驻新北市的一个棒球场。其他球队轮流使用不同城市的球场，虽然这些城市的球场与球队所在地有关：富邦悍将用台北的球场，统一狮用台南的，中信兄弟用台中的。

There is a consensus the league has been making a comeback. One reason is the most famous foreigner to play here: Manny Ramirez, a player with a stellar, though checkered career in the United States.
有共识认为职业棒球大联盟正再度迎来辉煌。其中一个原因是迄今最大牌的外国球员：曼尼·拉米瑞兹(Manny Ramirez)，此人在美国有过辉煌但起伏不定的职业生涯。

In 2013, after two suspensions for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy, Mr. Ramirez came to Taiwan. While he played in only 49 games, attendance soared and it has remained steady since.
2013年，拉米瑞兹曾两次因违反美国职业棒球大联盟的药物政策而被停赛，那之后他来到了台湾。虽然只参加了49场比赛，但观看比赛的人数大增，此后一直保持稳定。

(His presence might have been fleeting, but he was here long enough to be the source of what is arguably the most memorable home run calls by a television announcer. Ever. “This ball is long gone,” he shouted, punctuating each word, “just like the ex-girlfriend who will never return!”)
（拉米瑞兹在台湾的现身也许是短暂的，但他在这里的时间，已经足以促使一位电视棒球解说员喊出史上最令人难忘的全垒打欢呼。“球早已不见踪影，”解说员一字一顿地喊道，“就像是变了心的女朋友，回不来了！”）

While the league might not have the renown of Japan’s professional league, it has sent a dozen players to the Major Leagues, and continues to attract foreign players.
虽然可能没有日本的职业联盟那么有名，但中华职业棒球大联盟已经向其他国家的棒球大联盟输出了十几名球员，并且在继续吸引外国的球员。

“On the road it’s the worst,” said Michael Nix, an American pitcher for the Monkeys, describing the hometown cheers for the batters he has to face. “You get used to it.”
“打客场最痛苦了，”Lamigo桃猿的美籍投球手迈克尔·尼克斯(Michael Nix)提到自己要面对主场观众给打者助威的声音。“你要习惯它。”

Attending games at the stadiums can feel like a tailgate party that rolls right into the stands before turning into an aerobic workout. Everyone seems to know not only the words to a lineup’s worth of chants, which have a delirious mix of English and Chinese, but also the dances that go with them.
在球场里观看比赛，有时感觉像是比赛前的车尾派对一直延续到了观众席，然后变成了一场有氧运动。每个观众好像都知道与参赛球队有关的各种加油口号，知道口号中混和的极度亢奋的每个中文和英文词，而且知道配合加油口号的舞蹈动作。

The experience at the ballpark can be so giddily polyglot that it seems only a little odd that a cheesy 1979 pop song by the German band, Dschinghis Khan, could be repurposed as a cheer for the Monkeys. “Go, go, Lamigo ….”
在棒球场里看球可以是一个如此令人晕眩的多语言经历，以至于德国乐队成吉思汗(Dschinghis Khan)1979年演唱的一首俗气流行歌曲，可以被稍加修改成为全猿的加油歌似乎也不太奇怪了。“Go, go, Lamigo ....”

Ms. Chen is a devoted fan of the Monkeys but also of the vibe in the stands. She commutes regularly to the games from Miaoli, an hour south by train. She was there on a recent evening with her boyfriend.
陈女士不仅是全猿的忠诚球迷，还很喜欢看台上的气氛。她经常乘一个小时的火车从桃园以南的苗栗来看比赛。最近的一个晚上，她是和男朋友一起来的。

“He likes baseball,” she explained, speaking a little more loudly since at that particularly deafening moment the Monkeys were padding their lead over the Guardians, 15-2, “but he doesn’t like to dance.”
“他喜欢棒球，”她提高了声音说道，因为那一刻全猿正好把对悍将的领先扩大到了15比2，球场的声音特别震耳欲聋。“但他不喜欢跳舞。”

Asked what attracted her to the game, she used a two-word phrase in Chinese whose meaning might not otherwise translate were it not uttered in a Taiwan ballpark on a sultry summer night:
当被问及是什么原因吸引她来看比赛时，她用了一个两个字的中文词来回答，也许只有在一个闷热夏夜的台湾棒球场里说出时，这个词才最为传神：

“Hot noisy.”
“热闹。”