TIM RAINES, JR. HEADS TO TAIWAN

The son of former Major League All-Star Tim Raines has signed with a team in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. Tim Raines, Jr. recently inked a deal to play outfield with the La New Bears after batting .311 with 18 homers and 78 RBIs in 128 games for Tucson in the Pacific Coast League last year. He was released by the Chicago White Sox earlier this season.


Raines played parts of three seasons with Baltimore between 2001 and 2004, batting .213 in 75 games and playing in the same game as his father with the O’s on October 4, 2001.

To make room for Raines, the Bears released Nate Gold, who was hitting .221 in 18 games.

FIRST-PLACE SINON DOMINATES BROTHER IN TAIWANESE LEAGUE SERIES

The Sinon Bulls swept a three-game series over the Brother Elephants last week to build a 1.5-game lead over the La New Bears at the top of the Chinese Professional Baseball League standings. Sinon broke out the brooms with an 8-6 win over Brother April 19 as Jian-shien “Ugly” Hsieh capped a seven-run second inning with a three-run homer for the Bulls against Elephant ace Yu-cheng “The Golden Submarine” Liao. Sinon is now 10-5-1, while Brother dropped to 5-13.

Meanwhile, the Uni-President Lions topped the La New Bears, 5-0, April 19 to take the rubber match of their three-game series in Tainan. Lions’ righty Mickey Callaway, who pitched in America and Korea before coming to Taiwan, threw 6.1 innings of shutout ball for the win, scattering three hits and striking out six Bears batsmen. Callaway and the Uni-President bullpen halted the Bears’ Chih-sheng Lin’s five-game home run streak. The Bears fell to 9-7, while the Lions are now 9-8-1.

SPRINGTIME = SWINGTIME: LEAGUES OPENING ’09 SEASON

Springtime has arrived, which means several baseball leagues around the world are opening their 2009 regular seasons, including Major League Baseball.

The World Champion Philadelphia Phillies will host the Atlanta Braves Sunday in the first game of the season, an honor that used to go to Cincinnati (home of baseball’s first fully professional team). All other MLB teams will begin playing for real Monday.

The regular season has already begun in other countries. In Taiwan, the President Lions topped the Brother Elephants, 5-1, in the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s lidlifter last Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 10,000 in Taipei Municipal Stadium.

The Mexican League is a week into their schedule with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Reynosa Broncos tied for the Northern Zone lead at 6-1, while the Quintana Roo Tigres and Yucatan Leones lead the LMB South with 5-2 records.

In Europe, the Spanish League is three weekends into their season, and the defending champion Puerto Cruz Marlins are unbeaten at 6-0 after sweeping Pamplona last Saturday.