The "Taiwan Sports Lottery Public Welfare Baseball Training Camp" was launched today (on the 7th) at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. The MLB Hall of Fame star Mariano Rivera was invited to become a coach of the camp and teach 40 primary school players from grade 4 to 6 baseball skills. Together with "the luckiest little baseball fans in the world", Rivera inherited his valuable experience from the MLB pitching career to the children through communication, example sharing, and exercises in groups. Mayor Lu Shiew-Yen was specially present at the camp to welcome to Rivera and said that, with his guidance and sharing, the next world star will be seen!

The official match of the “2023 World Baseball Classic” will start tomorrow. As Taichung will once again stand on the world stage of WBC after ten years, it has invited the legendary player Rivera to be the kick-off guest of the first match of the Chinese Taipei team and the coach of the young players at today's public welfare baseball training camp.

Mayor Lu expressed her gratitude to the world’s baseball superstar Rivera for coming to Taichung as the kick-off guest of WBC. She said that, although Rivera would stay in Taiwan for a very short time, she hoped that Taichung, which was an important base for training baseball talents, would seize the opportunity to receive experience sharing and advice from him. She also thanked Taiwan Sports Lottery for sponsoring the invitation to Rivera, so that he could arrange his schedule to participate in the public welfare baseball training camp. "He heard!" said Mayor Lu to express her gratitude to Rivera again for his willingness to guide the children in person. She said that the children who joined the camp were fortunate and happy to receive Rivera's guidance and hope that his experience shared with the children to pass on to other schools.

The legendary star Rivera attended the baseball training camp for just one hour. Therefore, Mayor Lu expressly shortened the speech to leave the precious time to the young players for interacting and enjoying the training with Rivera. In the interview after the meeting, Mayor Lu pointed out that Rivera was happy with the facilities of Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. Mayor Lu also mentioned that, as this is the first time that Rivera visited Taichung as a important guest, the city government also prepared well-known local delicacies, including pearl milk tea and sun cake. Besides, the hotel where Rivera stays also prepared the top ten souvenirs and local handicrafts and lacquerware for him to bring back to his country together with the good memories in Taichung as souvenirs.

Mayor Lu, Director of Sports Bureau Yu-Rui Lee, and Deputy General Manager of Taiwan Sports Lottery Ming-Zhe Tsai were all present at today’s training camp to witness the friendliness of this legendary baseball star.