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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) #8212;Major League Baseball brought its traveling roadshow toTaiwan less than 48 hours after the 7th game of an epic World Series capped theseason in North America.New York Yankees stars Curtis Granderson(notes) and Robinson Cano(notes) lead the MLBsquad, which will play five games this week against a team that includes formerYankee #8212;and current Washington National #8212; foot games Chien-ming Wang(notes), one of a pair ofTaiwanese now pitching in the majors.Other members of the MLB squad include Pablo Sandoval(notes) of the San FranciscoGiants and a pitching staff of Bill Bray(notes), Ross Detwiler(notes), Dillon Gee(notes), CollinBalester(notes), Jeremy Guthrie(notes), Mark Melancon(notes) and Jose Veras(notes). Also on the team are catchers Drew Butera(notes) and Jeff foot games Mathis(notes); infielders ErickAybar(notes), Michael Morse(notes), Ryan Roberts(notes) and Danny Valencia(notes); and outfielders EmilioBonifacio(notes) and Logan Morrison(notes).The series against the Taiwanese offers MLB a great chance to nurture itsbrand in Asia, where nascent interest on mainland China is the latest iterationin a progression that began in Japan and then spread to this small i foot games sland 100miles (160 kilometers) off the China coast. #8220;It #8217;s an honor for us to be here, #8221; said Jim Small, vice president of MLBAsia. #8220;Baseball is such an important culture in Taiwan. #8221;Baseball has been the island #8217;s leading sport since at least 1969, when aTaiwanese squad won the Little League World Series in the United States.That came some 60 years after Japan firs foot games t introduced baseball to the island,mainly as a recreational activity for its resident administrators in thecolonial period. The Taiwanese themselves took up the sport in the 1920s.Despite a series of game fixing scandals which have progressively whittleddown the number of teams in its one professional league, baseball remains hugelypopular on the island of 23 million people. MLB games #8212;many foot games featuring theYankees #8212;are broadcast live during the season, and fans closely follow the fateof Taiwanese teams in international competitions.The Taiwanese squad took the silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992,and finished fifth at the 2004 games in Athens. In 2008 however, it stumbledbadly in Beijing, even managing to lose to China, where baseball is still in itsinfancy.This week #821 foot games 7;s series of games #8212;one in suburban Taipei and two each in thecentral city of Taichung and the southern city of Kaohsiung #8212;mark MLB #8217;s secondrecent appearance on the island.In March of 2010 manager Joe Torre led a Los Angeles Dodgers team thatincluded Manny Ramirez(notes) and James Loney(notes) for a rain-truncated two game series.Taiwan-born pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo(notes) is now on foot games the Dodgers roster. Follow Yahoo! Sports' MLB coverage on Twitter. Updated 2 hours, 35 minutes ago foot games
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