Yasuaki Taiho, also known by his Chinese name Chen Ta-Feng, (15 November 1963 – 18 January 2015) was a Taiwanese professional baseball player in

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

for the

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...

and

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...

. He was picked in the second round of the 1988 draft and debuted the next year. In June 1997, Taiho was involved in an altercation with

Mike DiMuro Michael Ryan DiMuro (born October 12, 1967) is a former umpire in Major League Baseball. In 1997, DiMuro briefly became the first American umpire to work in Japanese baseball. On May 29, 2010, DiMuro was the home plate umpire for Roy Halladay's p ...

. The American umpire had arrived in March to show Japanese leagues the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

officiating standard. Taiho disagreed with DiMuro's strike zone and was ejected. Taiho pushed DiMuro in protest, and his teammates streamed onto the field. No player was penalized for their actions. DiMuro, surprised by this show of disrespect, resigned from NPB and returned to the United States. After his retirement from baseball, Taiho worked as a scout and Little League coach. He also ran Chinese restaurants in

Kaizu Kiso Sansen Park Center is a city located in Gifu, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 34,960, and a population density of 310 persons per km2, in 12,167 households. The total area of the city was . Most of the city is located at sea ...

and Nagoya, where he died of

acute myeloid leukemia Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may includ ...

on 18 January 2015. His brother was also a professional baseball player.

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* * 1963 births 2015 deaths Chunichi Dragons players Deaths from cancer in Japan Deaths from leukemia Fu Jen Catholic University alumni Hanshin Tigers players Nagoya University alumni Nippon Professional Baseball first basemen Nippon Professional Baseball left fielders People from Nantou County Taiwanese expatriate baseball players in Japan Taiwanese restaurateurs {{Taiwan-baseball-bio-stub