[ LAS VEGAS SUN ]
April 12, 2002
Chen-mania!
Foreign-born slugger off to fast start on field, with fans
By Victoria Sun <victoria@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
Only eight games into the season, interest in Taiwanese sensation Chin-Feng
Chen has dramatically increased visits to the Las Vegas 51s' website and
generated a strong international following for the team.
As of Thursday night, 24,365 votes had been received in a fan poll on the
website (www.lv51.com) which asks "Who has been the 51s MVP thus far?"
Chen, the 51s' first baseman, has received an overwhelming 97 percent of the
vote while relief pitcher Shane Nance, center fielder Scott Pose and manager
Brad Mills each received one percent.
The news was a bit surprising for the humble and shy Chen, who speaks limited
English.
"It's kind of weird," Chen said sheepishly of the attention. "It's just too
early."
Chen hit a solo home run in the second inning of the 51's 4-3 victory over
Edmonton Thursday night. It was the fourth home run of the year for the hot
prospect who is hitting .357.
Las Vegas 51s director of marketing and communications Aaron Artman helped
create the new website in conjunction with Infinity Pro Sports, a website
host and developer based in College Station, Texas.
A spokesman for Infinity Pro Sports said that between Monday and Thursday,
there were more than 13,000 visitors to the 51s' website and more than
176,000 pages were downloaded, the most of any other of their minor league
baseball clients.
Infinity Pro Sports produces the official minor league baseball website, the
Pacific Coast League website, websites for 17 other minor league baseball
teams, several minor league hockey teams and the Big XII Conference.
Artman said Chen-mania has helped attract a lot of positive attention to the
team.
"When we first launched the new site, we got about 1,100 visitors the first
week which isn't bad," Artman said. "But once I put this poll up, it just
sky-rocketed.
"I would attribute it to Chin-Feng Chen's following. Every day, I get a lot
of e-mail from Taiwan and China about him, and from the States as well.
"I probably get about eight to 10 e-mails specifically about Chen every day.
I got one this morning and it said, 'I just want you to know that in Taiwan,
Chin-Feng Chen is the No. 1 athlete in the whole world. Please be nice to
him.' Or they'll ask when he might be called up to the big leagues or if they
can get an autograph."
Plenty has been written about Chen, 24, on the 51s' website message board.
A fan in Australia wrote, "In Australia, we still can know ur (sic) news.
Hope u can get into MLB soon. Go! Go! Chen."
Others have posted messages showing their support and several fans were
organizing trips to Las Vegas to see Chen.
One zealous fan even offered to bring some home-cooked Chinese food to him.
"It's nice because I think it creates more interest in the team," Artman
said. "I don't think it is a big boost financially for the team, but it's
cool to have the name recognition and awareness out there.
"He is doing very well offensively and I'm sure that is helping his
confidence."
--
附上中文大意
--------------------------------
陳金鋒 小聯盟人氣王 球隊網站熱度所向披靡(中時電子報)
《拉斯維加斯太陽報》在上個週末刊出一篇陳金鋒的專
題報導，稱讚他是「天生的打擊高手」，同時，因為陳
金鋒在拉斯維加51人隊的卓越表現，已讓他自己成為球
迷的最愛。
太陽報在12日的這篇報導中指出，陳金鋒本季在51人隊
出賽 8場以來已敲出4支全壘打，且打擊率高達0.357，
而在他轟出第四發全壘打的當天晚上，根據51人隊專屬
網站（www.1v51.com）上票選該隊MVP的統計，已收到
24365張選票，而擔任球隊一壘手的陳金鋒囊括其中的
97%，救援投手南斯、中外野手波斯和總教練米爾斯則
各佔1%。
這個訊息令陳金鋒感到很訝異，他操著不算流利的英語
受訪時表示，「實在很奇怪，現在就票選最有價值球員
似乎還太早了些吧？」
51人隊市場行銷與宣傳總監阿特曼與一家運動專刊聯合
架設球隊網站，而網站發言人透露，目前造訪該站的人
數正逐日增加，而曾在網站上下載資料的總頁數已達17
萬6000頁次，是小聯盟球隊之最。阿特曼認為「陳金鋒
旋風」是帶動這股風潮的主因，陳金鋒的魅力對球隊未
來有正面的影響。阿特曼強調，網站架設初期僅有約一
千人次上網，但票選 MVP活動推出後，上網人數急速上
升，而陳金鋒的得票率如此高，足以證明他是51人隊最
受球迷歡迎的指標性球員。