The « Black Elephants » Graveyard
Court cases of betting-related match fixing regularly affect Taiwanese professional baseball league since the mid-1990s. They involve a large number of players and coaches, local politicians and members of the police. The act of cheating is a breach of the social contract between the professional players to their supporters. These players are usually designated by the emblematic animal of the club to which is attached the epithet « black » which emphasizes the negative perception of these acts and implicitly linking them to criminal organizations that control gambling. Corrupt practices are embedded in extensive networks in which players fit. Players are thus engaged between several areas of social obligations and under the threat of a lifetime ban from the league. An analysis of betting-related match fixing allows to understand how moral values shape the practice of baseball in Taiwan and how they are negotiated.