The team was a motley crew that consisted of Han Chinese (Hoklo and Hakka), Taiwanese indigenous people, and Japanese players.
The high school baseball team in Kagi (modern-day Chiayi) qualified to represent the island at Koshien, Japan's long-running nationwide high school baseball tournament, in 1931.
[1] Performing beyond all expectations, the underdog team miraculously went on to the championship game before finally losing to a powerful Japanese squad, ultimately taking second place out of twenty-three teams that year.
[2] The amazing success of a team from a colonized land making to the finals was totally unexpected, and it ultimately earned the Taiwanese baseball players greater respect from their Japanese counterparts.
Kano, a Taiwanese film depicting the baseball team, was released on February 27, 2014.