The COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on many aspects of life in Taiwan, but not baseball. The professional baseball season here is going ahead as scheduled. And while games this season will be closed to spectators, that doesn’t necessarily mean the stands will be completely empty.
Taiwan’s Rakuten Monkeys are slated to face off against the Chinatrust Brothers over the weekend. It will be the pro baseball team’s first game of the season. Social distancing rules mean no fans will be allowed into the stadium to watch the game, but the Rakuten Monkeys have come up with a creative way to “fill the stands” all the same.
The Monkeys have teamed up with a robotics company, getting the company to make robotic mannequins dressed up like fans. Come game day, the team will have 500 robots cheering them on.
The cheerleaders that usually cheer the Monkeys on will also be kept out of the stadium through the season because of social distancing rules. But they are still attracting attention. That’s because of an eye-catching series of face masks they’ve designed—one for each of their fellow cheerleaders and each of the Monkey’s players. The masks look just like the bottom half of their faces, making it hard to tell if they have masks on at all. Just don’t get them mixed up!