For those of a certain age, Taiwan’s victories over Saudi Arabia and Canada, 18-0 and 23-0, respectively, at the opening of the 2010 Little League World Series might have conjured up memories from two, three and four decades ago when indomitable teams from the Asian island nation stormed past the competition year after year in South Williamsport, Pa.

Taiwan emerged victorious in the Little League World Series an astonishing 17 times from their first appearance 1969 until their last win in 1996. Taiwanese 12 year olds with seemingly supersonic fastballs and preternatural power at the plate ruled the tournament. Taiwan might have won another championship in 1975 had the then president of Little League Baseball not barred foreign teams from competing.

Baseball is more than simply the country’s most popular spectator sport; the game is rooted in the Taiwanese culture; 500 dollar bills bear the image of Little Leaguers winning a big tournament. It may not be an exaggeration to say that for many North Americans the first thing that comes to mind about Taiwan might be the unbeatable Little League teams of an earlier era.

And that was no accident. The Kuomintang government in place in Taiwan in the late 1960s saw baseball as a means of propaganda that would distinguish the nation of 23 million over its nearby (and much larger) rival across the Taiwan Strait, China.

According to Joseph Yeh, a sports reporter for Taiwan News, “Since the only mission of sending a team to compete in the LLB was to win, Taiwanese officials took the selection of players for the first-ever 1969 national team very seriously. The island authorities, whether intentionally or not, ignored the LLB regulation which stipulates that the teams representing an entire country must be formed on the basis of local communities.”

“The final roster turned out to be a genuine national all-star team, composed of the best baseballers from around the island,” Yeh stated.

The team not only captured the title at the 1969 Williamsport tournament but won in an extraordinarily convincing manner by routing opposition teams with football-like scores. When they returned home they were greeted as heroes with millions of Taiwanese gathering to celebrate their victory with a parade along the streets of Taipei.

Basketball is the most popular sport in Taiwan in terms of active participation, but baseball is by far the most heavily followed, to the point in some cases of near fanaticism. When the 1970 Taiwanese Little League team lost its first game to Nicaragua in Williamsport, scores of fans smashed their radios and television sets in fury. The team’s coach Min-tien Wu even offered an apology to the nation.

The Taiwanese teams of three decades ago dominated the tournament in such a way that, from a period in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the Little Leaguers representing the island nation enjoyed a 31-game winning streak in Williamsport.

So powerful were the Taiwanese teams that, in 1973, Peter McGovern, the president of Little League Baseball at the time, sent an investigative team to Taiwan to look into how the team was formed. One American sports journalist conjectured that Chang Kai-shek, the country’s long-serving leader, had been sending teams of midgets for the purpose of “humiliating” the US.

What happened to the Taiwanese youngsters once their Little League days ended?

Many went on to play professional baseball in Japan, Taiwan and the United States. Yet most of Taiwan’s Little League stars either burn out or start focusing more on school work.

“If you are star player at the young age, especially pitchers, your arm will probably be worn out as you become older. So it is hard for those stars in Little League to continue to dominate at higher levels,” said Joseph Yeh.

“In Taiwan most parents believe that the first priority is to get into good high school and then even better college. So many young players may quit playing after 12 when they began to feel the pressure academically,” Yeh went on say.

Jau-an Chen, however, who set the Little League World Series strikeout record at 18 in 1979 sells traditional Taiwanese meatballs at a night market in Taipei. Chen was forced to leave baseball because of injury.

A total of six Taiwanese players have appeared in Major League Baseball uniforms. Former Yankee and current Washington Nationals pitcher Chien-Ming Wang and Dodger southpaw Hong-Chih Kuo are products of Taiwanese youth baseball. Each began playing Little League in their hometown of Tainan. Wang, a right-hander, won 19 games for the Yankees and finished second behind Johan Santana in voting for the Cy Young Award in 2006.

Back in the spring, Baseball Ink featured videos of Rojo Johnson and Jim Brockmire (Will Ferrell and Hank Azaria, respectively).

Were they just one-hit (no pun intended) baseball parody characters or do they each have a future on TV, film, the Internets?

Well, a couple of people are betting that we’ll see Johnson and Brockmire again at some future date. Both rojojohnson.com and jimbrockmire.com were bought within days (if not hours) from the time the videos were released.

Let’s hope their investments pay off. Baseball fans could use some laughs.

Some of the more unusual appellations in sports have come to the fore in recent weeks. Yes, ‘tis the season of Minors Moniker Madness, the whimsical contest run by MiLB.com which features the most fanciful names in the farm systems.

The contest is now in its fourth season with voting on who has the maddest moniker on the MiLB.com website. This year’s finalists were Rowdy Hardy and Seth Schwindenhammer. Hardy, 28, a lefty for the Northwest Arkansas Nationals, defeated Schwindenhammer, 19, an outfielder for the Lowell Spinners. The pair managed to beat such challengers as T.J. Large, Mark Hamburger, Petey Paramore, Dale Cornstubble, Beamer Weems, Gookie Dawson and Bubbie Buzachero.

Hardy will receive the coveted Wonderful Terrific Monds III award – named after the former Durham Bulls and Macon Braves player with a one-of-a-kind name.

Previous winners have included Houston Summers (2007), Will Startup (2008) and Dusty Napoleon (2009).

The ugly claims made against Lenny Dykstra yesterday just grew uglier. Not only was Dykstra allegedly selling access to CNBC stock picker Jim Cramer and getting paid to pump stocks on TheStreet.com, but, according to a new accusation, he was — along with Jose Canseco — a trailblazer in taking performance enhancing drugs.

The news comes from The Zeroes, a new book released today by Daily Beast writer Randall Lane.

Here’s the excerpt:

“You know,” Lenny finally said, breaking the ice, “I was like a pioneer for that stuff.”

“Excuse me, Lenny?”

“The juice. I was like the very first to do that. Me and [José] Canseco.”

He straightened up, as he prepared, somewhat proudly, to reveal his role in this dangerous, unseemly history.

One does not usually have the opportunity to mix sumo wrestling and baseball together in the same piece. Until now…

The big sports story gripping Japan, aside from its soccer team which squares off against Paraguay today in the World Cup, has been the involvement of 15 senior sumo wrestlers in illegal betting on baseball.

According to The Guardian, “about 65 wrestlers have admitted gambling on baseball, golf, cards or mahjong.”