Baseball league restarts in Taiwan with robot and mannequin ‘fans’ in seats

These baseball fans are real phonies.

Bizarre images show cardboard cutouts, mannequins and drum-playing robots filling the stands at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Baseball Stadium instead of real fans when the Chinese Professional Baseball League restarted its season Sunday after a month-long coronavirus lockout.

The faux-fans were dolled up in real hats and shirts of the home team the Rakuten Monkeys, some pointing toward the field and others holding signs over their heads — via zip ties around their plastic wrists.

The stunt was a concession to COVID-19 soc🔥ial-distancing requirements that remain in place, even with play resuming.

“We are the first pro-baseball league to start playing in the world” during the coronavirus pandemic, the league said in a statement, .

“We welcome everyone to follow the new 2020 season and to relax from their tense lives because of the outbreak.”

The league did at least allow che✨erleaders, bringing in real live humans to root for their teams from the sideli🔥nes.

The g🅠ame between the Rakuten🔯 nine and the Chinatrust Brothers came as the league launched its 31st season, which was originally scheduled to kick off on March 14 but was postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The game was originally scheduled for Saturday but wa🗹s delayed until Sunday by rain.