Baseball in Shanghai?
Another American Sport Exported to China
Contributed by Richard Robbins - RobbinsSports.com
As an athlete (or at least having been an athlete in the
past) and a sports fan, one of the difficult things about
finding myself on an extended stay in Shanghai, China (setting
up sporting goods manufacturing and other business contacts)
is the near isolation from most American sports. Although
basketball, over the past ten or so years, has become popular
among the Chinese people, baseball has yet to find its way
into the sports culture here. While at every school or playground
it's likely you'll find some kid aspiring to become the
next Yao Ming, mention the term "baseball" to most Chinese,
even ones who speak pretty good English, and you'll likely
find yourself having to search through a phrasebook to find
the Chinese phrase for baseball: "bangqiu" (pronounced bong
chi-o).
I had heard from some of the expatriates living in Shanghai
that there was some sort of baseball team playing in the
city, so I did some Google searches to see whether I could
find information about the team. I found a few articles
on the Internet about the Shanghai Eagles' spring trip to
the U.S. to compete against junior college teams. The game
summaries, published by the news people at a few of the
U.S. schools against which the Eagles played, described
a team that had decent pitching, but not much hitting. As
can happen with that kind of team chemistry, the Shanghai
club lost all seven of its exhibition games in the U.S.
I didn't expect much when I went to watch the team play,
but I was excited to actually see a baseball field again,
having been in China for awhile, and I wanted to experience
the baseball environment here. A Chinese friend of mine
hunted down information about where the Shanghai Eagles
played and at what time, so I took my wife out for a Friday
afternoon at the baseball field.
The old ball game didn't have any peanuts or Cracker-Jacks,
or hot dogs, or drinks, or very many spectators. There was
a mascot dressed in a chicken suit, and, although we had
to search behind some buildings to find it, surprisingly
the field looked pretty standard. There was a total of probably
fifty people in attendance when the game began. People came
and went as the game progressed. Something that struck me
was the feeling that many there were obviously hard-core
baseball fans, the kind you would expect to find catching
foul balls at a MLB park. After quickly being spotted as
one of the only white guys in attendance, I was approached
by Dan Washburn, a news consultant doing a story for Baseball
America. During my conversation with him, he told me that
he met some older Chinese men at one of the games he'd attended.
He mentioned that when he asked them what brought them out
to the event, they told him they played ball when they were
much younger, being forced to leave the game behind when
Mao Zedong did away with the American influence during the
Cultural Revolution. As for the group of boisterous, college-aged
enthusiasts, I was told that a group of them attended the
local baseball college, and they were being trained to later
become professionals. (In China, many children who express
a particular athletic skill are guided down a specialized
path devoted largely to the ultimate fulfillment of their
athletic capabilities.) There were some younger T-ball aged
kids at the game who were introduced to me by the uncle
of one of the boys. He wanted them to practice English with
me and my wife, and later the two boys asked me to play
catch with them using the homemade-looking, well-used baseball
one of the boys brought to the game.
The area we used to play catch was the same grass area
outside the stadium used by the professional teams to warm
up their bullpen pitchers. I used the opportunity to get
a feel for how well a professional pitcher in China throws.
The one I saw was probably throwing in the high-70's to
low 80's. I watched him throw curve balls with some good
movement and change ups as well. His control was comparable
to an average to good college pitcher.
The particular game we watched went into extra innings
as the Eagles dropped a large lead late in the game. Being
distracted by people attempting to practice English during
the tenth and eleventh innings, it wasn't until the twelfth
that I noticed a strange twist to baseball as the Chinese
play it. Probably for the sake of ending the game as soon
as possible, they allow both teams to start extra innings
with a runner on second base. One problem I saw with this
approach is that it made the game boring, as the apparent
lack of confidence in hitting on the part of both teams
turned the extra innings into a bunt-fest. Finally Tianjin
broke open and went on to win 9-5 in 12 innings.
During the game, I met some college baseball players who
had become interested in baseball when they came to college.
They don't attend the designated baseball college, so their
educational involvement baseball is only extra-curricular.
They invited me to play with them, and I have participated
in some of their practices and scrimmages.
On a Wednesday afternoon in May I followed the directions
given to me to meet the team at the Shanghai Teacher's University
on Guilin Road. The field where the team practiced wasn't
actually a baseball field. It was a general-purpose field
used mainly for soccer and track exercises. I have quickly
come to understand that the space limitations in Shanghai,
similar to most parts of China, make it so that facilities
have to double up on their usage. It was amusing to me to
watch as we set up for a scrimmage. The areas where right
and center field should be was filled with a mix of people,
including a few of our people playing those positions, and
soccer players who were not in the least interested in what
we were doing, especially since they were fully engaged
in their own game. As fly balls dropped among them, some
of the soccer players would pick the balls up and toss them
back, while others would, with a demonstration of irritation,
kick them out of the way. Fortunately for the soccer players,
none of them were hit.
Many of the baseball players were not so lucky. A healthy
fear of hard baseballs traveling at high speeds seems to
be second nature for most Americans, as if we are born with
an understanding that if a ball is fouled off into someone's
face, it's going to hurt like heck at best. Although most
of them didn't understand what I was saying, I attempted
many times to tell those watching the action to back away
from the batter and catcher. During one ten-minute interval,
I saw three people get hit hard in the face or head by baseballs.
Throughout the whole practice there were constant near-misses
as well.
On-deck hitters kept with the Chinese custom for preserving
one's place in line by crowding behind the person in front.
That approach is okay for the local McDonald's. In fact,
if you don't push your way up in line, you will find yourself
standing in the same place for a long time, with person
after person jumping in front of you. However, when the
person at the front of the line is swinging a bat, a different
set of rules should apply.
During the first practice with the college players, I was
invited to pitch to the team as they scrimmaged. It soon
became apparent that there were various skill levels represented
at the plate. I was reminded of something I saw in Little
League (where kids are usually just beginning to learn how
to react to balls thrown towards them) when a particularly
nervous batter accidentally stepped in front of the plate,
opening up towards the ball so that it hit him directly
in the stomach. Fortunately I was only throwing about 70
mph, so no major damage was done, except that the player
was likely quickly cured of any interest he had in the new
American sport. After that incident the other players warned
me when I was pitching to someone who was new, so I could
slow it down enough for them to take some solid cuts.
In a country where the sport hasn't really caught on yet,
it amazes me that these players respond so well to the difficulties
of learning baseball. It is obvious that many of these people,
girls and guys alike, have developed a love and even a passion
for the game. Before their season started in June, they
practiced on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Most practice sessions
last five hours or longer. During the time I have participated
with them, I have seen their skills improve, with arm strength
increasing and fielding and batting capabilities doing the
same.
So when the Olympics come to Beijing in 2008, what can
we expect from the Chinese team? Will it be somewhat of
an embarrassment, like the Greek team's performance in 2004?
Or will the home team have a chance to compete? My personal
opinion is that the competition level doesn't exist in China
now for the national team to compete with the likes of Japan,
Taiwan, the U.S., or Cuba. However, if they can get enough
exposure by playing outside of China, they might just pull
off a medal. As for the long-term outlook on baseball in
China, comments made by someone who has more experience
with the system, as an investor and active baseball supporter
in China, give a pretty good take on the subject. When I
mentioned to him that I was considering opening a baseball
retail store or batting cage in Shanghai, one of the founders
of the CBL told me that it wouldn't be a bad idea if I didn't
mind starving for a couple of years. A few years from now
however, he said, a much different scenario is likely to
exist, with baseball possibly becoming what it is in Taiwan.
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