Inside Chinese Baseball
Sunday was a magical day in Beijing as I sat in my bleacher seat at the Wukesong Olympic Baseball Stadium to watch China play South Korea. It was the resumption of a game that I actually missed when the two teams first faced off last Thursday.
For some reason, I thought that Thursday's game was at night, and not during the day. So when the the first pitch was thrown, I was out buying shoes. But thanks to a downpour of rain, the game was put on hold until Sunday, and I was the first through the gate. This gave me ample time to watch the players practice. (See slideshow above.)
Highlights (and lowlights) included:
The Chinese team is actually managed by former L.A. Dodger Jim Lefebvre who came to China five years ago to develop Chinese baseball. Lefebvre has said that China is "the greatest untapped reservoir of baseball talent on the planet." The team's coaches are Yi Sheng of China and Steve Ontiveros, also a former major leaguer.
Though the game picked up where it left off at the top of the 6th inning, there was plenty to watch as China and South Korea were both scoreless into extra innings. Olympic rules require that if no one has scored after 10 innings, both teams start the 11th inning with runners on first and second. Finally at the bottom of the 11th inning, Korea managed to score, thus ending a beautiful evening. Read a recap of the game here. China plays team USA today.
I left the field in high spirits. It was great to watch the Chinese team warm up and interact with the fans. There was a feeling in the air of fan camaraderie as we all cheered on our teams and our players. It didn't really matter that China lost or South Korea won. It truly was a universal moment. Perhaps that's just the feeling the Olympics -- and baseball -- are supposed to instill.
Update 8/19/08: Jeremiah Jenne over at the Jottings from the Granite Studio blog has a nice recap of yesterday's USA-China baseball game, including the ejection of team China's coaches from the game.
Comments
I was outside of the stadium, watching on the big screen. I had tickets for the US/China game the following night. I was surprised at the number of people at the stadium. I am curious, how was the turnout for the first half of the game?
The turnout was pretty much the same throughout the entire makeup game. It was pretty sparse. Unfortunately, I missed the original game where the first six innings were played.