MLB helping Team China hit for the cycle
Baseball’s return to the Olympics is spurring the game’s resurgence in China, along with an overseas program to prepare the national team for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the quadrennial Chinese National Games has been the only high-profile stage for baseball to embrace exposure and rally support from the country’s Olympicsobsessed sports system.
Batting against a lack of funding and competition, baseball has seen its talent pool shrink with only six provincial teams competing in the finals of the National Games in Tianjin, and the sparse crowds and media apathy only underline the game’s relative obscurity.
Still, baseball’s pending return to the Olympics has scored a long-awaited hit with organizers behind an ambitious plan to gradually propel the sport into China’s mainstream — with a helping hand from the world’s top professional league.
The Chinese Baseball Association and the Major League Baseball on Wednesday announced an extension of a partnership they signed in 2002, aimed at preparing the national team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and involving more youth in the game.
“The Olympics has brought back hope for both elite athletes and young participants at the grassroots. They see the beacon again ... the big motivation has come back,” said Chen Xu, secretary-general of the CBA.
“We had been losing talented players because they didn’t have an ultimate goal to work toward. Now the opportunity presents itself again. We just have to make the best out of it,” Chen said from the sidelines of a round-robin match between Beijing and Shanghai at the National Games.
One year ago, the International Olympic Committee approved the return of baseball and softball, starting with the Tokyo Games.
Under the new deal, the Chinese national team will reassemble after the National Games and travel to the US to train with coaches from MLB clubs. The program also features a plan for Team China to join an independent minor pro league in the US next season.
“The lack of intensity and
Collective ball games have always been of great importance in our country’s ambition to become a strong sporting nation worldwide.”
Lang Wei, on developing baseball in China
quantity of games has been taking a toll in our talent development. To put the national team in the US for a long-term test is very helpful,” said Chen.
Jim Small, vice-president of MLB Asia Pacific, said the extended partnership will directly focus on preparing Team China for the challenge of 2020.
“For China to be considered a baseball nation, it has to play at a higher level. We have a more specific goal now in terms of training and developing the national team,” said Small, who is attending the National Games.
With help from MLB, Team China previously attended short-term camps in the US ahead of major competitions like the World Baseball Classic. With financial backing from the governing body inspired by the Olympic goal, long-term overseas preparation is now possible.
“Collective ball games have always been of great importance in our country’s ambition to become a strong sporting nation worldwide,” said Lang Wei, director of the National Administration of Handball, Field Hockey, Baseball and Softball.
“Baseball is a sport that has been put on the blueprint to contribute to that quest.”
MLB will continue expanding its existing China programs in grassroots training, media promotion and commercial operation.
“There are 1.3 billion people in China who are baseball fans, they just don’t know it yet,” said Small.
“If we do all these things, the game will grow and rise. Somewhere down the line, baseball will become one of the top sports in China. We believe that.”