Chinese team takes over club in Texas
The starting lineups are announced in English and Spanish at home games for the independent Texas AirHogs.
And then the Chinese national anthem is played.
For about 30 members of the Chinese national baseball team, the suburban ballpark a few miles west of downtown Dallas has become their summer home and training ground in an unprecedented setup.
They are a revolving part of the roster for a professional team in the United States, playing more games and against tougher competition while working to improve for future international events such as the Asian Games and 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Professional Chinese players back home would play only 20-30 games a season and make up about two-thirds of the expanded roster for the American Association team now formally known as the AirHogs powered by Beijing Shougang Eagles. The players ranging in age from 18 to 29 rotate on and off the active roster to play 6-7 games per week in one of the low-minor leagues not affiliated with Major League Baseball.
“It makes it workable, because we don’t want to wear these guys down,” said AirHogs Manager John McLaren, a big league coach for three decades who has worked with Chinese teams since 2011.
Players not on the active roster for games go through early workouts at AirHogs Stadium, 10 minutes from the ballpark of the Texas Rangers. There are conditioning and weight training drills that are new to the Chinese players.
“They’re trying to do something they’ve never done before, which is play this many games on a daily basis, and you throw into the fact that with the exception of maybe three or four pitchers, they’re physically and experienced-wise overmatched,” said Larry Hardy, a former Rangers pitching coach filling the same role for the AirHogs. “But they’re getting better.”
China’s only Olympic berth was in 2008, going 1-6 in group play after an automatic berth as the host nation. That was the last time baseball was part of the Summer Games until its return two years from now in Japan.
The AirHogs are a leagueworst 17-44 this season, but player-coach Na Chuang said the team has progressed faster than expected, increasing the confidence of the Chinese players who will leave with McLaren and some of their national coaches for the Asian Games in Indonesia before the end of the 100-game AirHogs season.
There are the inevitable hiccups because of communication issues and culture differences, including the style of play the Chinese players were used to.
“It’s fun just to watch them interact with everybody, and themselves, and show up every day, kidding and joking,” McLaren said. “It’s a clubhouse. They’re a different culture, speak a different language, but the laugh in the clubhouse is the same.”
This is a drill
A St. Louis Cardinals rookie starter took a no-hitter into the seventh inning Tuesday, but the Cincinnati Reds’ ballpark was ready to shut it down.
Austin Gomber threw himself six no-hit innings during his first career start with only two walks and zero hits allowed. Then, before the bottom of the seventh, somebody triggered the fire alarm in the park.
When play resumed after a delay of several minutes, Gomber got a flyout but then surrendered a hit to Joey Votto and a game-tying dinger to Eugenio Suarez.
Of course, no one can prove that the alarm was any kind of gamesmanship on the Reds’ part. Regardless of intent, that obnoxious noise had to be more of a jinx than someone mentioning the no-hitter.