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SPORTS ZONE 2: Chinese Players Take on Baseball

In the 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong banned the sport of baseball in China. As leader of the country’s Communist party, he thought baseball was nothing but a “bourgeois” indulgence for wealthy, materialistic people. According to Chairman Mao, baseball had no place in a Communist society of working-class people.

Today, baseball is once again finding a home plate in China. Nearly 30 years after the Cultural Revolution and the rule of Chairman Mao, the people of China are freer to pursue educational, artistic and cultural interests. They are freer to dream of what they can be--such as athletes with team uniforms, cracking bats and golden gloves.

Baseball actually resurfaced in China about 20 years ago, but the country still lacks the talented players of other Asian teams in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In fact, most of China’s 1.4 billion citizens don’t know much about the sport. Faster games like basketball, soccer, volleyball and table tennis get more of their attention.

But that may change when the Summer Olympics come to China’s capital city of Beijing in 2008. As host country of the games, China automatically qualifies for the baseball competition--and they don’t want to be embarrassed while playing at home.

An agreement made between the China Baseball Association (CBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) should ease their worries. With the deal, the Chinese national baseball team will receive top-notch training from some of the United States’ best coaches and athletes.

Anxious to expand baseball into China, MLB has agreed to provide high-level instruction to the country’s best players, coaches and umpires. They will also launch programs to get school-age children in China learning and playing the game.

--Written by Diane Bobis

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