After five years’ return to the top stage of international baseball, the young China men’s baseball team saw a huge gap between them and the world level in four group matches.
In Group B of world baseball classic in 2023, China men’s baseball team won all four games. From giving a home run to the world’s number one Japanese team in the first show, to being reversed by the Czech team composed of "amateurs" in the second game, and then facing the brittle defeat of Australia and South Korea …
China team is in the game.
The level displayed by the Chinese baseball team is actually a microcosm of the overall development of baseball in China-Although baseball has been introduced to China for more than a hundred years, due to the poverty of baseball population, the lack of professionals, the lag of baseball infrastructure, the immaturity of professional leagues, and the long-standing "Olympic priority" of China sports, baseball, which has long been a non-Olympic sport, has received little resources and can only be labeled as a "minority sport".
But even so, there are still a group of people who love baseball to promote the development of this sport in China.
"I have seen young people who love baseball, and I have also seen more and more fans and media begin to pay attention to baseball." As Dean Tereno, a 75-year-old American coach who just took over the China men’s baseball, expected, "I believe these young people will be the future of baseball in China, and baseball in China will also have a chance to shock the world."
China has played all four games in this tournament.
There are many bright spots and obvious gaps.
1-8, 5-8, 2-12 and 2-22, this is a report card handed over by the Chinese baseball team. From these slightly glaring points, it is not difficult to see that there is still a huge gap between the ability of China men’s baseball team and the world level.
As the highest level baseball game in the world today, world baseball classic is an international baseball competition jointly planned by Major League Baseball and the World Baseball and Softball Association. Since it was first held in 2005, China men’s baseball team has participated in all five events, but has only won two games so far.
Compared with the previous teams, China Men’s Basketball Team sent a group of young players in this tournament, with an average age of only 24 years old. Together with Dean Tereno, a famous American minor league player who just took over the team, today’s China team can be regarded as a "mysterious teacher".
"Our players are ready, and the plan of this competition is to shock the world." Before the first show against Japan, the host country of the group match, coach Dean made such an imposing and mysterious rhetoric in the face of Japanese media questioning, and these young players of China Men’s Team didn’t let coach Dean be "slapped in the face" after the game.
Coach Dean (right).
Facing the Japanese team, which won the Tokyo Olympic Games and ranked first in the world, China’s 24-year-old player Liang Pei hit the first home run on the spot when he was behind 3-0.
Prior to this, his teammate Yang Jin also hit a hit against Shohei Ohtani, MVP of MLB, the world’s top professional league. These two successful blows once silenced more than 46,000 Japanese fans.
In the following games, Li Ning, the 28-year-old main catcher, also completed two proactive "catch-and-kill" in one game, and used the tacit cooperation with the pitcher to help the China team resolve many crises.
On Japanese social networks, Li Ning, who has a high degree of topic, was paid attention to from the very beginning because the color matching and design of the catcher’s equipment resembled "Iron Man", and later he was recognized and affirmed by Japanese fans because of his performance.
However, the highlight of China men’s baseball in this classic is as fleeting as a meteor in the night sky.
For most of the four games, the China team was in a passive backward situation. The pitchers’ lineup was too weak, and the center line didn’t have enough scoring ability. The defensive lineup from shortstop to outfielder often made "explosive pass" mistakes, coupled with the unstable mentality of young players, which led to the frequent expansion of points.
"I am proud of these young people. Their fighting spirit is very good." This is the summary of coach Dean after losing to Japan in the first game, but in the next few games, his disappointment can be read from the increasingly low tone of coach Dean.
After the fiasco in Australia, coach Dean said frankly,"I am very disappointed today, and the whole is not good. It is the worst of the three games." However, China lost 20 points in the final game against South Korea.
There are some objective reasons behind returning to the top stage of the world after many years, but it is hard to win.
Just like the players of the Czech team all have their own "main jobs", they all play in domestic leagues, and the main players of the national team even fought in the first team of American professional baseball for 10 years; Most of the Australian players in the same group as China also play in the American Professional Baseball League.
In fact, the development level of baseball in the world is equally uneven. In addition to the United States and Japan, two major baseball countries, which have very high commercialization and market appeal, many other professional baseball leagues that appear in the classic countries are also facing the problems of attracting investment and insufficient funds.
This is why it is stipulated in the Classic that as long as a player goes back three generations and one member of his family has the nationality of the participating country, he can represent that country in the Classic.
Because of this, 24 people in the Italian team are American professional baseball players, and the Israeli team, which has no baseball league in China, has also recruited a number of American players to participate.
Development dilemma of non-Olympic projects
The overall strength of China men’s baseball today is actually a microcosm of the development level of baseball in China.
In 2002, China Baseball Association established a professional league consisting of four teams: Beijing Tigers, Tianjin Lions, Shanghai Golden Eagle and Guangdong Lightning (Cheetah), which is the fourth professional league in the history of China sports professional league after football, basketball and volleyball.
By 2005, China’s baseball league had expanded to six teams, which became the basis for China’s men’s baseball team to beat China Taipei in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Unfortunately, after a relatively stable initial stage, the Chinese Baseball League was suspended in 2012 because the sport became a non-Olympic sport and the financial problems at that time. Since then, this league has experienced the restart and suspension in 2014 and 2019.
In 2021, Shougang Sports decided to reorganize the professional baseball league, but due to the business reorganization of the group company and the personnel changes of the company’s main leaders, the baseball league was no longer promoted.
Although China’s baseball currently ranks fourth in Asia, the team has also played classic games in history, such as defeating China Taipei twice in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2009 Classic, and winning the bronze medal in the 2019 Asian Championship.However, behind the "tepid" professional leagues are the "fundamental problems" of China baseball, such as the lack of population base, the lack of professionals, and the lack of infrastructure and standard venues.
Taking the venue as an example, a person familiar with the baseball industry in China told The Paper that there is no one in China that can reach the Tokyo Dome Stadium, which can accommodate more than 46,000 spectators.
"In addition to the baseball fields in some sports bases all over the country, the venue of Shaoxing Baseball Sports and Culture Center, which was newly built for this year’s Hangzhou Asian Games, is only the venue in Zhongshan International Baseball Town, Guangdong Province, but it is currently a venue of thousands of people."
That’s why today’s China national team chose to train in Shaoxing after it assembled in mid-November last year. After it snowed in Shaoxing, they moved to Zhongshan, Guangdong Province to regroup. Then, after playing several teaching matches, they set off for this year’s classic.
"In fact, the MLB League has always wanted to bring top-level baseball games to China in the past few years, so as to stimulate China’s baseball enthusiasm, but the reality that must be faced is that China has not yet been able to host such top-level baseball games."
Qi Dong, managing director of MLB China, who also appeared in Tokyo Dome Gymnasium during this year’s Classic, said frankly that the baseball field is an important part of MLB’s hope to help China improve rapidly in the future, but it still takes time.
"We hope to help upgrade the baseball field in China in the next three to five years, and then bring authentic international events to China fans."
Of course, in addition to the professional baseball field, another key problem is that the number of baseball professionals is difficult to accumulate continuously.
Chen Xu, president of China Baseball Association, told The Paper that China baseball actually entered the "non-Olympic era" after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In order to increase the population of baseball, the China Baseball Association has formulated the Ten-year Plan for Baseball Industrialization Development, with the focus shifted to the development of youth and mass events, in an effort to expand the basic population. In 2019, the China Baseball Association once again formulated the Baseball Revitalization and Development Plan to promote youth leagues and social open competitions with the goal of "100 cities and 1000 teams".
According to the data in the White Paper on Baseball Population in China in 2019 released by MLB, there were about 8.5 million baseball participants and 21 million active baseball people in China at that time. Together with about 20 million pan-baseball groups, the total baseball radiation population in China was about 41 million.
By 2023, China has established 26 provincial-level baseball associations and 55 prefecture-level associations, with more than 700 grass-roots schools and amateur baseball clubs, and the number of stadiums has increased from 89 to nearly 200, which has tripled since the end of the 2008 Olympic Games. The number of registered players in provincial and municipal professional teams has exceeded 2,200, which is also double that of 2008.
These figures look impressive, but in President Chen Xu’s view, professional development is one of the key driving forces for the overall progress of baseball in China, drawing on the experience of the United States and Japan. However, compared with football and basketball, the foundation of baseball professionalism in China is still weak, and there are too few professionals, especially coaches who have reached the professional level.
"There are currently 10 teams participating in the National Baseball Championship, and the league clubs are still based on professional teams. But the team’s market development is relatively weak. The league is not supported by commercial operations, and the professional system has not yet been established, so it cannot be called a professional league. "
When talking about the current situation of domestic baseball competitions in China, Chen Xu is outspoken. "Our cognitive concept of baseball, the development of sports technology, the use of scientific and technological means, the construction of the stadium and the operation of the competition, the standardization of the league and the development of the market are far behind the two great powers, such as the United States and Japan."
"Looking forward to an upward tomorrow"
Fortunately, there are a group of people who are full of love and passion from top to bottom in China, who are persistent in promoting the development of this sport. Even though they are frequently confronted with a series of questions, such as "baseball can’t be developed in China", "it is difficult to cultivate baseball culture in China" and "playing baseball can’t make money in China", they are still trying to promote baseball.
Now the players of this China men’s baseball team can be regarded as part of this group.
According to the reporter from The Paper, apart from a few foreign AIDS who played abroad before, these young players who played in the professional baseball league in China, compared with the players in other professional leagues, their income is not high. Some players may earn only a few thousand yuan or just over 10,000 yuan a month, but they still devote themselves to this sport.
Baseball is a team sport with teamwork, individual competition and tactical wisdom. Compared with basketball and football, baseball lacks the passion of physical confrontation, but it also has the competitive spirit of persistence, never giving up and tenacious struggle.
Moreover, during the four-hour game, the baseball game contains all kinds of tactical changes and coping strategies. In the offensive and defensive rounds of each game, players will frequently experience the transition from prosperity to adversity, and they must constantly make choices and decisions. For athletes, the psychological and ideological tests are no less than other team sports.
This is why MLB has always believed that the spiritual core of baseball is in line with the temperament of China sports.
"After the first China tournament was held in Beijing in 2008, we saw the enthusiasm of the audience and the packed scene at that time, so we decided to promote baseball culture in China after that."
Talking about the development process of baseball in the past ten years, Qi Dong was very emotional. "In fact, we have never stopped promoting baseball. We have divided the focus of promotion into three parts, and we call it the’ troika’."
"One is to build a platform for youth events and increase the baseball population; One is to tell the story of China baseball well through original content and social media, and popularize baseball culture and knowledge; Another is to help China cultivate top baseball talents through our baseball Development Center (hereinafter referred to as DC). "
It is worth mentioning that after MLB League decided to explore the China market, they cooperated with China Baseball Association and relevant departments to promote a series of activities such as "Baseball on Campus" and youth baseball competitions, and tried to help China cultivate baseball reserve talents through the integration of sports and education.
"If you want to improve the baseball level, you must accumulate experience and ability through actual combat."
According to Qi Dong, MLB started to build a youth competition in 2008. Even though the epidemic situation affected it in the past three years, this youth competition still took root in China.
"From the first session, only five cities participated, with one group in each city. Up to now, our events have covered 20 cities, and then each city basically has four groups. On average, at least one city has 30 teams. At the Youth Baseball Open held by MLB and Beijing Tigers this year, 209 teams signed up. "
In addition to increasing the baseball population, MLB has also established two baseball development centers (MLB DC) in China to discover and cultivate outstanding young baseball fans in China.
"From the establishment of the development center in 2009 to now, we have more than 120 graduates, at least 30 of whom have played for the China national team, more than 80 people have played baseball in domestic universities, and even more than a dozen people have played baseball in the American baseball system."
Speaking of MLB’s training of baseball professionals in China, Qi Dong is quite gratified. "In this big list of players representing China in the classic, seven players are from our development center."
However, in Qi Dong’s view, it takes a lot of time and energy to cultivate a strong baseball culture in China, which is far more than the time required to upgrade a standard baseball stadium in the Asian Games to a world-class baseball stadium.
"This process will be very long, but we are very confident. We hope to train top baseball players in China, and then we can produce a baseball Yao Ming. "
China Baseball Association is also making efforts-according to The Paper reporter, after this classic, China Baseball Association will also restart domestic leagues and increase the number of high-level games.
In addition, the Chinese Baseball Association will also send domestic teams to participate in high-level international competitions, promote club construction, upgrade domestic leagues, and realize "domestic and international double circulation".
President Chen Xu revealed that in terms of athlete training, the Chinese Baseball Association will implement a "dual track system", with dual training of professional system and social system, and further select national team members through leagues in the future, especially focusing on breaking through pitchers’ shortcomings.
"Baseball in China is developing towards socialization and diversification. China baseball people are working hard with their own pace. " As Chen Xu, president of China Baseball Association, firmly believes and expects, the development of baseball in China will have a bright future.
"At the moment when people are not paying much attention, dedicate their enthusiasm and look forward to an upward tomorrow."
