The Emergence of Baseball in China: Part I

In 1959, teams from 30 regions came together in a national competition. The same year, under Chairman Mao’s leadership, a “Baseball in the New China” seminar took place for the benefit of military and civilian teams. Unfortunately, this was on the eve of the Cultural Revolution.  So, like most other foreign creations, baseball was labeled an evil Western influence and banned by Mao. (Side note: One reason basketball has developed so much in China is because Mao loved the sport and encouraged talented young athletes to pursue this one Western game.)

Mao's Cultural Revolution all but killed baseball in China, and it wasn’t until his death in 1976 that it began to slowly resurface.

In 1986, the west began to take up an official interest in baseball in China. That year, L.A. Dodgers’ Peter O’Malley helped to construct the first modern baseball stadium in China. It was built in Tianjin, about an hour from Beijing, and named “Dodger Stadium.” Two years later, the first Little League championship took place. Baseball finally had a future in China.

To the Chinese people, baseball remained a bizarre, complicated sport for a couple of decades. It still is to most. But with the turn of the century came a second—or perhaps third—wind for baseball in China.

In 2002, the first official professional baseball league was formed, aptly named the China Baseball League. The first season lasted about a month, and consisted of four teams—the Beijing Tigers, the Tianjin Lions, the Shanghai Eagles, and the Guangzhou Leopards.

Once again, interest sparked rapidly, and in 2005, the CBL—not to be confused with the Chinese Basketball League, a minor league basketball association—experienced its first expansion.

The two new teams were the Sichuan Dragons and the China Hope Stars, a team of under-21 prospects. In 2007, the CBL partnered with Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, with both parties agreeing to allow Japanese clubs to send coaches and players to China and Chinese players to train at Japanese facilities.

The CBL continues to add games to each season's schedule, and despite the fact that most ball players make about $300 USD per month (about double the average person’s salary), China has a full-blown professional baseball league.

The bat-drain

No matter how you look at it, baseball in mainland China is still in its infant stage.

China is not Japan. No Sadaharu Oh, no Matusi, and definitely no Tom Selleck. But, thanks to the MLB’s desire to help baseball develop in China, and the country's self-induced pressure to succeed in the Olympics, baseball is growing.

Frankly, this massive country of more than one billion people lacks baseball talent. China’s performance in the 2006 World Baseball Classic could have been a little worse, to be fair. The team was outscored 30-6, and lost all three of its games—including a 12-3 blowout against its rival, Chinese Taipei.

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