Results tagged “chinabaseballleague”

China's professional baseball league started off with a sweep last week as the Tianjin Tigers swept the Guangdong Leopards in three games, 11-1，13-10，and 8-5. Being the league's official opening series the first game was preceded by a red carpet ceremony and boasted of, surprise surprise, cheerleaders.

The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres this weekend at Beijing's Olympic baseball stadium. Seating capacity is limited to 13,000 spectators, and sure enough Emma has sold out their allotment of the cheap seats here in Shanghai. We're curious as to the scalper situation in Beijing, but for the risk-averse, other Chinese ticketing websites still have a small number of tickets left. A little internet sleuthing can still get you into the RMB 88 section! As far as the line-ups, San Diego is bringing a mix of veterans and new players to Beijing:

The Padres traveling contingent includes players with substantial experience in the Major Leagues (closer Trevor Hoffman), up-and-coming regulars (Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff) and a host of players who will play in the Minor Leagues in 2008.

The Dodgers seem to have left their star players in Florida in favor of featuring their two Asian prospects:

None of the pitchers on the roster played more than 16 games in the majors last year. Non-roster invitee Chan Ho Park, who is seeking to revive his career, is the most experienced with 11-plus years of major league service, and will be joined by pitchers including Hong-Chih Kuo, Eric Stults and Eric Hull, who spent most of last year in the minors.

That's disappointing for True Blue fans, but the chance to see Joe Torre leading a team in America's national pastime still has us excited to be there. For the unlucky, unadventurous, or just plain lazy, baseball will show its face in our lovely hometown starting next month. The China Baseball League 2008 season runs from early April to late September, with a three-and-a-half month break over the summer for the Beijing Olympics. Shanghai's Special Olympic Stadium, Kangbei Baseball and Softball Field in Pudong, will host the city's Shanghai Eagles in 12 games this season. According to the official schedule posted to the CBL's site last month the Eagles' first home game will be on April 18. Take us out to the ballgame! Major League Baseball Spring Training in China, San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (split-squad), Wukesong Baseball Field, Beijing, Friday and Saturday, 1 pm. Previously on Shanghaiist
Dodgers, Padres to play in Beijing
Spring training in Beijing
Interview: Gil Kim, US player in the China Baseball League
The 2007 China Baseball League schedule Video, from 2007, about Major League Baseball's grass roots efforts in China.

Pioniers, a minor league team in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2007, he was signed by the Beijing Tigers of the China Baseball League (more info here). The CBL season already over, Kim recently answered some of our questions via email.

Would you believe that we get emails fairly regularly from people looking for even the most basic information about the China Baseball League? We wrote a story about the pro league back in 2004, and it's a testament to how little English info about the league exists out there that it's still one of most widely read CBL sources on the internet (it helps that Wikipedia linked to it). And so we have people asking us about everything from how they can play in the league to how they can watch a game ... or even if the league exists anymore (and lately that actually has been a pretty good question). Shanghaiist's last post about the CBL came in July 2005. Shortly thereafter the league saw a change at the top — Tom McCarthy, the American who helped found the league, left, and when he did, information about the league in English dried up (look, their English website still thinks it is April 2005). And throughout last season, the Chinese version of the site sat unchanged, as well. (Tianjin beat Guangdong for the title, for those of you still on the edge of your seat.) We think we're going to give the CBL another chance in 2007, however. They've updated and redesigned their website (they even have a countdown to opening day ... which is Friday). And we're really jonesing to watch some baseball action. The MLB season has started, but our satellite TV is down and we've been too lazy/busy to burn or buy a new card and we doubt our internet connection could handle MLB.tv. And while the CBL is a far cry from the big leagues (or even the minor leagues) there's something nice about an afternoon spent at the ballpark. And where is the Shanghai ballpark? Well, the Eagles are back in Pudong's Congbei Stadium, near the intersection of Yunlian Lu (云连路) and Qihe Lu (齐河路) . Here is a map and public transportation directions (in Chinese) courtesy of Baidu. You'll see that it is much easier to hop in a cab. We called up a college student who we met at a game a couple years ago (his English name is Goose) and he hooked us up with the 2007 China Baseball League Schedule, which you can see in English and Chinese by pressing on the "Continue reading ..." link below. Goose also invited Shanghaiist readers to visit his baseball BBS website. So check out the schedule, after the jump, but keep in mind that Shanghai's first home game isn't until April 20. Maybe we'll see you there? If the concessions situation is the same as it was in the past, we should plan on packing our own beer and hot dogs, not to mention peanuts and Cracker Jacks. Also on Shanghaiist
Beijing Tigers could win China baseball crown today
Wild Pitch? Major League Baseball to open China office
Ouch! China clobbered by Japan in World Baseball Classic Related
Basbeall league gets Japanese help (Xinhua)
In search of baseball's Yao Ming (Shanghai Diaries)
MLB invests in China’s baseball growth (Shanghai Diaries)
Take me out to the bangqiu bisai (Shanghai Diaries)
Buy me some peanuts and … soy sauce rice crackers? (Shanghai Diaries) Photo of Goose from danwashburn.com.

Expanding on earlier reports, the Associated Press reported on Friday that Major League Baseball plans to open an office in China "within a month" and they'd like to have the regular season opener played in Beijing by 2008. Baseball's bobble heads are gonzo about the sport's potential "in a nation that has a population of more than 1.3 billion." The subhead for the first story linked to above says the "search for baseball's Yao Ming is on." (We've heard that before.) Back in 2004, an observer of Chinese baseball told us China was 10 to 15 years behind most other countries when it came to baseball. And this paragraph from the AP story would make it seem like that isn't going to change anytime soon:

The Beijing Tigers are gunning for a sweep today in their best-of-five China Baseball League championship series with the Tianjin Lions. Game 3 starts at 3 pm today at Beijing's Lu Cheng Stadium. A win would give Beijing its third consecutive CBL title. According to the league website (English version) today's game will be broadcast by Beijing Television, and Shanghaiist admittedly has no idea whether we get that channel in Shanghai or not. We'll be surfing the channels at game time, and if we find the game we'll post the channel info here. (UPDATE: We can't find the game on our TV, not even on BTV-1. But we did find golf, cycling, badminton, archery, tennis, bull fighting and, yes, the Teletubbies.)