Baseball with Chinese Characteristics: Beijing's Champion Baseball Team That You’ve Never Heard Of
China has a professional baseball league and Beijing's local team, the Beijing Tigers, they have won the national championship five times. This is news to us.
Founded in 2002, the Chinese Baseball League (CBL) is the main professional baseball league in China, under the administration of the Chinese Baseball Association. The league was suspended from 2012 to 2013 due to financial issues, but resumed in 2014. The Beijing Tigers just happen to be one of the league’s top teams, winning the national championship five out of the CBL’s 11 seasons, including a three-peat between 2003 and 2005.
“Sometimes we are easily neglected, but the baseball team is just another point of pride in Beijing’s sports scene,” said Song Pingshan, manager of the Tigers.
Song is one of the most important figures in Beijing baseball since the 1970s. He captained the team in 1975, and became head coach in 1983, immediately following his retirement as a player. He was called for service as the manager of the Chinese national team in 2002, and led them to the Busan Asian Games the same year. The Beijinger spoke with Song about the Tigers and the past 40 years of highs and lows in Beijing baseball.
Tell us about the league.
The league consists of two divisions and six to eight teams. In 2014, Division I had the Beijing Tigers, Tianjin Lions, Guangdong Leopards and Jiangsu Pegasus, while Division II had the Shanghai Golden Eagles, Sichuan Dragons, and Henan Elephants. We don’t have a larger league because, first of all, we can’t afford it, and secondly, we don’t have enough good teams. The quality of the games would have dropped dramatically if we had let more teams in.
The league was founded in 2002, but has been on and off due to financial issues. We initially set the first game of the season to May 23, but due to continuing issues with the sponsors, we had to postpone it to June 6.
Which rules does the league use? Are foreign players allowed to participate?
We use common baseball rules, nothing special, but we don’t have designated hitters. Dimensions of our ballparks meet the Major League Baseball (MLB) minimum field regulations.
Each team can have up to three foreign players in their roster, and can play two at a time, for example, a pitcher and an outfielder. We used to have foreign players from the US, Japan, Korea, and even Puerto Rico, but they gradually moved away. Our training field is two hours out of town, so most of the Chinese players live here, but no foreign player would like to do that, living in a dorm at an isolated suburban village between fields of grain. We do understand that, but we just don’t have the money and personnel to arrange for them. A downtown apartment, a car, a driver, a full-time interpreter, and a cook to prepare Western food – that’s too much for us to afford, so we just stopped doing it.
Do you have any star players?
We have sent a few players to MLB minor leagues before. In 2007 our outfielder Yia Yubing and catcher Wang Wei were both signed by the Seattle Mariners to play in the Arizona League.
Our best player now is our captain and third batter Wang Chao. We also have a few prospective pitchers, Yang Haifan, Liu Yu, and Meng Qingyuan. Yang Haifan posted a 1.47 ERA last season, pitching 30.2 innings with a 3-0 record. Liu Yu posted a 1.17 ERA with a record of 2-0; he’s a natural.
In your opinion, why isn’t baseball more popular in China?
Baseball is still relatively unknown in second and third tier cities and the countryside. In big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, where people at least have a clue about what baseball is, the lack of playing fields is a huge problem. Take Beijing for example. If we don’t even have space for basketball courts, how can you expect quality baseball parks for kids to play and practice?
Baseball teaches some lessons that this generation of Chinese kids urgently need: teamwork, mental toughness, and the willingness to sacrifice. It could also be good physical education for kids, and we are now working with schools to bring baseball to campuses.
It has taken more than 100 years for baseball to develop in the U.S., and later in Japan, and Taiwan, and it could be even harder in China, so we really need to be patient to let it grow.
How did you start as a baseball player?
I started by playing baseball for my high school. Sports events were resumed towards the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1972. I applied for the baseball team the same year, and I got in. I played for my high school, No.107 High School, in a city-level competition in 1973, and was called for the Beijing team in 1974. The first competition I played for the city team was the National Games in 1975, almost 40 years ago.
Do you think you’d be better off if you had chosen another sport?
I wasn’t tall enough for basketball, and I don’t think I could have impressed as a football player. My advantage was that I could pretty much do a little of everything: I was fast, I jumped high, and I had good eye-hand coordination, which means I could bat and catch, and I was smart, of course [laughs]. Playing baseball will never be something that I regret. The game has brought me so much.
How did you train in the beginning?
We had baseball textbooks imported from the U.S. and Japan, and we went to a training camp in Japan a few weeks after Deng Xiaoping’s visit in 1978. We stayed with five different Japanese teams, one week for each team, and attended their training sessions. It was simply jaw-dropping to see how they practiced and played. I never knew the ball could be pitched as fast as that.
The opening ceremony and first game of the 2015 CBL season is set to June 6 at Fengtai Sports Center. Here is a list of all scheduled home games for the Beijing Tigers in June. Follow www.thebeijinger.com for further reports and game results.
June 6, Saturday, 9.30am, Beijing Tigers vs. Sichuan Dragons (Fengtai Sports Center)
June 7, Sunday, 2.30pm, Beijing Tigers vs. Tianjin Lions (Fengtai Sports Center)
June 8, Monday, 6.30pm, Beijing Tigers vs. Guangdong Leopards (Lucheng Baseball Field)
June 10, Wednesday, 6.30pm, Beijing Tigers vs. Jiangsu Pegasus (Lucheng Baseball Field)
June 11, Thursday, 6.30pm, Beijing Tigers vs. Shanghai Golden Eagles (Lucheng Baseball Field)
Fengtai Sports Center
55 W 4th Ring Road S, Fengtai (6383 3532)
丰台区西四环南路55号
Lucheng Baseball Field
Qingyuan W Road, Daxing (6123 9240)
大兴区清源西路
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Photos: Ken
