Wednesday

Today was a wonderful but exhausting day for us.  We began the day having breakfast with a group of people from the American Chamber of Commerce.  We were very interested in hearing from the U.S.-based businesses in China and what their plans are and we enjoyed telling them about what we were doing in China and our hopes to help grow the game here.

Following the breakfast meeting we conducted a baseball coach’s clinic with about thirty Chinese coaches.  The clinic took place at the Olympic softball stadium which was a great facility.  About five of the coaches were the ones who came to the United States in August and stayed at our facility in Aberdeen for a few weeks.  Most of them were new to our program and very enthusiastic.

After the coach’s clinic we traveled to a school for a more advanced youth baseball clinic.  The kids here were very athletic and excellent ballplayers.  I started out with some very basic drills for them but I quickly realized that they were more advanced and we changed the program to reflect their skills on the fly. 

We took the kids through three stations.  I handled the fielding, B.J. Surhoff ran the hitting and Rick Dell, a coach doing work in China for MLB, handled the pitching station.  The media coverage was great with China Daily, CCTV (China’s official television station), NBC Nightly News, CBS and Voice of America all covering the clinic.

The final stop of the day was a very heartwarming clinic at an orphanage.  The work that they do there is amazing and it is clear that despite the hardships the children are very healthy and happy. We played Quickball and the kids just ran around laughing and hitting the ball.  It wasn’t very organized and I think that is what made it so special.

Tomorrow we get in a little sightseeing with a trip to the Great Wall in the morning and then we head to the airport for our flight to Shanghai and stop number two in our tour through China.

Thanks again for reading and we will post a new update tomorrow sometime once we get into Shanghai and get settled.

Have a great day.

Cal


 

 

 

Tuesday

We just got back from a very full day in Beijing and we are getting ready to head to a reception at the Embassy.

The day started with a tour of the Olympic baseball facility.  It looks great and they still have to add a few thousand more seats to get it ready for next summer.  The field is in good shape and the sight lines were tremendous.

They told us that they would have to tear down the stadiums after the Olympics because they were built on prime real estate and that land would be developed.  That made me a little sad but I am hopeful that baseball will continue to grow here and there will be plenty of places to play soon.

After the tour of the stadiums we had a productive meeting with the Chinese Baseball Association.  The CBA runs baseball in China and it was good to meet with Mr. Jun Lei, the President of the Association, and his team and learn more about what they are doing.  In one of the pictures that I posted you will see me presenting Mr. Lei with one of my bats … I think he liked that!

After the CBA meeting we headed to the Xidan (pronounced She-don) School for a clinic with 150 kids who are just getting into baseball.  That was a lot of fun and very gratifying because the kids loved playing and we were able to see that there was enthusiasm for the sport and a lot or budding baseball talent. The photos that we took are nice but they don’t do justice to how special the event was.

I was so happy to see the kids having fun.  The teachers there told us that it is uncommon for the Chinese kids to really cut loose like they did and have that much fun at school.  They were hitting the ball and BJ and I were throwing the spongy balls at them and we were all having a terrific time.

Tomorrow we have a really full day.  A breakfast meeting followed by a coaches’ clinic and then back to back kids clinics before another embassy event.  It is a little grueling but so enjoyable and rewarding.

Thanks again for reading.  I am going to bed now and getting some rest before another busy day.  Have a great day and we will “talk” again tomorrow.

Cal