MADELEINE BRAND, host:
Major League Baseball is also trying to capitalize on China's focus on this summer's Olympic games - in a decidedly more peaceful way, of course. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres are in Beijing this weekend for the first-ever major league games to be played there. Baseball's been played in China since the 1800s. Babe Ruth barnstormed there with an all-star team, but the sport was banned during Mao's cultural revolution, and even after it returned, the fans, in the words of Yogi Berra, have stayed away in droves. Jamila Trindle reports from Beijing.
Mr. ADRIAN GONZALEZ (San Diego Padres): When you get to that - your wrist rotation, this hand will naturally take over.
JAMILA TRINDLE: That's San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez coaching kids at Phung Tai(ph) Elementary School in Beijing. Eleven-year-old Lee Han(ph) only started playing baseball last year.
Mr. LEE HAN (Student): (Through translator) If I can, I'd like to play baseball, shortstop, or second baseman.
TRINDLE: If Lee Han gets his dream and becomes a famous Chinese ballplayer, he may be the first. In China, attention generally goes to basketballers like Yao Ming. In fact, out of over 2,600 students at this sports school, only about 50 play baseball, but Major League Baseball is hoping to change that. Could one of these kids make baseball China's favorite pastime?
Mr. PAUL ARCHIE (Major League Baseball): And I get asked this question a lot, is are you trying to develop, you know, a Yao Ming.
TRINDLE: That's Paul Archie from Major League Baseball.
Mr. ARCHIE: One thing that speeds up that process, that development process, is if you have, you know, a star, you have a figurehead that kids can look to and say that, gee, I could be that person. It brings attention to the sport.
TRINDLE: But basketball was popular in China even before Yao Ming, the result of decades of groundwork by the NBA and marketing by Nike; and perhaps most importantly, basketball has had state backing. Yao himself is a product of the government sports program.
This may be baseball's best chance, though. China is fielding a team for the Olympics for the first time, and they've built a stadium. Right now it's marooned in the middle of a vast construction site, but on the inside it looks like a ballpark. The Padres take batting practice while the Chinese national team stretches on the sidelines. Their coach, former Major Leaguer Jim Lefebvre, says it's not about just one superstar player.
Mr. JIM LEFEBVRE (Coach): This is not going to be a one-man show. It's going to be a team effort from, you know, from everybody. And I just have a great feeling about baseball in China. I'm sorry, if you want negative responses, go find somebody else, but I've been here five years and I've seen what's happened. We've come a long way as a team. These kids have a lot of energy. They have a lot of passion for the game, as much as you'll see in any other country.
TRINDLE: But it's going to take more than passion to inspire support from the Chinese government. Susan Brownall(ph) is studying the Olympic Games at Beijing Sport University. She says the government is practical about where it invests.
Ms. SUSAN BROWNALL (Student): And so there has been a conscious decision to invest in the pursuit of medals, with the idea that at least for the moment that will bring the greatest returns for Chinese society.
TRINDLE: But more than anything this summer, Beijing is investing in the pursuit of a perfect Olympic Games. Hence the endless construction. But after the Olympics, the bulldozers will return, the baseball stadium will be razed to make room for apartment buildings. Major League Baseball's Paul Archie says that's not the end of baseball in China.
Mr. ARCHIE: There's no timetable here. We know it's not going to happen overnight. We're not going to play these two games and suddenly the entire nation is turned on to baseball.
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TRINDLE: Right outside the stadium, people are busy with more traditional pursuits. Women are practicing Tai Chi, drummers drum, and three old men sit listening to their pet songbirds. I asked them whether they know what's going on inside.
Mr. GONG: (Through translator) It's baseball, right, a baseball game? I don't understand it.
TRINDLE: Mr. Gong and his friends will be at the stadium Saturday morning as usual, not inside watching the Dodgers and Padres, but out here with their songbirds.
For NPR News, I'm Jamila Trindle in Beijing. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
