Padres and MLB can't wait to vacation in China

by jbox on Feb 21, 2008 2:50 PM PST in News

You know how you talk your boss into sending you on a business trip, because you've never been to New York and you'd like to see the tourist attractions and catch a show? There is really no benefit to your position or the company, but you're able make vague promises about networking and building relationships. That's the feeling I get with this whole baseball exhibition in China.

USA Today:

The six-team China Baseball League "exists, it's rudimentary, and they draw maybe 50 people to a game, but it's there," said Joseph Reaves, the Dodgers' director of international relations.

It's not there, it's 50 people out of 1.3 billion. Here's what we know so far. Baseball is not popular at all in China. There is also no talent to speak of. The Chinese team was terrible in the World Baseball Classic, losing every game by large margins. China currently has one billion citizens that have no interest in baseball and everybody wants to sell them something.

My prediction is that there will be little to no interest in American Baseball until a Chinese player makes it into the big leagues. That may happen when academies get built, but this particular trip is not going to bring in new fans or be able to sustain those fans after the teams leave.

Despite the small crowds at Chinese games, Jim Small, MLB's vice president for Asia, is confident the March games will be sold out.

"If the Chinese see this as real baseball, the best in the world, they will embrace it," Small said.

Sending two split squads that are just beginning to practice again isn't going to do the trick. I guarantee you will not see world class baseball and the world class players will be giving less effort than they do at the All Star Game.

The MLB has to climb a mountain to gain some value from this untapped resource of a billion citizens and they just poked their toe forward. I hope everyone enjoys the Chinese food.

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Comments

I don't understand why you wouldn't want this

As far as I can tell, you don't like that the players are going to enjoy themselves. You say that there's no interest in baseball until a Chinese player breaks into the big leagues, but there's no way that a Chinese player breaks into the big leagues until they start getting proper regular exposure to baseball as it should be played.

You say that the MLB has to climb a mountain... Well this is the first step. Why wouldn't we want the Padres to be a part of that? Should we wait until every other team has an academy and a Chinese player before we make our move?

by Dex on Feb 21, 2008 2:59 PM PST reply actions

My point

They need to show the Chinese people the real product, real competitive baseball in order to sell it to them. Not a split squad with nothing on their mind but Chinese food.

You either send the entire roster over there to start the season like they did in Japan and Monterrey or you get the Chinese decision makers to come see games here in the U.S.

by jbox on Feb 21, 2008 3:45 PM PST up reply actions

my response to that

Just like you say, the baseball that they currently see with their "league", isn't anything. We could send minor leaguers and the product would be ten times better than what they're used to. The differences in play between sending our A-team and our B-team would be much too subtle for the average Chinese "fan" to notice for it to be worth the trouble. However, the differences between our B-team and anything they currently get would be night and day.

by Dex on Feb 21, 2008 4:05 PM PST up reply actions