Dodgers find cheer in China
BEIJING -- Regardless of what happened on the field, applause emanated from the stands of Wukesong Baseball Stadium today.
Every action, from a called ball to a pickoff throw, resulted in the slapping together of noise sticks throughout the ballpark.
The fans watching the Dodgers and San Diego Padres play the first major league game in China might have been overly generous in demonstrating their approval, by American standards. But at least they were cheering.
“It has to start somewhere,” Commissioner Bud Selig said.
Most of the 12,000-seat stadium was filled -- Major League Baseball said it sold or distributed more than 11,000 tickets for the first of two exhibition games -- but the start to the day was slow. With tightened security at the gates resulting in a line that went halfway down the lengthy street bordering the stadium, the Dodgers took batting practice in front of stands that were mostly empty.
The only names that drew any noticeable reaction from the still-sparse audience during the pregame introductions were those of Manager Joe Torre and the three Asian players on the Dodgers’ 30-man split squad -- starting pitcher Chan Ho Park, shortstop Chin-lung Hu and left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo.
Right-hander Eric Hull sensed that something like this could happen when he and other members of the team visited the Great Wall the previous day. The players drew a group of curious onlookers when they assembled for a team photograph.
“It was kind of weird when the Chinese people came up to us,” Hull said. “They could read the red patches on our jerseys, but they didn’t know who we were. One person called it tennis. Another called it basketball. I guess that’s why we’re here.”
Like the audience, the ballpark was hastily assembled, the aluminum bleachers down the foul lines and in the outfield not put in place until the previous week. The stadium will disappear as quickly as it appeared, as there are plans to demolish it upon completion of the Olympic baseball competition this summer.
To sell baseball in the world’s most populated country -- Torre likened to selling soccer in the United States -- almost half of the players in the Dodgers’ camp in Vero Beach traveled 7,500 miles and had to turn their watches ahead 12 hours.
The idea of such an undertaking hit Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti more than two years ago when he was being interviewed for his job by owner Frank McCourt.
McCourt asked him what new frontier would be explored by the club under his leadership. Colletti told him the team had to go to China.
McCourt smiled.
“Why are you smiling?” McCourt recalled being asked by Colletti.
McCourt replied: “We have to do this.”
And it won’t stop here.
McCourt said Friday that the Dodgers would continue their partnerships with Chinese baseball, started in 1980 by then-owner Peter O’Malley. MLB would also be back, Selig said.
“We’ll certainly play more games here,” the commissioner said, adding that his office was also looking at possibilities in Europe.
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