Good showing in '08 Olympics will spur interest

Discussion in the MLB News forum

Yet another story that makes it look like MLB is the only one interested in cultivating baseball in China. Like all such articles, it over emphasizes the 1.3 billion people potential market and the need to find a Yao Ming of baseball. (I'd never heard of the guy until I started reading these MLB in China articles.) On the other hand, it really does get into what Jim Lefebvre and others are doing there, and gives a good idea of where China is in its baseball development.

Lefebvre already had a good idea of the population figures -- those figures are essentially the reason he is here -- but they are so overwhelming that seeing them in print still takes the breath away. The numbers are even more impressive when you consider that the birthrate for boys in China is 10 percent higher than for girls, and 30 percent higher in some regions. We're talking an eventual talent pool of 800 million males. Granted, many of them are already older than Julio Franco, but that still probably leaves at least 400 million potential players. And not a single one represented by Scott Boras.

The article also contains a number of videos to see the Chinese practicing.

[Full Article: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/asia/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=2766716]

Reply to this topic

Previous Topic

Back to Topic List

Top of the page

Next Topic

About

This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.

It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.

Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder

Copyright (c) 1995-2024 JapaneseBaseball.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.