News
A Taste of the Orient - Chinese Baseball
Kyle Galdeira
03/15/07
As twelve Major League Baseball squads and their Minor League affiliates prepare
for the upcoming season in front of thousands who flock to Arizona daily, one team flies well under the radar. Sure, they do the same drills, go through
similar routines and perform conditioning drills--only it is all done in the presence of a few coaches and staff.
China's National Baseball Team spends roughly three hours per day training on the Scottsdale Community College (Ariz.) campus in preparation for International competition, and an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Saturday. The squad is here under the supervision of Madame Shen Wei, the secretary general of the Chinese Baseball Association and vice president of the Baseball Federation of China; but the coaching staff boasts an significant piece of American baseball history.
In conjunction with MLB's initiative to globalize the game, former Los Angeles Dodger second baseman, and 1965 Rookie of the Year, Jim Lefebvre (pictured above with Wei and HWB President Hervy Kurisu) has been coaching the squad since 2003. The 55-year-old skipper has three managerial stints in the Big Leagues under his belt, and hopes to help China move out of the shadow cast by fellow Asian powers Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Lefebvre aims to draw from an "untapped" pool of talent and develop his players into formidable opponents by the time next year's Beijing Olympics come around. He became interested in working with the Chinese team thanks in part to his playing experience in Japan with the Lotte Orions from 1973-76 as he wrapped up his on-field career.
It is clear that Lefebvre's passion for the game continues to rub off on his batch of rising young international stars as they continue to practice. Only time will tell if the team can parlay its hard work into International success, and create a fan base nearly halfway around the globe.
