Federation Name: Chinese Baseball Association
Federation President: Lei Jun, Du Zhaocai
Elite League: Chinese Baseball League
Team Manager: Yuejun Li
Federation Web Link: http://baseball.sport.org.cn/
China 2009 IBAF Baseball World Cup Roster
China
Current world rank: 16
Best World Cup result (year(s)): 11th place (2005)
Most recent World Cup (result): 2005 (11th place)
How it advanced to World Cup: Participated in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Most recent international competition (result): 2009 Asian Championships (4th place)
History:
The Chinese Baseball history started in 1877 when a group of Chinese Foreign Student and oversea Chinese came back from the United States of America and introduced the sport to the country. Among these students, Zhan Tianyou who was one of the most famous Chinese railway engineer, founded the first “Chinese Baseball Team” during his studies in US Yale University. At the meantime, the mission schools in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou have added baseball as part of Physical Education. In World War II, the Chinese people liberation army continued the sport and popularized it as they move across the country. After the foundation of Peoples Republic of China, in 1959 baseball became the official sport event in the First Chinese National Game with 23 participating teams.
Baseball in China
Baseball has been played in China for more than 100 years, but has experienced periods of ups-and-downs.
In 1873, with the advocacy of “Chinese learning as the base, Western learning for the application”, the government of Qing Dynasty sent 30 youngsters to study in the United States, including Zhan Tianyou, who later became a famous railway engineer. When studying in the US, these students set up the Chinese Baseball Team at Yale University. Upon their return, they brought the game to China. This is the earliest record of baseball in China.
Huiwen Academy of Classical Learning in Beijing founded its baseball team in 1895. In 1907, Huiwen Academy and Xiehe Academy in Tongzhou Organized the first baseball game in China.
Baseball began being played at the Far East Games, mostly by students from China, Japan and the Philippines, in 1913. China usually finished behind Japan and the Philippines.
Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, baseball was an official sport at the National Games, but with few participating teams and poor competition skills.
In the early years of New China, baseball was widely played in grassroots units of the People’s Liberation Army. The first National Games in 1959 featured 23 baseball teams. However, national baseball competitions were cancelled in 1961, only to be resumed in the early 1970s.
In the past 20 years, baseball has been growing fast among teenagers. The Chinese teenage baseball team has won 7 World Junior Kenko Baseball Championships. China now has 10 senior baseball teams at the provincial level, and over 50 registered collegiate teams. The College Baseball League is held every year.
Since its first appearance in the Asian Baseball Championships in 1985, the Chinese national team, which consists of top players from provincial teams, has long been ranked fourth. Meanwhile, Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei rank among the world’s top 5 and have taken the top 3 places in the past Olympic Games and World Cup. At the 25th Asian Baseball Championships in 2005, China made a historic breakthrough by winning the bronze medal by defeating Korea.
In 1990 and 1991, China successfully hosted the baseball demonstration games in the 11th Asian Games and the 16th Asian Baseball Championships, indicating an even higher Chinese position in international baseball.
In recent year, Chinese Baseball has started entered in to a rapid development period with help of Japan and USA partners. Chinese Baseball Association first launched Chinese Baseball League in 2002 with 4 professional teams, leading Chinese Baseball into a new development cycle. Following the pace, Chinese National Baseball Team historically defeated Korea Team in 2005 Asia Championship, first time in history qualifies to IBAF world Cup.
2008 China hosted XXIX Olympic Games, Chinese Baseball started to show its power to the world through the Olympic platform, with the historic first victory against Chinese Taipei team. 1 year later, China received another victory against Chinese Taipei in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Thus, Chinese Baseball has picked up its pace in advancing to the international high level baseball.
Chinese Baseball Association brief introduction
Founded in 1979, Chinese Baseball Association is the national governing body authorized by the General Administration of Sport of China to supervise the sport of baseball in China. It is a member of the Chinese Olympic Committee and internationally a member association of International Baseball Federation (joined in 1981), a member association of Baseball Federation of Asia (joined in 1985), and a member association of PONY Baseball.
Chinese Baseball Association is responsible for the development and popularization of baseball in China from grass root level to national team. Today, there are over 100,000 students, more than 100 schools and universities started baseball programs and school level of tournaments. In professional level, there are 9 professional teams across the country, with approximately 900 professional players.
Chinese Baseball Association conducts a series of domestic Baseball Games:
Chinese National Game (Baseball Event, every 4 years)
Chinese Baseball League (annually)
Chinese National Tournament (annually)
Chinese National Championship (annually)
Chinese National Youth League (annually)
National A Tournament (annually)
National AA Tournament (annually)
National AAA Tournament (annually)
The Chinese National Baseball team main achievement in recent years:
1998 First appearance in IBAF World Cup, ranked 12th
2005 Asia Championship, historically first victory against Korea, ranked 3rd
2008 Beijing Olympic, historically first victory against Chinese Taipei, ranked 8th
2009 World Baseball Classic, second victory against Chinese Taipei
Chinese Baseball League Environmental Program
In recent year, environmental protection has become the most popular common sense in the world. More and More people have joined into the protection of our planet. Chinese Baseball League is one of the pioneer sports league in China dedicated in combining sport recreation and environment protection. Every Saturday game, Chinese Baseball League host activities to promote “Fair Play and Environment Play”. The goal is carry on the message “save resources and produce less garbage” to all the baseball fans and through them spread out the message to the general population.
“Play-ball is Clean Air!”
