It took Lu Yun exactly one pitch to light up the Xuhui West Bund Baseball Park and to show the fans in Shanghai what the game of baseball is all about.
The Chinese 29-year-old has signed on to the nascent Chinese Professional Baseball league’s Summer Season looking for opportunity, just like the 177 international players drawn this month to Shanghai. And that opportunity presented itself on Chen Hong Zhi's first pitch in the game’s second innings. Lu swung. Lu connected. And the ball duly cleared the deep leftfield fence – launching (both figuratively and literally) the second-ever season with its first home run.
Lu set the visiting Xiamen Dolphins on course for a wild 9-5 victory over the home Shanghai Orcas that showcased all that pro ball, China style, has to offer. There were cheerleaders, and special rallying songs written specifically for each side. There were dances that had the crowd – and even some of the players - on their feet and grooving. And out on the field there was an intriguing mix of veterans and rising talent drawn from 10 countries and territories.
Lu later collected the player of the game award, and a hug from Snoopy, and the short-stop then tried to explain what the attraction to China’s newest professional sports league is all about.
“The atmosphere is great,” said Lu. “First of all, I think this venue is fantastic. Then there are many fans coming to support us. Plus, there are cheerleaders cheering for us. Playing in such an environment makes me feel quite happy. There are many international players here now, too, and the game in China is only going to improve.”
For CPB it had until Saturday night been a week where some had wondered whether or not this Summer Season would ever actually happen. Torrential and record downpours from the aftermath of last week’s Typhoon Dolphin forced two scheduled days of the league’s opening week to be cancelled, and had left the new ballpark – situated flush up against the Huangpu River – sodden.
But the weather gods gave everyone a reprieve on Saturday night and so China’s great baseball experiment continues. The CPB kicked into life with four teams contesting a month-long Spring Season back in February. This second season features six teams and up to 54 games across the next month that will be played both in Shanghai and in the southern city of Shenzhen. As well as Xiamen and Shanghai, we have the Beijing Loongs, Changsha Want Want, Fuzhou Sea Knights and reigning champions the Shenzhen Bluesox.
China has been driven to promote and expand the sport by both the national team’s recent results – there was a best-ever fourth-place finish at the 2024 U-23 Baseball World Cup - and by a Major League Baseball probe into the country that discovered around 21 million active baseball players and followers. And then there's the sport’s looming presence as an Olympic sport in Los Angeles in 2028.
Throwing out the ceremonial first pitch this week in Shanghai was World Baseball Softball Confederation president Riccardo Fraccari, and he says the grounds are being laid for a big future for the sport.
“Every time that I come to China, I see a lot of improvement - technically in the quality of the game, the players, the facilities but also more and more fans and young people approaching the game,” he said. “I think that in this moment, the particular momentum for China, and we are near Los Angeles and the Olympics. It can be one opportunity to show that China has the potential to play at a high level and this league will help for sure to grow the quality of the game. Of course we don't invent it all in one night but we need to work constantly, we need to give the opportunity to play to play, every day, and for the coaches to help the young people to grow.”
After Lu set off the fireworks, the Dolphins came to the party and were 9-0 up by the end of the sixth. It was looking a lost cause for the Orcas before starting pitcher Henry Henry took a rest, and the local batters went to work with a three-run seventh, and two more in the eighth.
That rally gave the cheerleaders – and local fans – cause for celebration, and part of how the CPB is marketing itself is a night of sport and of pure entertainment and though numbers are currently small, the people who came along certainly brought the noise with them.
The win for the Dolphins went to the 27-year-old Henry – born and raised in the Dominican Republic and with a career that has taken in stints on the books of the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres. After his first taste of Chinese pro ball, Henry walked away wanting a whole lot more.
“Tonight was just very different,” he said. “Baseball is different wherever you go. In the Dominican Republic, in Mexico, in the USA, and now here – it’s always different ... and it’s always very special.”
