You HAVE to read this article in the New York Times about the Chinese Olympic baseball team. Some highlights...1. China automatically gets a baseball team in the Olympics because it is the host country.
2. Baseball isn't hugely popular in China, perhaps because Chairman Mao banned it because it was too Western.
3. The Chinese government won't pay for coaches because the team isn't going to win.
4. Major League Baseball decided to pay for coaches of the Chinese Olympic team because they'd like to get 1.3 billion Chinese fans for baseball.
5. Baseball will no longer be an Olympic sport after 2008, unless the International Olympic Committee reinstates it.
6. The baseball stadium built for the 2008 games will be torn down after the games. (What a waste!!!)
7. The Chinese coach, Jim Lefebvre, a former MLB manager, once played the role of a cannibal on Gilligan's Island.
8. Lefebvre said it took him a long time to explain to his players that they couldn't smile after striking out.
And it gets better and better after that. Wow.
*The title is from a quote at the end of Bull Durham. The line is "Walt Whitman once said, "'I see great things in baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.'" I don't know if that's an actual Whitman quote, but it's a good one.
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