China's baseball team to begin practicing with major league clubs

BEIJING -- If China wins a medal in next year's Beijing Olympics, Major League Baseball can take some of the credit.

China's national baseball team is set to play against -- and practice with -- players from various major league teams and is already in the United States on a tour that begins with spring training in Arizona.

The China team will open on Saturday at Tempe, Arizona, against a Los Angeles Angels minor league squad. The Chinese will face three other squads from major league clubs, including the San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers.

"This will put them in a baseball atmosphere where they will be immersed in the cultural of the game," said Jim Small, MLB Asia vice president.

The 37-man delegation, led by manager Jim Lefebvre and pitching coach Bruce Hurst, will practice at Scottsdale Community College until March 31, then play a two-game series against Dixie State College in St. George, Utah.

The MLB has supplied Lefebvre and Hurst to lead the China team since 2003, and the two will coach the team in next summer's Beijing Olympics.

Following this, the Chinese players will be assigned to nine spring training camps in Arizona and Florida, before returning to China on April 22.

"We have hosted Chinese national teams in the United States for the last half dozen years, but this is the first time Chinese players will play as teammates of professional players in various organizations," Small said.

Like other American professional leagues, baseball is trying to break into the China market. The game is not widely played in China, but scouts have suggested it may not be long before a China-born player cracks the major leagues -- following the lead of Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese players.

"China's participation as host of the 2008 Olympic Games is an enormous opportunity to increase the visibility of baseball in China," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.