Pirates Bang Qiu!!!!

This piece of news prompted several text message exchanges and emails last night and this morning with Kate and Megs (and John). Now I won't have to go all the way back to the States to watch the Pirates lose!!!!

The Pirates are interested in having part of their 2008 spring training in China, CEO Kevin McClatchy said yesterday, shortly after returning from a tour of that nation with three other Major League Baseball executives.

"Yeah, I think there's a chance," McClatchy said by phone from New York, where he will meet the Pirates for their weekend series at Yankee Stadium. "We haven't talked about any specific teams, but it's something we would be interested in. I think it's something we should take a look at."

Several teams have expressed interest with MLB in going to China, but only McClatchy, San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson and Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino -- all members of MLB's international committee -- accompanied Bob DuPuy, MLB's CEO, on the trip last week.

DuPuy has said that MLB is determined to have some teams play exhibition games in China next spring in advance of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, partly to call attention to its attempt to gain reinstatement to the Olympics, partly to showcase the sport in a nation that knows little about it. It is possible that whichever teams go to China will open their regular season with a series in Japan, though that is far from firm.

And speaking of bang qiu, we now have a bang qiu bang (bat). It took some searching, and though we may have been able to find one at Jusco (the Japanese department store), we hadn't gotten there in a while. First I tried a store near Wo Er Ma called Decathalon which advertises that it has equipment for more than 60 sports. I mean, that number beats Dick's Sporting goods. I'm not so sure about their math or what is considered a sport, because when I asked about bang qiu, all I got back was a mei you (not have). So we went to Haiya Bai Hua, a half-decent department store near us. Despite the fact that their sporting goods section had absolutely no other baseball equipment, they had a fairly decent selection of short aluminum bats. It would interesting if baseball catches on here at all like it has in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.