Who knew Tianjin had the first baseball team in China? Who even knew China had a professional baseball league?!
A stadium in Wuqing District about 1 hour south of Tianjin downtown, welcomed Andy, Emma and I with open arms. The thundering sounds of the drums, the echos of children chanting for the local team and the friendly faces made us feel like we belonged to celebrate a great American past time, Baseball.
I was informed via Tianjin Lions' Manager, Kevin, that baseball in China actually started in Tianjin and has spread across China slowly. Today there is a league called the CNBL (Chinese National Baseball League). Kevin believes that Baseball is finally gaining momentum across the country, although it has a long way to go before it is as popular as basketball and futbol. It was pretty noticable since the stadium was only at about 10% capacity.
Tonight's match was between powerhouse Jiangsu versus the young and developing Tianjin Lions. Although the Tianjin Lions lost by a score of 10-1, the roudy crowd never let down. Young children of all ages, wearing their own club's uniforms, performed chants that went as such; "Tianjin Dui (天津隊)" " Jia You (加油 )". A young girl sat on her father's lap, pounding away at the large Chinese drum in front of them. The crowd was animated during the entire game.
The windup, the pitch, a hit! Hit deep to left field, the outfielder dives, and misses! The batter is rounding second! He is safe at third! Tianjin has a runner on third base with no outs! The anticipation from within the stadium is intense. The next batter up hits a nice single to center field, and the stadium erupts. Tianjin is on the board! What a special moment to be part of!
Although the stadium is located far away from downtown, it was definitely worth checking out. To get there the three of us took the subway line 3 down to DaXueCheng station. We had originally planned on taking the 162 bus to the sports stadium, but decided on taking a DiDi instead because it was arrival day for students in the area and the buses were full.
A 30 minute DiDi ride later, we pulled into a new developed sport area in TuanBo. It is the pinnacle of modern architecture and we saw a colloseum, a futball stadium, tennis arena, swimming center, and the one with the stadium lights on; the baseball stadium.
During the month of September the Tianjin Lions will be out of town!
Home games will resume in October!
The season schedule can be found below:
Let us know what you think? Are you interested in going to see a game? Should we organize an event and bus to the game? Share a comment below!
Play Ball,
-Alan
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We would like to thank Kevin, the Tianjin Lions manager for inviting us to the game! Good luck in your remaining games and let's go Tianjin Lions!!