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NY Yankees to send delegation to China

New York Yankees president Randy Levine, left, trades baseball merchandise with Hu Jianguo, head of the Chinese Baseball Association, at a media opportunity in Beijing yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The New York Yankees yesterday agreed to send coaches, scouts and trainers to China to boost interest in baseball, furthering a push by Major League Baseball into one of the world's fastest-growing sports markets.

Under the agreement, the government-backed Chinese Baseball Association will send staff to Yankees' facilities in New York and Tampa, Florida, while Yankees' personnel will assist the Chinese national team and others. Yankees president Randy Levine told reporters he hoped to start sending out Yankees coaches and other staff "in a few months."

"You can call this the great push for our industry in China," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said at a news conference, shortly after he and Levine donned the gray jackets and red caps of the Chinese national team and gave navy Yankees warm-up jackets and caps to Chinese officials.

Though modest in scope, the agreement underscores US baseball's big ambitions for China. The world's most populous country, China has a growing, prosperous middle class and a sports market estimated to be worth US$10 billion-plus annually.

Other foreign sports leagues have found success in building a fan base and drawing revenue from China, most notably the National Basketball Association. MLB is also keen to make baseball more international, after the International Olympic Committee removed the sport from the 2012 London Games because, among other reasons, it was not widely played.

China "is a country that is clearly important to us as we look to develop around the world," said Jim Small, MLB's general manager for Asia.

Key to tapping the China market -- and a focus of the Yankees' involvement -- is finding a major league-caliber player in China. Major league baseball clubs have found success in foreign markets by signing up local stars.

The Yankees' Levine and Cashman both declined to predict when a major league team would field its first player from China.

"Our purpose in being here is to get that date sooner," Cashman said.
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