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FEATURE: Padres, Dodgers seek to woo China

San Diego Padres players, from left, Scott Hairston, Kyle Blanks and Nick Hundley pose with souvenirs during a team visit to the Great Wall of China near Beijing on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Perched on the Great Wall of China, Trevor Hoffman gazed over the slick cobblestones and through the watchtowers to survey a barrier to invading armies that once stretched thousands of kilometers.

This weekend, the Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers are playing two exhibition games in China. They will be Major League Baseball's first games there, and the Padres relief pitcher and the team's 100-person delegation began baseball's pitch on Thursday on a stretch of the famous monument just north of Beijing.

Hoffman mugged for TV, stretched his arms wide as if he were about to soar off the wall, and answered questions from local reporters with a faint grasp of the game, which is called bangqiu -- stick ball -- in Chinese.

"Look at the view," Hoffman said. "Take a look. It's unbelievable, isn't it? I think I'd feel pretty safe on this wall in the day when Mongolia was coming after 'em."

Selling baseball in China will be tough, where the game has few roots and players. However, MLB can see the potential in a country with 1.3 billion people, where incomes are rising and the NBA and European soccer teams have already shown the way.

"One day we'll look back on this -- maybe a landmark event -- and say it was the start of many great years of baseball history in China," Hoffman said. "You think of all the emperors and dynasties they've had. This had a beginning. I'm sure building the wall felt equally daunting when they started."

Getting attention on Thursday was easy. Chinese TV stations attended the event, Chinese tourists snapped photos of some of the unknown players, and young girls ran by giggling "hello" and "xie, xie."

Sellouts over the weekend would help baseball's reputation. The game will not be played in the 2012 Olympics in London but could be reinstated for 2016.

Cen Wei was asked what he knew about the American pastime, and the 24-year-old Chinese tourist responded by waving a rolled up newspaper he was carrying -- more like swinging an ax than a bat -- and said he'd like to see a game.

"It's good for eyesight, flexibility speed and teamwork," he said. "I'm interested, but I don't think I can see it on TV."

Padres manager Bud Black described the goodwill trip as a chance for MLB to "sew a few seeds," saying the games themselves were of little importance. Both teams have brought just a handful of starters, leaving most of their top pitchers in the US.

"The popularity of basketball here just went off the charts when Yao Ming got to the NBA," Black said. "That's what baseball is looking for."

Traipsing to the apex of the twisting wall was a test of fitness. Becky Moores, wife of Padres team owner John Moores, made it to the highest rampart. After arriving several days ago in the polluted air of Beijing, she welcomed the clean air of the countryside.

"Now I can breathe, my chest is open," she said.

Sandy Alderson, the Padres CEO, predicted a Chinese-born player might make the major leagues in three years, but he said it was more likely a "six-to eight-year project."

"The games will put us on the map a little bit but, look, it's a big photo op," he said.

"This is really going to take time, money and personnel. You can't develop the sport over night when we have three or four people in China compared to the NBA with several hundred," he said.
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