NANNING, OCT. 24 (Xinhua) -- Teams of players from across China started arriving, mostly in charter coaches after nearly an hour's picturesque drive past some of the iconic attractions, before they finally pulled into Guilin Tourism University for the baseball and softball competitions of this year's China's 1st Student (Youth) Games.
Unbeknownst to many, this leafy campus in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region houses one of the most formidable names in college baseball and softball in the country, finishing in the top three in the annual college tournament for six consecutive years after facing down rivals from more affluent cities and regions where resources for the game are more readily accessible.
"As the only university in the region that has two standard baseball and softball fields, we have hosted multiple events at both regional and national levels," said Li Qi, a school official. "The ample experience we have had will ensure the smooth running of this year's games."
Baseball, though red-hot in some parts of the world, is still a relatively esoteric sport in China, a country with a population over 1.4 billion, but this situation has been shifting fast in recent years.
A 2019 white paper by Major League Baseball (MLB) estimated that China's baseball population surpassed 41 million, with 21 million being qualified as the active baseball population.
"Out of that 21 million, I believe 63% of those individuals became active fans within the past three years," said Tony Qi, Managing Director of MLB China.
The popularity of baseball in China has been, in part, propped up by its derivatives, especially slow-pitch softball -- a slow-paced variant in which the pitch is thrown in a high arc towards the batter, and Baseball5, an urban co-ed version of baseball that can be played anywhere.
Slow Pitch Softball teams have been popping up across China as the "Pandas Cup" Enterprise Slow Pitch Softball League, the largest of such organizations in the country, has seen the number of participating clubs almost tripled in the span of three years, according to an official account.
For a slow-pitch enthusiast like Cao Jianjun, a Beijing resident who has managed his own softball club with over two dozen parents from his son's elementary school for over a decade, he is enthralled to see this form of entertainment has become increasingly in vogue across the country.
"We hire former national players to train us from time to time, and all of our kids take baseball or softball classes in school," said Cao.
Earlier this year, China finished in fifth place in the 12-team Youth Baseball5 World Cup in Türkiye, which is "historic," according to Xie Bin, the Secretary General of China Baseball Association.
Xie believed that Baseball5's inclusion into the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Game as a medal event has set the stage for the game to become more popular among Chinese youth, and he also stated that more efforts are to be devoted by the association to further drive that trend.
"Baseball has inevitably grown on those who partake in slow-pitch softball on a regular basis," said Lu Quanwen, the head coach for the Nanning youth softball team, who also spearheaded a program that helps promote this sport in local schools. "A lot of players in local clubs have said to me that they would love to see their kids learn how to play."
Between Oct. 25 and Nov. 13, nine baseball teams and nine softball teams representing their home cities will compete in this year's game, with Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xinjiang's Shihezi and Nanjing being the top contenders for the title, with many of their players having started playing this game from a very early age.
But Lu has faith in his team's ability and resolve to make it into the top five on their home turf even though the whole trip is very likely to be an uphill climb.
"Since almost all my players are latecomers to this sport, we have not only put in extra time in honing their skills but also worked to gather on-field experiences by playing friendly matches with other local teams in the run-up to this year's event," said Lu.
"I was drafted in 2021 and trained to play pitcher and first base for team Nanning in this year's Youth Games," said Huang Chunyan, a track and field athlete in a local sports academy. "Unlike my specialty, this is a team sport with complicated rules and numerous and exciting possibilities."
"'Life begins at the bottom of the ninth with two outs' is the baseball proverb that first attracted me to the game, and has stuck with me ever since," said Li Wentao, a co-founder of the baseball club in Guangxi University, who then quoted a line from one of his favorite baseball movies of all time. "How can you not be romantic about baseball."
2023 marks a momentous year for Chinese baseball and softball as its national baseball team claimed a historic 1-0 win over Japan at the group stage of the Asian Games in front of an ebullient home crowd in Hangzhou while their female counterparts finished runners-up.
"There's a strong history of the game here in China," said Xie who is convinced that the game has what it takes to be more front and center on the country's sporting landscape. "And the game of baseball embodies something that has been long cherished in our culture -- the goal of coming home." ■
