Opinion: MLB's Missed Opportunity

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres played the all-American game in a split squad exhibition game at Wukesong Stadium in Beijing. While a spring training outing is not usually news, this two game tilt was special for the location: Mainland China.

The result was about an un-American ending as the setting: a 3-3 tie.

The Olympics are coming and MLB wanted to begin the eastward expansion of the game. Back in 2006, MLB was talking about expanding into China. 1.3 Billion people provide a unique growth opportunity. According to the New York Times, though, the game is still novel - the Chinese Baseball League has been in existence since 2002 and consists of 6 teams - and the game itself is not terribly popular: about 150,000 people play baseball in China, and has about 100 playable fields, but the game is quite popular in Taiwan and basketball has been shown to be a cash cow - the NBA earned $50 Million last year. MLB wants some of that.

Wukesong Stadium, where the Dodgers and Padres square off, is one of two with infield grass. China - lest you need be reminded - is 3.7 million square miles and about a quarter of the entire Asian continent. Sadly, with it's glorious infield grass, Wukesong will be a shopping mall after the Olympics.

Major League Baseball holds a highly symbolic place in today's China - Chairman Mao outlawed the game as an evil Western influence in 1959 with all teams being disbanded, ending a history in china dating back to the earliest days of the game.

An interesting juxtaposition, then, that MLB is making a push into China at this time when Tibetan monks have been marching in protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet in mark of the anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile. The marches have recently turned violent as the Chinese army has been making its presence known, which has agitated the citizens. Cars have been burned, windows smashed, and people have been beaten. The Tibetian autonomous regional government, set a deadline of midnight on Monday for rioters to surrender.

The Times of London suggests that if that Monday deadline passes, we could be looking at another Tiananmen Square massacre. Tiananmen began as peaceful, anti-government sit-ins and increased in tension and momentum with each confrontation between protesters and police. At 10:30 PM on June 3, 1989, tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the square and by early morning on June 4, the square had been forcibly cleared.

An interesting juxtaposition indeed - what Mao feared from the evil Western influence of baseball turns out to have been a willing accomplice. Major League Baseball is going through with playing these meaningless games, while the Tibetian citizenry on the other side of the country protest their religious leadership having been exiled almost half a century ago.

Certainly, the opportunity present in China is about as all-American as can be found, and the ground work has been set for baseball between the Japanese Leagues and MLB, there has been a push for the game in China. There will be a market for it in the future...just not now. And nothing that a couple of spring training baseball games would do to influence its progression. This was window dressing

What an opportunity missed in the present. Baseball canceling the Beijing preseason games would have been a greater voice than the infinitesimal opportunity they took in going through with playing a couple of exhibition games. Instead, 12,000 people of China's 1.3 Billion got to see a weak version of baseball - a split squad game, no less - and an un-American tie.