News from Beijing

Well I am here, one of the fortunate few who can experience the Olympics from the inside out. We have been training hard daily in preparation for the Olympics. Our first game will be against Canada beginning on August 13. We will play four consecutive days, then a day off, and then three more consecutive games. The medal round will begin on the 20th and end on the 23rd of August. If you happen to see that we are playing in the medal round it will then have been one of the more historic upsets in all of the Olympics. It will fall into the category of the Miracle on Ice. We are without a doubt the biggest underdog in the Olympics to date. We will play against some of the strongest teams in the world. Cuba is the favorite followed by the USA and then Japan. Those are the top three that should fight it out.
I will say however, that after a strong spring and summer season, our China team has moved up a notch and are now seeded 7th. That in and of itself is a major accomplishment. China has been the doormat of international competition. The Chinese do not have the history of baseball as the other countries involved do. Major League Baseball (MLB) would like to help change that. They are the reason that I am here, to help develop baseball not only for the Olympic but also for China. I am very proud of what we MLB have accomplished. With all of the great coaching that has gone into this program it is no wonder that they have achieved beyond expectations. The credit for our successes to this point, fall heavily on the shoulders of my manager Jim Lefebvre. He has done an amazing job with very little talent. Other who have helped shoulder the load have been: Barry Larkin, Tom Lawless, (infield coaches) Bruce Hurst (pitching Coach…my predecessor), Dan O’Brien and Ed Yong (Strength coaches, Ed is the current coach and has done an amazing job) and Duffy Dyar, catching coach.