By Matt Hodges (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-14 10:08

As the San Diego Padres and their portly mascot, The Swinging Friar, marched up the Great Wall yesterday afternoon under a metallic blue sky, there was a sense of history in the making.

San Diego Padres pitcher Trevor Hoffman throws a ball to his teammate as they visit the Great Wall with the Beijing Olympic logo on display yesterday. The Padres will play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday and Sunday at Wukesong Baseball Field, the venue for the 2008 Beijing Games. [Agencies]

No one seemed unnerved by Major League Baseball's historic Chinese debut on Saturday some 40 km away in west Beijing, where the Padres will face National League rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers for a two-game exhibition series, but it was clear that everyone had their own mountain to climb.

Infielder Adrian Gonzalez's wife Betsy battled her high heels while third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, who brings a .275 batting average to Saturday's game, struggled to cope with Mandarin 101.

"How do you say, 'How are you' again?" he asked a China Daily reporter while sporting a wicker Chinese dou li hat. When a female hawker waived picture frames in his face and began speaking Chinese he bellowed "Go Padres" and galloped down the Wall.

But Padres' Chief Executive Sandy Alderson had weightier issues on his mind: How to get China to tune back into baseball, a sport that was banned during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and has been voted off the Olympic roster as of London 2012.

"This is fertile ground for development of the sport," he said. "All it takes is one (baseball) academy here, develop two or three players, and it will take off."

"It's a sport for everyone, for all shapes and sizes," chimed in Padres manager Bud Black. "Hopefully we'll bring it back."

The MLB has already helped spread baseball to Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Caribbean and Canada, but China could prove a tougher nut to crack.

Although China has four players in the minor leagues, two each with the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees, and a domestic league that began in 2002, the sport has yet to find an audience here.

But with the inauguration of the World Baseball Classic in 2006 - won by Japan - baseball is hell bent on going global.

"You have to start somewhere," said Trevor Hoffman, one of the game's great closers, who holds the major-league record for saves with 524. "I don't think we anticipated this kind of buzz ... One day we'll look back on this and say it was the start of many great years of baseball history in China."

Maybe it was all bluster, but no one seemed worried about squaring up to the Dodgers at Beijing's Wukesong Stadium, the temporary 12,000-seat venue that has been purpose-built for the August 8-24 Beijing Games. It will be torn down afterwards to make room for a hotel.

"I definitely think there's going to be a sweep involved this weekend," said Justin Germano, who will throw the first MLB pitch in China's history on Saturday. Hong Kong action star Jet Li will throw a ceremonial first pitch on Sunday.

Last year the Padres were 10-8 against the Dodgers. This was before San Diego came agonizingly close to making its third straight playoff appearance before losing to eventual NL champs the Colorado Rockies in a controversial 13-inning nail-biter.

Jane Zhang, a third-place finisher on "Super Girl", China's answer to "American Idol", is scheduled to sing the Chinese national anthem on Saturday in a lineup that is as much about fun as it is about sport.

"Its not just the baseball on the field. It's the music. It's the video board. Audience participation. It's about entertaining people for two-and-a-half hours. And I think people here are looking forward to that," said Jim Small, vice-president of MLB Asia.

Germano was a late addition to the 26-man China squad as the Padres left most of their starters back in Arizona to finish spring training. With the season starting at the end of the month, the big leagues cannot spare all their stars for a trip to China, hence the absence of Padres' Cy Young-winner Jake Peavy.

"I think going to China is the only way to get a day off spring training," joked Padres infielder Brian Myrow.

This lack of cooperation from MLB teams was also one of the arguments used to vote the sport off the Olympic roster.

Center fielder Andruw Jones, a potential Hall of Famer, is one of the biggest draws on the LA side, as could be South Korean pitcher Park Chan-ho given his popularity in the region. The Dodgers arrived in Beijing yesterday, one day behind schedule.

Tickets for both days' games were almost sold out by Thursday, according to Small. But Padres officials were keen to point out that this weekend was not an English Premier League-like jaunt to the Far East to raise funds. The chartered flights alone cost the Padres nearly $2 million.

"This is basically a money-loser, but we're thinking long-term development," said Chief Financial Officer Fred Gerson, adding that MLB was picking up most of the tab.

Small said future plans include continuing MLB's four-year cooperation with the Chinese national team, getting the game more air time on China's state-regulated TV, and launching several baseball academies around the country.

"We're already doing grassroots programs. We're in 120 schools in five cities with a program called Playball, which is designed to get kids 8-12 to sample baseball," he said. "It's a work in progress."

For some local fans, the hype machine for Saturday's game was redundant.

"I have been waiting for this moment for a long time," said 26-year-old Zhou Kun, a first baseman for the amateur-level Broncos in Beijing. "Me and my teammates bought our tickets three weeks ago. We can't wait to see how good MLB is live."

Traveling Padres fans Frank and Barbara Glenski, both retirees, said there's more to the game than people running around in circles hitting home runs.

"That's boring," said Barbara, who refers to the team as her 25 grandsons. "I like it when they steal bases. That's the exciting part."