Secret Baseball in China.

• Author: Pearson, W. Robert

My wife Maggie, our two-year-old son Matthew, and I arrived in China in 1981 as part of a rapidly expanding cohort of American diplomats surging into the country following the formal establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979. We were excited to be in the early wave of American diplomats going back to China after 30 years of separation and enmity. We also were prepared for some difficult times, but could only anticipate what would be facing a young American diplomatic family in Beijing.

China was just beginning its ascent from the disaster of the Cultural Revolution, and the reality of the past was all around us. The average annual income in China in 1981 was $100. The Beijing air was thick with coal dust, and our hotel room attracted rats while we waited months for permanent housing. One main dish at a Peoples' Restaurant we visited was dumplings with coffee grounds.

Our Chinese counterparts were both curious and cautious, delighted to be able to engage with us and also making excellent use of the impenetrable bureaucracy as necessary. Washington was eager to make headway, and we, as did many Americans, saw a genuine opportunity to open new doors for shared benefit. The sounds and sights, the scenes and senses were fascinating, and for us every day was challenging. We considered it the most important gamble for American diplomacy in the 20th century.

But there was NO BASEBALL

The Chinese Baseball Association was founded in 1982. Today, China competes internationally. With the Chinese breaking through in other sports such as basketball and golf, when might an American major league baseball team recruit a Chinese player? Does China have a secret plan to seek baseball hegemony? [] Might it not be helpful to relations to invite American and Chinese teams to play a university-level baseball diplomacy series in each country?

In Beijing in 1982, however, despite the founding of the Baseball Association, we could find no sign of the Greatest Sport, even a field on which it might be played. After weeks of searching and inquiries with our Chinese cultural staff, we finally found a field at a distant institute. There was no real diamond, just some grass and the outlines of base paths. Undeterred, we started going there...