It’s a gorgeous summer evening here in Beijing, and I just got home from a baseball game! That’s right, a baseball game! There are a number of international tournaments being held around town in some of the newly completed Olympics venues. These are sort of trial runs for the big games, which are now less than a year away. The Wukesong Baseball stadiums are not far from where I live, so getting to the games was fairly easy. I didn’t know about them until this evening, when one of my colleagues called from the stadium, and said "hey, come and join us, the stands are only half full!" I jumped in a cab and headed over there. I got there and went to the entrance to ask where tickets were being sold. I was told they were sold out. "But I just got a phone call from my friends inside and they say that there are lots of empty seats!" "Oh," he said. At that point, a man came up to me and said, "here, you can have this ticket for 30 yuan!" So, right there in front of the ticket taker, I bought the ticket, then turned around and gave it to the taker. He smiled and said "welcome!" Through security, then on a walk around the park behind the outfield, and into the stands, where I found my friend sitting just above third base. We sat there and watched China slaughter the Czech Republic. Tomorrow night Japan and China will play the championship game of this tournament. Now that should be interesting. Of course we were told that the tickets are sold out, but we’re hoping that means as much as it did tonight!
Baseball in Beijing! "Whodathunkit?"
