(If you are wondering why I’m writing about Chinese baseball, check the previous post. Also, I put most of the pictures at the bottom of this post. Lastly, take note of the intricate details of Team China’s uniforms in the header image.)
My brother and I were excited to start learning about Chinese baseball, and hopefully watch one of the Huge Horses’ star players in action. Team China would be playing against Germany, Brazil, and Colombia over 3 days at the beginning of March, so we planned a road trip to Tucson to watch. (We did some climbing at Mt. Lemmon and Priest Draw, but this isn’t a climbing post…it’s a baseball post.)
The top two teams from this tournament would qualify for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which is somewhat analogous to soccer’s World Cup but far less prestigious. We didn’t know what to expect, exactly, but let’s say we weren’t about to bet the farm on Team China to win the tournament against teams with current and former MLB players.
The Tucson Tournament
2 brothers watched 2 games a day for 3 days, which was 12 tickets at a total cost of about $240 (general admission tickets were $15, but for the China games we sprung for the $25 seats behind home plate…in contrast, you can pay $25 to sit in the outfield grass at a minor league ballpark and watch the Oakland Athletics. And it costs at least $25 to park your car.). Games were at 11AM and 6PM, which meant we had about 4 hours between games to drive around and grab food, or go to a climbing gym, or check out Saguaro National Park.
I’d be surprised to learn the stadium got anywhere near 50-60% capacity throughout the tournament, and this meant that we pretty much got to sit wherever we felt like. And the trumpet guy had plenty of room to operate as well. Hot dogs were $5 and beers were $10. Pricey, but not outrageously rapacious.
The intimacy of a small ballpark is really something special. During every game, kids were playing and rolling around on the grassy hill behind the outfield fence. They would clamor for discarded game balls from the players in the dugout, and they’d usually get one. After the games, fans would gather behind home plate and interact with the players as they made their way to the locker rooms, and it was calm and positive, rather than a feeding frenzy of memorabilia mongers. It’s what baseball is supposed to feel like.
The most off-putting part of the experience, frankly, was the AI robot announcer the stadium was using. We kept commenting on “his” strange inflection, until the 3rd or 4th game when I realized that the “announcer” hadn’t once stuttered, misspoken, or even altered “his” cadence. It was a rather uncanny auditory valley, and I, for one, would’ve happily paid an extra dollar for my ticket if it came with a Real Human Announcer.
Team China- Go All Out, No Matter What (ft. Little Dong)
Our China Baseball Bro, Brad, sent us Zhu “Little Dong” Xudong’s Instagram handle, and with the help of internet translation, Eliot (singlelsinglet) slid (safely!) into the DMs. After Team China’s 12-2 loss to Germany on the first day of the tournament, Zhu told Eliot “Even if we are not victorious, we will go all out, for every ball, no matter what.” We would discover that the Chinese players take this mantra very seriously and often to their detriment. Many, many times we watched them sprint after balls that had gotten by them, only to watch the ball carom off the wall and get by them again. A lot of doubles became triples.
And speaking of our favorite player, unfortunately #51 had banged his knee up in training, and had to watch the tournament from the dugout. This was a bummer, but at least we were able to say hi after the games!
Overall, the Chinese team was skilled, but, unsurprisingly, physically overmatched. We likened it to watching a really good high school team playing against a AAA team, where no matter how fundamentally sound the hitters were, the simple reality was that a solid contact by a hitter from China might result in a double, while the other teams were capable of hitting home runs. Even though China’s pitchers were crafty and for the most part located their pitches well, the fact remains that an 80MPH pitch gives the hitter a lot more time to react than a 95MPH pitch, and it’s only a matter of time before a decent team figures out a pitcher’s tricks.
2 of China’s 3 losses in the tournament happened by the “mercy” rule, whereby a team automatically wins if they lead by 10 or more runs after the 7th inning. Colombia beat them 8-1 in the full-length game they played.
The Other Fans (That Weren’t Children or School Groups)
Baseball fans are great. These are people who can watch any game with interest, no matter the teams involved. We met many such fans during our three glorious days in the Arizona sun, folks with scorebooks and well-worn, sunbleached baseball caps watching quietly but intently.
One fan explained that Taiwan’s team appeared to be a powerhouse, but that they usually underperformed at the World Baseball Classic because their power rankings largely come from winning uncompetitive tournaments.
Another fan pointed out that China wasn’t using their 3rd base coach to relay signs to the batters. Instead, the Chinese hitters were looking back to the dugout for instruction. I don’t know if this means anything. For what it’s worth, the Huge Horses relay signs to the hitter via the 3rd base coach.
The stands were much more colorful during the Brasil-Colombia game than during any of the other games. And the tailgaters in the parking lot were playing more reggaeton. (Colombia and Brasil were the two teams to advance to the 2026 World Baseball Classic, by the way.)
Oh yeah, and the son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf pitches for Germany, which meant the Kino Sports Complex got to be graced with tennis royalty.
In closing, it was a great road trip. Baseball is great. Eliot and I are now huge Huge Horses fans, tuning into every game that we can (time zones sometimes make that impractical). MLB, the owners, and the Manfreds of the world are parasites on the sporting body. And last but not least, FJF.
Next time, let’s talk about how the Horses are doing, shall we?
