Left Coast Leaner

Last weekend saw Major League Baseball's first foray into China. The much-hyped sporting experiment sent the San Diego Padres to Beijing to face off against that one team from LA that's not the Angels.

Part of what has taken me so long to get something up about this is that I was writing my own stories for my actual job about the goings on at the ballpark (that ballpark is Wukesong Baseball Field, a "temporary" Olympic venue that is scheduled for demolition immediately following the Games, as that third link describes in detail).

Sure, it was fun and interesting going to batting practices and scribbling notes on the ramblings of various baseball personalities at the stadium, but the most fun by far was taking a trip to the Great Wall with the Padres.

Me and my friend Matt (whose story of our excursion is here) met the Padres and their media entourage at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Beijing, a couple blocks away from the Forbidden City. Since both teams brought a roster of almost complete no-names, we had a hard time figuring out which of the crowd of about 60 were the ball players (not that I'm very familiar with the actual Padre players in the first place). It was tough to tell -- all I know is that Dave Winfield dwarfed everyone there.

We boarded one of the four buses that would be schlepping us up to Badaling, the most common Great Wall spot that everyone goes to, what I've heard many people call the "Mickey Mouse version". Thinking it a little cheeky to get on the players' bus, we made our way to the one most of the media types were boarding.

Justin Germano, the first person to throw an MLB pitch in China's history

After about an hour's drive outside the city -- with a tour guide as droning and boring as you can imagine -- we found ourselves at the base of the Wall. The bleary-eyed players -- about 14 hours removed from their trans-Pacific flight -- looked up at the impeding mountain and twisting brick wall with grins imprinted on their faces, many of them seeming in disbelief that yes, they actually were in China.

Also joining us was the Padres' mascot, The Swinging Friar -- your typical mascot, sporting a round bald spot and sandals inappropriate for wall-climbing. The Chinese people and other tourists at the Wall had no idea what to do with the jolly old Friar except laugh and pose for pictures. They couldn't care less about the All Star athletes there -- the Friar was the center of attention the whole way up. He was the real sports diplomat.

That was just as well for the players I'm sure, since climbing the Wall required their full attention. I kept pace with the ones determined to make it to the top, and passed in the dust those for whom the hike was too taxing.

Taking a break at about the half-way point with his wife, I asked Winfield what he thought about his present location. He just looked around, took in the view, and said "Incredible..."

San Diego Padres, atop the Great Wall at Badaling

I got to the top in time to see the ten or so players there snapping group pictures and congratulating themselves on the long slog to the peak (note: it's not that difficult, even for someone like me, whose muscles have atrophied over the past months due to lack of use. These guys are pro athletes.) I saw Trevor Hoffman, the man with the most saves in MLB history, patting the bricks as if testing the sturdiness of a wall in his house what he thought now that he was up here. The aloof and reticent Hoffman just said, "Glad I'm up here... tired."

As we made our descent, I sidled up to a group of the players who were still going on about how tired they were. "A foot massage is sounding pretty good right about now," one of them said. "I'm gonna sleep tonight," said another.

I struck up a conversation with third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, who seemed to be the only person there who had made some sort of effort to learn a Chinese phrase or two. He was asking me to remind him how to say "how are you?", as he dropped jovial ni hao's to passers-by. "Ni hao", of course, is how you say "how are you?"

On the bus ride back we chatted with some 70-year-old superfans, Frank and Barbara Glenski, who came all the way to Beijing to watch the two exhibition games. They are season-ticket holders and have almost never missed a game in however many years. Frank even said, with a hint pride, that Barbara's sister (I think) had died so they had to fly back to the midwest for the funeral. But "luckily", the next game was a night game, so they were able to get back in time for it. Die hards indeed.

I also had a conversation with the Padres CFO, Fred Gerson. I told him I was a Giants fan and he told me about how they have totally neglected their farm system for the past several years and that they are going to be paying for it "for a long, long time". That is to say, they're gonna suck for the foreseeable future. He also said signing Barry Zito last year was one of the worst contracts he's ever seen.

He also told me the the Padres had to pay for a lot the trip with their own cash. The plane flights alone cost the team nearly $2 million. "Of course, the players all have to fly first class," he said. Of course.

So what did Gerson think of the trip to the Great Wall?

"To come here and not do that would be criminal."

Dude and the Friar