Text/Hookefi
Sun Lingfeng in daily training. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
The farmland north of the baseball base was on fire, the wind was strong, and the smoke quickly rose.
Sun Lingfeng trotted to check the situation, confirmed that the fire would not affect the base, and then slumped in a chair.
In 5 years, the base has moved 4 times, and he knows how difficult it is to find a place to live.
He was tired, in the documentary "Great! After the release of "Junior", there was almost no rest.
He was dressed in a baseball suit with the word "strong stick" printed on it, and his face was dark, but his eyes were like a torch.
For the sake of 68 children with special lives, Sun Lingfeng has taken all his savings over the years, sold his house, and also sold his car.
Over the years, he had 4 more stents in his heart and took a lot of medication every day.
Looking at the viewing feelings and experiences released by the media and the audience, most of them are words of praise and concern for children.
Relieved, he soberly realized one thing.
Myself, there is no turning back.
Without baseball, I was a rogue
This sentence is a monologue of Sun Lingfeng in the documentary, which has impressed many viewers.
In 1978, Sun Lingfeng was born in a family of ordinary workers in Beijing, the family conditions were not good, his parents did not have the energy and ability to give him an excellent education, his life seemed to have been planned, casually studying, waiting for his father to retire and enter the factory and become a glorious worker.
Until his second grade of elementary school, he met Zhang Jinxin for the first time.
As a baseball coach of the sports school, Zhang Jinxin's job is to find sports seedlings and transport them to provincial, municipal and even national sports teams through training, and the number of people transported is an important criterion for assessing Zhang Jinxin's work.
In order to cultivate more outstanding young athletes, Zhang Jinxin chose to cooperate with primary and secondary schools, go to the school to find students, and train in the school to save time and improve efficiency.
Baseball selection, mainly depends on the child's explosive power and the possibility of future growth and development, when he first met Sun Lingfeng, Zhang Jinxin did not look at this short child, but he was a little interested, so he took out a baseball and let him throw it to see.
Sun Lingfeng's first contact with baseball ended with smashing a piece of glass at the school.
"Boy, you're explosive, are you willing to practice baseball?"
In this way, Zhang Jinxin became Sun Lingfeng's master for almost 40 years.
When he graduated from primary school, in order to maintain the children's high-level training, Zhang Jinxin contacted his classmates in Peking University Affiliated High School and sent a group of outstanding children to Peking University Affiliated High School to study, and the same batch of children was only left with Sun Lingfeng.
He didn't run fast, didn't jump high, and was the worst of his kids. And the culture class can not be compared with the classmates, at that time Sun Lingfeng's view, he was basically abolished, after graduating from middle school, it is estimated that it is the fate of the mixed society.
Zhang Jinxin knew that his apprentice was not the material for learning, and once again found Sun Lingfeng and told him, "If you don't want to become a rogue, just practice baseball again, this is your last chance." ”
"Who would want to be a hooligan, I played the practice of life." From the second team of the Beijing team to the first team, to the national youth team, and finally to the national team, becoming the "king of thieves" in Asia, representing China on the Olympic field, reversing the defeat of the Chinese Taipei team, Sun Lingfeng has become a well-known name in the Chinese baseball community.
Sun Lingfeng during the national team period. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
The physical condition is not outstanding, Sun Lingfeng uses technology to make up, through careful observation and excellent reaction, Sun Lingfeng found his own style.
In 1996, the highly skilled Sun Lingfeng was favored by the Seattle Mariners of the Major League Baseball, who hoped to let him play abroad, bear all the expenses and pay a large fee to the Beijing team, but in the end it did not work.
The domestic market for professional baseball still did not meet Sun Lingfeng's expectations, and at the peak of his career, Sun Lingfeng decided to retire. After another few years of coaching career, Sun Lingfeng was tired.
The baseball professional league was shut down due to poor management, sun Lingfeng even found money to set up a company to do the league again, he hopes to build a baseball industrial chain, the implementation of projects to promote the industrialization of baseball.
But contrary to his wishes, Sun Lingfeng thought of this matter simply, and the decline of baseball seemed to be unstoppable as the trend of the times.
Talent is broken, the industry is stagnant, and the road of baseball seems to be impossible.
Unimaginably poor
Around 2015, he saw the news that some children in poor areas were short of food and clothing, and he had donated some money through some institutions, but then other news broke, making him question whether his donation could reach the children smoothly.
Can you find these kids and let them practice baseball? Since they can succeed, then these children can also succeed.
In this way, Sun Lingfeng established a strong baseball angel baseball team.
According to Sun Lingfeng's plan, go to the surrounding areas of Beijing to find children with difficult lives, cultivate them into talents through their own abilities, and let baseball, which has changed their destiny, change their lives again.
But in fact, the children he saw were far worse than the conditions when he was a child.
"You close your eyes and think, what is the poorest life like, and the lives of these children will only be worse than you think." 」
Sun Lingfeng insisted that every child's home should be personally seen, only in this way can we ensure that their family situation is real.
Initially, on the recommendation of a friend, Sun Lingfeng went to Liang Zhengshuang's home.
At that time, he couldn't imagine that Xiao Shuang would be because of "Great! The documentary "Teenagers" has become the concern of countless audiences.
Xiao Shuang was not born, his father died, and his mother left home after giving birth to him and his twin brother and never returned. Because he could not afford to raise him, the uncle gave his brother to others to raise, leaving Xiao Shuang behind.
Xiao Shuang's experience is understated, but it is doubly moving.
"I was supposed to send me away, but because I was so young, people were afraid that they wouldn't be able to feed me, so they sent me back and almost buried me."
Later, the eldest uncle also died, leaving the second uncle and the little double to live together. The second uncle is old, physically ill, and no one wants to go out to work.
Sun Lingfeng proposed to Xiao Shuang's second uncle that he wanted to take Xiao Shuang to Beijing to practice baseball, and the second uncle could not understand what baseball was, so he asked Sun Lingfeng two questions:
"Do you eat?" Does he read? ”
"Tube."
"Okay, take it with you."
In this way, Sun Lingfeng took away Xiao Shuang, even if his weak body and relatively fragile personality, are not suitable for the sport of baseball.
The second uncle handed over the small pair to Sun Lingfeng. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
"If you don't take him away, he will stop in that village for the rest of his life, and the pain of his childhood will haunt him for the rest of his life."
The other protagonist in the documentary is sloppy, with a very different personality from Xiao Shuang.
"My name is Sloppy, I came from an intersection, I lost it, so I let the people at the Love Baseball Base pick it up."
Instead of Sun Lingfeng's home visit, Guo Zhongjian, a high-caliber civil engineering student at Tsinghua University, who loved baseball, met Sun Lingfeng and joined his public welfare cause.
On that occasion, Guo Zhongjian took a list recommended by local cadres on temporary duty and drove more than 1,000 kilometers from Beijing to Xihaigu, Ningxia, where he inspected more than a dozen families.
"Either people don't want their children to come to Beijing, or the family doesn't have the poverty I imagined, only sloppy, and the state of the family is really poor."
Ma Hu's mother ran away three months after he was born, and his father is still alive, but he spends most of his time working outside the home, and the few contacts with his children are shouting "old iron, brush some gifts" while making Ma Hu dance to the mobile phone.
Grandma Ma Hu is old, needlework has been impossible to do, Ma Hu grew up on the hundred meals and hundreds of clothes that Grandma asked for. One old and one young, dependent on each other.
Ma Hu has an aunt, but his uncle does not let Ma Hu into the house, and when he sees Ma Hu, he will beat him.
For Ma Hu, it is normal to not be able to eat a few meals.
However, according to Sun Lingfeng's requirements, Ma Hu was not tall enough, his age was overage, and he should not be taken away in theory, but Guo Zhongjian still took him to the car.
When sloppy, there was no bag to pack, and there was not even a single piece of clothing at home that could be taken away.
Children from poor families are generally very thin, dressed in rags, and shrink back in fear at the sight of a living person. Behind the corn pile, some grabbed a large iron basin and clasped their heads, while others shouted that Sun Lingfeng was a liar, kicking and kicking. Sun Lingfeng coordinated with the local government and signed an agreement with the guardians to bring them to Beijing for baseball training.
In the first two months of coming to the base, Sloppy had to eat himself until he vomited at every meal. Because in his subconscious, he did not know when the next full meal would be, and for two full months, Sloppy was sure that when the sun rose again the next day, he would have 3 full meals to eat.
In this way, the children from all over the country were brought to the base, and in the past 5 years, the baseball base has changed from the original 7 children to 68 children.
Among them were 20 girls brought to Beijing from Daliangshan, which Sun Lingfeng said was an accident.
"That time I went to Daliangshan, I originally wanted to find one or two children to take away, and as a result, one by one, the situation of each family broke my heart, and finally I gritted my teeth and brought back 20, which is also the limit of my ability."
On the walls of the base's conference room hung a picture of each child, under which were written their names, places of origin, date of birth, and a special day, Rebirth Day.
Sun Lingfeng and the girls from Daliangshan. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
Sun Lingfeng hopes that from the day they arrive at the base, they will find back the life that should be their own.
Baseball is a "homecoming" sport, starting from home and finally returning to the end of home, even the scoring method of baseball is different from the shooting of football and basketball, which is "safe at home".
Sun Lingfeng gave the children a home, and he hoped that through care, companionship and education, the faces of these children would not see the ups and downs of the past.
"That shouldn't have been something they had to bear."
Life is long, and it is not easy to go home
Sun Lingfeng's plan is divided into three steps, the first is to fund first, the second is for adults, and the third is for adults.
At the base, every child has a story worth telling, including fathers who are injured in mining, parents who are contaminated with drugs, single mothers who can't afford to raise... They are almost a group of "orphans", if it is not the absence of parents, self-care, the vast majority of families will not be willing to let their children leave home.
Practicing baseball is a long, arduous process and a path that cannot predict the future.
In Sun Lingfeng's eyes, the baseball base is not only a place for children to train, it is also a shelter, giving these children who cannot get family warmth a place to live, and over time, a family relationship without blood is formed.
"Children who have fathers and mothers, they can spell their fathers and mothers to fight resources, they don't need me." And these children, they need me, I have a more sense of existence. ”
Sun Lingfeng once had an unsuccessful marriage and did not have children of his own. But at the baseball base, he was a very qualified "father."
Children from their respective hometowns to Beijing, to adapt to a completely different life, some children have never seen the toilet, from childhood are solved anywhere, the toilet must be re-taught, some children have never seen shrimp, the canteen made shrimp, it is even swallowed together with the shrimp head and shell, these small things, let Sun Lingfeng sad.
Sun Lingfeng demanded that the children must have meat, vegetables, a sufficient amount of staple food at every meal, and there must be milk and eggs supplied every day.
"First of all, the child must eat enough, wear warm clothes, feel pampered and cared for, and then talk about sports training." In addition to teaching the children baseball skills, the members of the coaching staff also indirectly assume the responsibility of guardians, taking care of their diet and living, assessing their physical health, and helping them to change the bad temperament developed by the lack of family discipline for many years. At the same time, it is also necessary to give psychological comfort and care in growth.
"Communication is very important, many children from an early age environment does not give them the opportunity to communicate, which makes them depressed, sensitive, uneasy, of course, there are more naïve, naïve and rebellious in this age group." As adults, to give them a better life, we must include more humanistic care. ”
"The real education should be a 24-hour all-round education, through the details of life to each point of education."
In the childhood of many children, it is difficult to achieve food and clothing, and the foundation of culture and sports is very weak, and it is not easy to change the fate of these children through sports.
For the children's training, Sun Lingfeng found the retired master Zhang Jinxin, who was fully responsible for the children's training, at first Zhang Jinxin drove back and forth every day, and then simply moved to the base.
"After a week of staying and not wanting to leave, I think they need me tomorrow and I need me the day after tomorrow."
Zhang Jinxin insisted on choosing a room closest to the children's dormitory, which is not the best house to live in, but in Zhang Jinxin's view, the coach must live next to the child to know what problems the children have every day, and the children can come to him at any time.
Almost all children have never been exposed to baseball, and it is also a blank for sports training, which is also a challenge for Zhang Jinxin and Sun Lingfeng, but Zhang Jinxin is willing to accept the challenge.
"Why is it that if a child's family is poor, he must be shorter than others for the rest of his life?" Mr. Sun said he hopes to make his children a top-notch baseball team, or at least, to raise them into people who are not humble and can adapt to mainstream society.
"Sun Lingfeng is my apprentice, he is also doing this, but also in the inheritance of my will and teaching and training methods, he has taken all the energy and wealth, I am an old man, what reason is there not to support him?"
In this way, the children practiced day by day with the master in the base of food and clothing, starting from the most basic, gradually mastering the basic rules of baseball, and then almost invincible in the national competition, everyone began to know that there was such a group of children under the leadership of Sun Lingfeng and Zhang Jinxin, in order to change their fate, struggling to swing the stick.
With Zhang Jinxin's big package for training, Sun Lingfeng was able to take a step out to constantly think about the future of the children and the base, and in the 5 years since its establishment, the base has moved 4 times. There are problems with the property rights of the base, there are also problems with funds, and the children have been displaced by Sun Lingfeng and have not been able to completely settle down.
A friend around him questioned him, "Can these kids play baseball?" Can you make money doing this? ”
Sun Lingfeng was a little angry, "First raise these children, and then talk about making money." ”
As the children grew up day by day, the daily expenses of the base gradually increased, and Sun Lingfeng had to think about how to go in the future.
Or rather, how to go solid.
After a few years of training, the children changed significantly. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
The mutual redemption of two marginalized groups
In the documentary "Great! After the release of "Teenagers", some people called the poor children and baseball at the base two marginal groups.
What Sun Lingfeng did was to make the two marginalized groups redeem each other.
The children of the baseball base are obviously a marginalized group, they are far away in poor areas, lack of food and clothing, extremely scarce in spiritual and cultural life, uncared for, and have worrying growth prospects.
In the eyes of many people, baseball, a highly commercialized and professional sport in North America and East Asia, has not developed in China for a long time. There are very few people who understand the rules of baseball, no one plays and no one pays attention, there is no mass base internally, no tournament medals externally, and it is a marginalized sport.
The Beijing Olympic Games should be the highest moment of baseball, even in the Olympic arena to reverse the defeat of the Chinese Taipei team, but also did not save the decline of baseball, in the following years of the Olympic Games even eliminated the baseball project, less support for the competition, the domestic baseball professionalization is also difficult, the market shrinks, the professional team disbanded, baseball as a whole is facing a situation of green and yellow.
The few baseball stadium sites have also gone away with the development of real estate everywhere, accompanied by the roar of excavators.
In such a situation, it has to be admitted that baseball has also become a fringe sport.
Almost no one would believe that the baseball industry can revive in China, and that baseball can reach the heights of football, basketball or table tennis.
But, Sun Lingfeng believed.
"Why should the United States vigorously promote the globalization of the NBA?"
"It's because the NBA can't do baseball on American soil!"
"In addition to the United States, Japan and South Korea have high baseball standards, what does this mean?"
"It shows that baseball doesn't need to be too physically talented!" Asians can play too! ”
"Our country wants to develop from the sports industry to the sports industry, what does this mean?"
"It's about finding a mature industrial template, and baseball is!"
"You see a lot of aristocratic schools have baseball classes, why is that?"
"It's because baseball is a means of cultural exchange that can promote children's better communication with foreigners in the future!"
"When an industry is in the early stage of construction, what is most lacking?"
"Talent!"
Sun Lingfeng used a series of questions to illustrate his confidence in the future of Chinese baseball and his base.
In Sun Lingfeng's view, sports know no borders, should not be narrowly viewed from the perspective of the Chinese market, in the international market, it is the world's third largest sports.
China's baseball industry is relatively rudimentary, and the difference in the middle is the dividend of industrial development. Chinese football has developed to a certain industrial level, and it is very difficult to think of taking another step. Basketball also reaches a certain height, and of course there is a lot of space. And in baseball, it's easy to grow tenfold, a hundredfold.
Sun Lingfeng has a view that baseball must be the pillar industry of China's sports industry in the future, which is the general trend.
Back to the perspective of the baseball base, because the selection of materials is not carried out according to the conditions of athletes, the physical talent and psychological state of these children are uneven, and the age span is large, which is also difficult for baseball training, but Sun Lingfeng is still optimistic.
China's existing 11 colleges and universities can recruit high-level baseball players, Sun Lingfeng's strong baseball angel baseball team, in the current water stable in the top three, according to Sun Lingfeng's deduction, these children to get the national level athlete qualification is not a problem.
Playing with his brain, observing with his eyes, and thinking with his heart are the elements of Sun Lingfeng's success in summarizing his career. "My master and I taught them all the detours I have taken over the years, can we be worse?"
More importantly, compared with other amateur baseball training classes and clubs, the base gives these children more valuable training time and opportunities.
"Rich people's children practice for 2 hours a week, and our children practice every afternoon, how big do you say this gap is?"
"The worst result, they can't play professionally, they can go to college through baseball, and the worst thing is to stay at the base as a coach, and it's definitely no problem to support themselves." Sun Lingfeng narrowed his eyes again and said very firmly.
Guo Zhongjian, who once joined Sun Lingfeng's public welfare team, has now temporarily left the baseball base and joined a construction project in Daqing, Northeast China, and in Guo Zhongjian's view, the changes brought by baseball to children are obvious. But what level of competition these children will eventually reach is still unknown.
They lack a lot of things in their growth, some can make up, some can not make up, and becoming an athlete is not easy for ordinary people, for these children to appear more difficult.
Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, Li Na these household names, and even become synonymous with some sports in the eyes of the Chinese people, Sun Lingfeng hopes that the children in the base can also have the potential of stars, after the release of the documentary, Ma Hu showed such characteristics, in the face of visiting media and caring people, Ma Hu appeared very excited, full of desire to perform.
But in Guo Zhongjian's eyes, Ma Hu is still far from an excellent athlete.
Documentary "Awesome! The two male protagonists in "The Boy" Xiao Shuang (left) and Ma Hu (right). Photo/Courtesy of respondents
"The children at the base have seen this world, this is another world. If you take it out and send it back, the damage is enormous. You might as well not bring him out, he won't have any appeals if he hasn't seen it. I don't want to carry that guilt. ”
At the end of the documentary, Xiao Shuang left the base to return to his hometown of the second uncle, two years have passed, Xiao Shuang returned to the base, and what remained unchanged was his warm smile.
When asked about Zhang Jinxin, can Xiaoshuang still play professionally?
Zhang Jinxin took a deep breath of his cigarette and said, "It's difficult."