When the evening light shines on the baseball stadium of Shanghai Overseas Chinese University in Matsue University Town, there is always a group of hot-blooded teenagers, wearing baseball uniforms, baseball bats and gloves, and sprinkling the sweat of youth.
As a traditional sports competition, baseball has the label of "iron blood" and "unity", and as a fashion trend sport, baseball caps and baseball shirts appear on more and more hipsters. What is the essence of baseball? Why do you love baseball? From Shanghai college to amateur baseball, we take you to find out.
Picture: Baseball has become a hobby of young people Figure TP (the same below)
-College baseball is blooming everywhere-
In 1997, Shanghai established the first college baseball team, and the Shanghai team composed of local students from Fudan University, Cai da, Tongji, and Shangwai participated in the first national collegiate baseball competition. In the past 22 years, baseball projects have become popular in colleges and universities across the city and have developed vigorously.
In 1999, the Shanghai University Sports Association officially established the Baseball and Softball Branch, and since its development, a total of 16 universities in the city have formed baseball teams. Among them, the Shangwai baseball team has the most dazzling achievements: it has formed a high-level sports team, won the 18th championship of the Shanghai Municipal Competition, and won 5 national championships.
Wang Jun, director of the Physical Education Department of Shangwai, is a witness and builder of Shangwai baseball from scratch. "Every year after the game, the kids hug each other and cry. Some students have already found jobs, in order to participate in training and competitions, deliberately postponed registration, and some students in order to fight for another two years, took the master's degree. Their love of baseball and their nostalgia for the baseball team as a whole also touched me. ”
The first generation of baseball teams, Wang Jun selected materials from shot put, handball, athletics and other projects, and the second generation was formed on the basis of volleyball teams, which have developed so far, and the team members not only have high-level students who have played baseball since childhood, but also the best in the baseball clubs of the whole school.
The cool and heroic posture of the "baseball heroes" also attracted foreign girls, and around 2004, the Physical Education Department officially opened a softball class. With the completion of two professionally lit baseball fields, the scene of men and women waving bats and playing ball in the field every day after class has become a beautiful landscape inside and outside.
-Amateur baseball passed down from generation to generation-
After graduation, they run to their own things, but baseball is always the unchangeable complex in the hearts of these students. Not only Shanghai and foreign universities, but also graduates of Shanghai universities such as Jiaotong University, Shanghai Sports Academy, and Huazheng university have played a vital role in promoting the sport of baseball in society.
Song Liming and Huang Wei, one graduated from Jiaotong University, the other graduated from the Upper Sports Academy, because baseball came together, joined an amateur team in Shanghai, the Pirates, and participated in the Shanghai Hurricane Dragon Baseball Amateur League throughout the year.
"I played for the first four years and didn't win a game." Huang Wei laughed at himself, "But I still insist on playing, a word, love." "12 years ago, Huang Wei watched a major league baseball (MLB) finals live broadcast for the first time, and was immediately attracted by the athletes' handsome bats and pitching moves. So he "went crazy" online watching videos, doing research, and spending a month learning about baseball. At that time, an American international student was the coach of the sports baseball team, and Huang Wei had good English skills and became the team's translator. "I'm not an athlete, I remember swinging the bat at the beginning, I can't hit the ball, but I didn't get hit, but it aroused more enthusiasm."
Song Liming was once the captain of the Jiaotong University baseball team, and in the year of graduation, the unknown Jiaotong University baseball team stood in the final of the city competition. 'Even though we knew we weren't as strong as I was, after the last goal, I regretted not being able to stand on the podium of the championship.
The teams that hurricane dragon leagues first participated in were the older amateur baseball teams in Shanghai. The First Time the Pirates team competed, there were only 10 members, not even a substitute, and Huang Wei continued his "losing journey". "Finally one day, we won. I was the catcher, Song Liming came on as a backup and he kept throwing until the end of the game. We threw him to the ground and threw dirt on him, and the taste of happiness was more important than money. ”
Nowadays, the Pirates' WeChat group has more than 100 people to join, baseball fans from all walks of life and different countries have joined in, and there are also girls who love baseball who have spontaneously joined the cheerleading team, and Huang Wei, who is the leader of the team, no longer has to have a headache to get together to play. The team's level is also getting higher and higher, with local baseball enthusiasts and expatriates constantly joining. In last spring, the team won the First Division championship and was promoted to the Super Division.
-Love because I love-
Why love baseball? Song Liming said without thinking: "Because of love, so love." "As a team sport, Song Liming learned team spirit and honed her will in baseball.
In the years after graduation, he worked in the position of engineer, once entered a bottleneck, and after quitting his job naked, he felt confused about the future. In 2014, the sports bar of more than 3,000 square meters of Kaijis Western Restaurant Sports Park opened in Jing'an Sports Center, where there is the country's largest indoor baseball batting field, the mobile phone client intelligent operation of the entry, real-time display of scores on the screen, and free professional baseball equipment. One of The Keys shareholders happened to be a member of the Pirates, so Song Liming was invited to become the on-site coach. Every night is the busiest time in the restaurant, after eating and watching the ball, everyone will walk into the court of different speeds and swing a few shots. If you meet beginners, Song Liming will teach them patiently by hand, especially on weekends, and the "bang bang" banging sound continues until the early morning. Over the years, the restaurant has a large number of regular customers, and many people have become addicted. The pirates' mid-week strike training is carried out here, which always attracts a large number of people to watch.
Because of baseball, Song Liming's life has become colorful again, and now he has become a corporate white-collar worker, and in his spare time, he still works part-time as a coach in a restaurant. "Huang Wei and I both hope to grow old with the team until we can't play." Song Liming said.
On the night that Kegis spoke to Song Liming, he didn't take his turn to work. But from time to time someone comes over to say hello and ask him for guidance, those are old customers, they have gone from baseball "little white" to baseball lovers, every day can be in a group of like-minded friends, what can be better than this? (Xinmin Evening News reporter Tao Xingying)
There is no end to it
More than ten years ago, a Japanese anime "Baseball Hero" was launched in Shanghai, and this love comic with a baseball coat has become a good memory of the post-80s and post-90s people who first learned about baseball.
Today, more than a decade later, baseball jackets and baseball caps have become a classic clothing style, from Europe and the United States to China.
In March, MLB's Milwaukee Brewers signed three Post-00s players.
However, baseball is still a familiar and unfamiliar sport in China. China's professional baseball has not been able to develop for a long time, and the level of international competition is not high. Despite this, the development of amateur baseball in Shanghai has become more and more vigorous. Baseball players who have come out of Shanghai universities have played a crucial role in the promotion of amateur baseball.
Shanghai universities have dreams of entering their own "Koshien" (the final venue of the Japanese high school baseball league). The Shanghai Amateur League has a reason for them to get together all year round to play. In the baseball stadium in Shanghai, more and more ordinary citizens began to understand and integrate into the sport of baseball.
A stick, a net, a bucket of balls, a group of brothers, whether it is catching the ball, hitting the ball or running on base, this exercise that tests brain power and physical strength, this team sport that tempers the will, is very "burning". (Tao Xingying)
Pictured: The official picture of the Japanese anime "Baseball Heroes"
Practice doorways
■ Baseball is a kind of ball sport that plays baseball with team and confrontation as the characteristics. With a minimum of 9 players, baseball players are divided into offensive and defensive sides, using bats and gloves to play in a right-angle fan-shaped baseball field. During the game, the two teams take turns attacking and defending: when the attacking player successfully runs back to home base, he can score 1 point. There are 9 innings in total, and the team with the highest score wins. At the end of the 9th set, the two sides will enter the extended round until the winner is divided.
■ Baseball became an official sport at the beginning of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but the London Olympics in 2012 were no longer used as a competition event, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, baseball returned to the Olympic family.
■ Offensive tactics: including hitting, running bases and sliding bases, etc., are the main means of scoring.
■ Defensive tactics: including catching, passing, pitching, touching, blocking and chasing.
List of | shanghai baseball stadiums
■ Shanghai University of Chinese (Songjiang Campus)
No. 1550 Wenxiang Road, Songjiang District
■ East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai (Songjiang Campus)
No. 555 Longyuan Road, Songjiang District
■ Kaijis Western Restaurant Sports Park
3rd floor of Jing'an Sports Center, No. 428 Jiangning Road
■ Rock Park (Wuzhong Branch)
1218 Wuzhong Road
■ Double Z baseball sports bar
3rd floor, West District, Mayflower Plaza, No. 488 Zhijiang West Road