2007 End of the Year Special
　Shanghai Eagles Head Coach Zhang Yufeng

Chinese　Japanese

Zhang Yufeng is a well-known name among Chinese baseball fans, and in recent years has been team captain of the Chinese national team, as well as the starting shortstop for the Shanghai team. In 2005, he received all honors in CBL hitting categories in addition to league MVP. This season, he received a higher responsibility: Shanghai Eagles Head Coach. With regards to the Eagles’ winter training, he said “the Shanghai team is in the midst of changing from the old to the new guard, most of our players are young – not even 20. There are only 3 or 4 old members – so the purpose of winter training this year is to make a younger team gain more experience, and work hard to get playing opportunities. The younger 16 and 17 year old players will need to get stronger with the team.

After all these years training with the national team abroad, he has built up abundant baseball experience. To help the Shanghai team absorb some of his knowledge, Zhang plans to unselfishly transfer the things he heard and saw abroad to the next generation of Eagles. Now as head coach, Zhang still has lots of memories from his playing days. In the 2007 Konami Cub, the Chinese team played against Taiwan in the first round in an unforgettable contest. At the end of the 6th, China was leading 4-1, but at the end, the Chinese pitching failed and they lost 5-9 to the UniPresident Lions. Zhang noted, “This year was our best chance to enter in the top 3 of Asia. In 2005, we beat Korea, but that was a Korean high school team, so it wasn’t as exciting as this time. After this game, the Japanese reporters asked me during the press conference what it felt like to be winning, and I said I really wanted to cry. It would have been our first victory – we had so many opportunities, everyone was confident, but at the end our pitching failed us and the game unfortunately slipped away.

Zhang has loved playing baseball from youth, and has his own ideas as to Chinese baseball’s growth: “Baseball is a beautiful sport, but is extremely difficult to play. Baseball is becoming internationalized, and along with economic growth, Chinese kids will also have an opportunity to play, so I hope that after the Olympics baseball will continue to grow. The Chinese Baseball League in the past years has had its problems, but through everyone’s hard work, it’s had improvements. In addition, if more fans could be attracted to the games, it would help to inspire the players. Also, I hope there will be more media who understand, support and report on baseball, so that baseball could become a national focus. Last year, Premier Wen Jiabao went to Japan to play. I think if the government wants baseball to grow, then it could grow quickly. If baseball continued to develop, in ten years we would be able to beat Japan or Korea.”

In little more than half a year, the Olympics will open up in Beijing. The Olympics will be a stage for the Chinese baseball team to display their talent to the world, as the other seven teams will be the best in the world, with some players with MLB-level talent. It’s also a good opportunity to promote baseball in China through the media. If China can enter the top 6, it will be through the efforts of every player working together.

Finally, Zhang says, “The national team’s focus is to enter the top 6, and each teammate will work hard for it. As for the Shanghai team, we’re still in the valleys of changing from younger to older players, so I hope the fans will support our players and me. We’ll work hard to make the Shanghai team strong, and I hope the fans will give us their support.”

Zhang Yufeng’s plate is full, leading both the Shanghai team forward to league championship and the national team ahead to Olympic success. However, he’s confident that his internal drive will allow him to overcome his outside pressures. Chinese baseball will never forget Yufeng’s hard work, and we can see it on display at the Olympics this year.

2007 End of the Year Special Interview (2)
Seattle Mariners MLB star, Wang Wei, catcher

In June of this year, all eyes turned to the Seattle Mariners signing of Wang Wei (formerly of the Beijing Tigers). After his training in the US this past year, he returned to Beijing in December to rest. The first catcher to be signed by an MLB team, Wang has played baseball for the better part of the past 20 years. In 3rd grade at the 11th elementary school, Wang started his baseball career, and continued playing at the PKU middle school, and finally at the Lucheng High School, spending a year in the middle at Fengtai.

Wang Wei has always played catcher, and according to his memory, he played catcher because he thought it was fun. Gradually, he realized it was one of the most important roles on the team, because the catcher faces the entire field and directs the defense and planning strategy. In the past few years, Wang Wei has performed extremely well at catcher, but on offense, though he can hit homeruns, he often strikes out. Wang says, "My teammates and coaches tell me I strike out too much, and I know its not good. If I strike out, there's no change on the offense, and I waste an inning. On the other hand, if I can hit the ball, no matter where it goes, maybe I'll change the course of the game. I'm always trying to improve my batting abilities, especially being able to guard the plate with two strikes."

Wang Wei's homerun power is often the most unforgettable aspect of his game. In the last game of the 2004 CBL season, Wang single-handedly defeated Tianjin with a walk-off homer in the last inning. In 2006, Wang hit the first homerun ever of the World Baseball Classic. Because the homer was hit off Japanese ace pitcher Koji Uehara (of the NPB Giants), Wang was especially ecstatic. In the first WBC Asia round tournament China did not place favorably, though Wang mentions that one should not look just at the outcome. He says, "The main differences between Team China and the rest of the world are pitching and defense. These two work together. Our pitchers need to get better – if they were throwing 140-150km/hr in the Chinese league, we'd naturally get better. On the other hand, our hitting isn't that good – if someone can take care of you with 130km/hr stuff, then pitchers have no reason to get better. However, I'm really confident that if the baseball playing population of China was half that of the soccer playing population, we could definitely defeat Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei! We have over 1.3 billion people here and there's got to be someone that can throw 150 or 160 km/hr. And there has to be someone that can run faster than Ichiro Suzuki."

With regards to his training and life in the States, Wang sums up the experience with one word: "fun." He remarks, "In the States I usually get up around 5am, start practicing around 6:15am, rest around a half an hour during lunch, and then train more until around 3 or 4pm. At night I get back to the hotel, watch some English, and then go to sleep. When I say 'have fun,' I don't mean what you think I mean. I think baseball, or any sport for that matter, can't be learned by just practicing alone, you have to have fun to get better. Training is what other people make you do, but having fun is something you can really get your mind and heart into, and that's the only way to get results and feel better about the effort, time, and energy you've spent. You have to be serious about working hard." As for his travels in 2008, Wang predicts he'll head back to the States around March 3rd.

Though some fans bring up the fact he's 28 this year, and might retire in a few years, Wang Wei has no plans to retire, and thinks he's only just started to enjoy the game. However, he does have a few plans for the future. Through his time in the States, he's written and journaled about what he's learned. He feels that if he has an opportunity to become a coach later on, he would like to bring back to China what he's learned in the States. Even if he doesn't become a coach, he still wants to provide the info to others, so that they might spread it to more baseball fans. Wang Wei hopes that in his lifetime, the things he learned in the States are an experience to be continued and shouldn't end when he leaves the States. 

As for his hopes in the 2008 Olympics, Wang says, "In the Olympics I don't want to say we're going to get a medal, but I think we have to be fair to ourselves and give a good show to our fans and the spectators at the games."

When asked where baseball stands in his heart, Wang enthusiastically replies, "I do what I like most! No matter if its baseball or some other kind of work, if I can really get into it, and let myself love what I'm doing, then I can prove my worth" Though the past 20 years of practicing baseball have taken a toll on his body, Wang's heart is still full of sunshine.