Olympic field has been set; MLB in China

(ASIA) - How's that for a dateline?
Having just bounced between Taichung, Chinese Taipei and Beijing China over the past two weeks, I figured it was fitting to just go with Asia.

Taichung just played host to the IBAF Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament from Mar. 7-14, and I'm currently blogging from Game 2 of the MLB China Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

After a week of pretty dramatic baseball, Canada, Korea and Chinese Taipei finished in the top three in the tournament in Taichung, and in doing so, were the three teams to move on to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Pre-tournament favorites Mexico and Australia finished fourth and fifth, respectively, and Germany, Spain and South Africa rounded out the eight-team tournament.

With the completion of the FOQT, the Olympic field is complete: Canada (FOQT top-3), China (host), Chinese Taipei (FOQT top-3), Cuba (Americas #2), Japan (Asia #1), Korea (FOQT top-3), Netherlands (Europe #1), and the United States (Americas #1).

This is the first time since baseball was introduced as a medal sport in 1992 that there will be four teams competing from Asia (previous high was two [’92, ’96, ’00, ‘04])...

...which, is a good segway into the next Asia portion of this post - a quick mention of the MLB China Series. I guess it's fitting that one of my last posts to this blog was from the baseball test event in Beijing late last year...and what a difference a few months make.

The place looks awesome.

From the music between at bats to the artwork on the field, the feeling around Wukesong Stadium this afternoon is legitimately like that of a big league ballgame...in China. It's important to keep driving this home because China has never seen or felt this baseball atmosphere...ever.

Win or lose, it doesn't matter. The point is, there is top-shelf baseball being played in China. From there we go to the Olympic Games, and to there...? Baby steps...but China is most certainly on its way.

In other news...the IBAF and BOCOG will be announcing the baseball competition schedule for Beijing in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to www.usabaseball.com and www.ibaf.tv for more info.

Until then, we'll do a better job of updating this thing-