International Pastime looks at baseball's influence outside the U.S.While baseball may be extremely popular in Japan and South Korea, it hasn't made much in-roads throughout the rest of the Far East. In fact, according to the
New York Times, the sport was actually banned in China by Mao Zedong during the 1960's for being too Western. The sport is now "legal," but despite tens of millions of dollars invested by Major League Baseball to promote the sport (and MLB sending four teams to China to start their season this spring), interest is still low.
That said, with the Olympics being hosted in Beijing, China will in fact field a team. The squad did make its way to American soil to
train with would-be big leaguers during the Arizona Fall League this past year, but most of the players are still extremely short on experience. They have an American manager in
former big leaguer Jim Lefebvre, but it's been difficult for him to close the cultural gap. From the
Times:
When he first addressed his players five years ago, they would not even make eye contact. Most of them came to baseball in their teens after failing to advance in two or three other sports, he said.
Lefebvre, 66, gave an impassioned speech this spring: "We're here to get ready for the Olympics and strength is part of that. You don't order room service and say, 'Hey, send me up some strength.' You have to go and get it yourself. So how many of you want to go lift weights?"
Only one player raised his hand.
After an improbable stretch where the San Diego Padres won eight of nine games, they were sitting with a 9-3 record. Since then, they have fallen to 12-15, a bad stretch which included a six-game losing streak. The team has many issues, obviously, but the offense is not doing the job at all. They rank 11th in the NL in runs scored, 15th in batting average and 14th in on-base percentage. 
