Chongqing- The 2022 MLB (Major League Baseball) CUP Open Spring Season had wrapped up recently in China's Wuhan and Chongqing cities, and little baseball athletes here drove to compete on the football pitch.
2022 MLB CUP Open Spring Season (Chongqing) (iChongqing/Li Xinyi)
There were 16 teams in two groups. After fierce competition, the Pepsi TOP Baseball Team and Fengming Tianlang Baseball team finally won the championship of the 10U group (the age group of baseball) and 8U group, respectively.
The preparation before the game (iChongqing/Li Xinyi)
As an old friend of Chongqing, a friendly baseball match was held in Chongqing in 2010, starting baseball exchange activities. The Chongqing Baseball and Softball Association developed baseball with the idea of "promoting from areas to regions," along with the development of baseball and softball in China. Just in 2019, the Chongqing Baseball and Softball Association hosted three national-level baseball and softball events. In the same year, as the predecessor of MLB CUP, the MLB Junior PlayBall kicked off in Chongqing, which saw an enormous upsurge in China.
The preparation before the game (iChongqing/Li Xinyi)
In 2021, following the MLB CUP, the baseball public welfare class, MLB First Pitch, was also introduced to Chongqing to popularize baseball culture. With the sports work conference held in Chongqing at the beginning of this year, the future plans of sports were designed from reserve talents training, sports event organization, and sports-industrial system construction. Many schools in Chongqing have launched training and courses on baseball, hoping baseball can be more common and be a grand spectacle in Chongqing.
Young athletes (iChongqing/Li Xinyi)
Qi Dong, managing director of MLB China, said, "Baseball is a sport that not only combines running, jumping, and pitching, but also pays attention to strategy, therefore, achieving children's balanced development and growth in the moral, intellectual, physical, and social domains." Under the background of the integration of sports and education, the diversification of sports is advocated. Hence, baseball is gradually becoming known to more people. "MLB has also been upgrading the tournament. It only included five cities from the beginning, and each city had only one 12U. But the tournament has settled in nearly 20 cities, and each includes five age groups: 6U, 8U, 10U, 12U, and 15U. With the popularization of baseball, we also believe that the development of baseball in China can be bright and promising in the future," said Qi Dong.
Young athletes (iChongqing/Li Xinyi)
After the conduction of the baseball competition, the public welfare activity, Baseball is Love, still ran in western China. The public welfare activity jointed the project of formidable athlete representatives to launch a donation initiative in the game division. Young athletes who participated in the game in Wuhan and Chongqing also donated idle sports equipment, learning tools, clothing, etc.
Young athletes took part in the public welfare activity Baseball is Love (Photo provided to iChongqing)