The Major League Baseball (MLB) First Pitch project, which ran from April until December last year in China reached a total of 88 schools, involving 9,320 students, across eight cities in seven provinces - Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Zhongshan, Haikou, Changsha, Xi'an and Guangzhou.
The MLB also held a kindergarten teachers' training in Zhongshan, covering 31 kindergartens. A total of 600 teachers participated.
China has today 106 million elementary school students with about 200,000 representing the active baseball population.
MLB Development Center head coach Ray Chang spoke about the benefits of playing baseball for young kids in an interview with the National news agency while singer Summer (better known as Jike Junyi in China), who has over 15 million followers on Weibo, attended the MLB First Pitch in Beijing and posted about the experience on her Weibo account.
MLB created First Pitch specifically to attract new participants to the game of baseball. The goal is to get a bat, ball and glove into children's hands while experiencing a fun activity. The MLB First Pitch kit includes six foam balls, one foam bat, one set of bases, nine cones and one tee.
Meanwhile, a Beijing Amateur Baseball Coaches Clinic, organized by Beijing Baseball Association and supported by MLB China, was successfully held in Beijing from February 26 to 27. Over 60 amateur-level baseball coaches from local clubs and baseball organizations attended the session, with the objective to elevate the overall standard of baseball coaching of all baseball training institutions and to improve the quality of students' out-of-class baseball learning experience, following the "double reduction" policy issued by China's State Council to encourage more athletic activities for students.
During the training, Baseball5 was introduced as an event highlight to the course given its interactive nature, simplicity and youth appeal. The training was led by WBSC certified coach Liu Ran.
