The Hidden Ball Trick

In the shadow of one of China's National treasures, the Dynasty Prep team hoisted the second place trophy after a triple-header Saturday in the Bird's Nest Cup. Winning the final game in dramatic fashion, a walk off wild pitch, the boys were greeted by Coach Wang and the trophy as we headed toward the parking deck. He handed me the the trophy and extended his other hand to shake. "Jegga, shir shemna?" I uttered, and he read the face of the trophy and said, "something, something Di Er Ga, something, something."
Di er ga - second place - not to bad, I thought.
I assumed that Japan finished first since they had beaten us 11-8 in the second game of the day, but just for giggles I called for a friend to help me interpret. "Japan finished third, he said."
"What, who was fir-"
I was interrupted by Coach Wang's hefty laugh as he pointed in the direction of the field toward the team we had just beaten.
No worries though, our kids had a blast and played like champions!
Some things I learned today about baseball in China.
1. During a mid inning pitching change, the catcher throws down to second; this caught me off guard and made me want to show everybody in the park a game on TV. There is very little baseball to watch here.
2. They use a "ball" that is a small rubber version of a baseball. We argue for the use of a real baseball at every contest, but never win.
3. If you speak Chinese, check that, if you are Chinese, you have much greater influence over the umpires. The opposing coach told the umpire that our starting pitcher had thrown too much today. Despite throwing only three low-impact innings, the site director agreed with him and we were forced to make the change. We laughed it off and went to our next guy who relinquished the lead of course. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, their best player trotted out to throw the bottom of the last - his fourth inning of the game.
4. The hidden ball trick, perfectly executed after a pain-inducing wild pitch to relinquish the lead, makes all other dongxi of the day seem insignificant. We were reeling from the pitching change fiasco and the ensuing offering up of the tying and go ahead runs when Theo, our savvy third baseman, trotted over to the mound to deliver a word of confidence and seemingly the ball. As he ran back to third I looked at our coaches and said, "oh my god he did it."
Theo pretended to stretch and as the runner turned to his dugout to clap up the pressure on our pitcher, he strayed a step or two off the bag, and Theo, taking one or two hop-steps, pulled the ball from his glove, touched the unsuspecting runner on the shoulder and showed the ball to the umpire. Jubilation!
Back at it today where Parker and Devon and the Dynasty Youth team play for some hardware of their own!
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