Baseball is coming to Beijing!

American Major League Baseball games are coming to China for the first time, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres to play exhibition games on March 15 and 16 at the baseball venue for the 2008 Olympics.

Baseball — like soccer, American football and basketball — is eager to crack the market in China, which has a population of 1.3 billion with a swelling consumer class keen to spend on foreign brands.

Unlike soccer and basketball, baseball and American football are invisible on playgrounds in China and absent from TV coverage.

“Hopefully we can help you develop a love for the game as we love it in the United States,” San Diego Padres vice president Dave Winfield said at Thursday’s announcement in central Beijing, which was also attended by new Dodgers manager Joe Torre.

The exhibition games will be televised on the new Olympics channel, bringing America’s favorite pastime to viewers throughout China. ESL teachers using Parade English are new breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t be drawing a baseball diamond to a sea of blank faces anymore.

I can’t wait to see if the seventh-inning stretch catches on over here!

Via Xinhua

Can fashion and babes go in line with official Olympic sports in Beijing 2008? Donning a dress in high jump, going prom in still rings and dancing in table tennis are some of the ways to land you in the fashion limelight but not an Olympic gold medal.

Babes Photo Gallery

Beijing Olympics baseball cap and merchandise are already making their way online. T-shirts, caps, towels and many more are stamped with either the Beijing 2008 Olympics emblem, Beijing 2008 or anything to do with “Beijing”, “Olympics”, “2008″ or even “Panda”.

This Olympic T-shirt sports a panda on the back and the official 2008 Beijing Olympics logo on the front.

Anyway, Panda is really cute especially baby pandas. Erm, yah.

Via China Sprout