ABOUT THE SPORT

The game of baseball was played all over northern and central America and in Japan well before the end of the 19th century. In the United States of America baseball had been a game for professionals since the start and the 1903 season ended with the first ever World Series.

In the 1930s the world of baseball felt the need of an organization that ruled the amateur side of a professional sport. The International Baseball Federation was then born in 1938.

In 2005, despite all the efforts of IBAF, IOC voted baseball out of the program of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Baseball makes its last Olympic appearance and Korea takes the Gold medal at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China.

The IBAF, under President Harvey Schiller, attempted to reinstate baseball onto the Olympic Programme, but the IOC voted in August 2009 to keep baseball off the 2016 program.


Chinese Baseball Association

Founded: 1979
Headquarters: Beijing
IBAF Member since: 1981
ABAF Member since: 1982
President: Lei Jun
Secretary-General: Shen Wei 
Add: No. 2, Tiyuguan Road, Beijing 100763, China
Tel: (86 10) 87183534
Fax: (86 10) 67117596
E-mail: chinabaseball2008@yahoo.com.cn
Web: http://baseball.sport.org.cn


Brief introduction:

The first Chinese baseball team on record was the Chinese Baseball Team organized by the famous engineer Zhan Tianyou during his study at Yale University in 1877-1881. Later, baseball was brought to China by returned overseas Chinese and students from America and Japan. At about the same time, baseball was included in the PE (physical education) course in missionary schools in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, etc.
 
In 1895 a baseball team was formed in Beijing Huiwen Academy. The first baseball match in China was played between Beijing Huiwen Academy and Tongzhou Xiehe Academy in 1907.
 
Baseball was also included in the Far East Games initiated by China, Japan and the Philippines in 1913, to which China sent its teams on many occasions. In the baseball competition of the national sports meets held before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, most players were students.
 
At the First National Games in 1959, baseball as an official event drew teams from 23 provinces and municipalities from across the country.
 
The Chinese Baseball League was initiated in April 2003, with only four teams participating, namely Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Link: International Baseball Federation (IBAF)

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