Baseball

PJ is playing on the Hong Kong International School varsity baseball team.  He is very happy with the level of play.  HKIS is the only school in Hong Kong that has a baseball team.  Therefore, finding local competition is difficult.  In past years the team has played a couple of games against local rec league teams.  This year they were able to schedule a number of games against the Hong Kong National Team.  This is Hong Kong's team which competes for the Olympics.  The Hong Kong National Team consists of players from the age of 16 and up.  According to PJ one of their pitchers looks like he's 30!  There appear to be enough players on the Hong Kong National Team to field two, if not three, full teams.

They have played 4 games against the National team.  They lost the first two, tied the third and won the fourth.  Three of the four games have been played at the other team's field in Kowloon.  Dave was invited to attend the first game with another Dad (since we didn't have a car), for the second game Dave was brave and took the MTR.  For the third game we both rode with another family to the game and I took the MTR home.  The field is very nice.  Apparently it was built on a land fill, so it is the only field in Hong Kong with good drainage.  The area surrounding the field is very nice.  There are high rise apartment buildings, but they are not crammed together.  It was a very quiet area.  Once again I was impressed with how clean the MTR and stations were.

PJ has started the last two games in center field.  The first of those games he played the entire game in center.  The second game he came in to pitch later in the game.

This weekend they will play a mens team.  I am very curious to see how old these men are and how good they are.  In two weeks they will travel to their first tournament in Wuxi, China at the MLB training center.  Two weeks after that they play in the China Cup tournament in Shanghai, China.  Dave, the girls and I will attend both of these tournaments.  I am looking forward to seeing mainland China and seeing how these tournaments compare with tournaments in the U.S.  For the Wuxi tournament the boys will stay in a hotel.  For the China Cup tournament they will stay with host families.  A minimum of two boys will be with each family.  The last tournament of the season is at the end of October, the APAC (Asia Pacific Activities Conference) tournament in Kobe, Japan.  Unfortunately none of us will be able to attend this tournament.  PJ will once again be staying with a host family for this tournament.

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend's game.

PJ in center field.

PJ

The Hong Kong National Team
They are standing in a circle so
you can get an idea of how large
the team is.