MLB eyes more baseball in China

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"Some of the things were very different and not my style of food," San Diego Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff said Sunday, when his team beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 in the second of a two-game exhibition series — the first major league games in China.

Josh Geer earned the win and Scott Hairston hit a go-ahead, two-run double to help the Padres overcome a three-run deficit.

Chinese fans struggled to understand baseball, cheering foul balls and sitting silently for a seventh-inning chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." For Kouzmanoff, the trials came choking down a few delicacies.

He sampled silk worm in a street-side market, something called a sea scorpion and snake. He said he passed on kabobs of cow stomach, sea urchin, star fish and sea horse.

"It was pretty gross," said Kouzmanoff, who paid $5 for the three-course meal. "I think the taste was better than the smell. The snake was extremely rubbery. It was like chewing on a rubber band."

Saturday's opener ended in a 3-3 tie after nine innings, not unusual for a preseason game. Sunday's game drew a near-sellout crowd of 11,890 to the new Olympic baseball venue in west Beijing, down slightly from 12,224 the previous day.

Both had the feel of games played almost anywhere in America — perhaps in a minor league park — with hot dogs and peanuts selling briskly and vendors hawking beer and soft drinks at bargain prices. Some vendors even wore shirts patterned after the Texas flag. Dodgers and Padres caps were offered at U.S. prices, and tickets ranged from 50 yuan ($7) to 1,280 yuan ($180).

"I would love to come back," Los Angeles Dodgers chairman Frank McCourt said. "I feel we would be making a mistake if we felt that by playing these exhibition games the job was done. The job has just begun."

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