Take me out to the qiuchang

Any guesses what qiuchang means?

I think it’s been on the US news that the Dodgers and the Padres are playing the “MLB China Series” this weekend. A bunch of us from the office went to the Sunday afternoon game.
It was at the Wukesong Baseball Field, which will host baseball for the Olympics. That white van you can see behind the sign was supposed to be the box office for ticket sales. The event was not sold out, but at the last minute the security bureau told the promoter they could not sell any more tickets. There were enough guys hanging around outside to unofficially take care of whatever demand there might have been. Baseball is not especially popular here, not like basketball or ping pong.
Note the last item on the list of forbidden things, obviously added to the sign after it was originally printed.
That’s the first pitch. Both teams brought squads of minor league players with a few past-their-prime veterans, so there were a bunch of unfamiliar names.
This guy seemed pretty popular for some reason (the one on the screen, not the one in the outfield). Yeah, I know he’s from Taiwan, but that’s about as close as you get to a Chinese MLB player. And when he got a single (which he did), guess what everyone said?
Speaking of popular, all the cameras came out for this little between-innings show. I have it from a reliable source that there were many other performers scheduled to fill in those little gaps in a baseball game, such as a big traditional Chinese drum corps, but at the last minute the security officials nixed everything but the Korean dance squad. They had to find a replacement singer to lead the crowd in “Take Me out to the Ball Game” – but the less said about that the better. Thanks, AD!
The Padres brought their mascot. Note his security escort in red. Apparently the Dodgers don’t have a mascot – for some reason I’m thinking a little street urchin from Oliver! would work, but maybe a pickpocket wouldn’t be a good role model.

And in case you’re wondering what it looked like underneath the stands...
And in case you’re wondering what the restrooms looked like...
The strange looking building in the background will be the site of Olympic basketball games. I think it’s designed to look like bamboo, and it’s supposed to be lit from within at night.
They had many activities set up to educate people about this strange foreign game. This little kid who hit a whiffle ball off a post has a jersey that says BJFLES. I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.
I bugged out at the top of the ninth to beat the crowd on the subway. When I left, I think the Padres were up 6-4 or maybe 6-5. I don’t especially care about either of the teams, so I wasn’t paying much attention.


I did take a little video, but YouTube is completely cut off now, so I couldn’t post it if I wanted to.