A league of their own

Growing up playing baseball, Liang Xintong had long accepted that he would never make a living just by knowing how to throw curveballs or changeups in China, where baseball, despite its huge popularity in neighboring East Asian countries, remains a niche sport.

He shelved his glove after playing his last tournament in 2022, seldom stepping on a diamond since, instead forging a career as a ski instructor, believing his heyday on the mound had long gone before it really even started.

It was not a wise decision to pick baseball, totally by chance, as his sport of choice, it seemed.

Well, not until recently.

The launch of the brand-new Chinese Professional Baseball (CPB) league, announced last week in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, has delivered Liang and many of his peers an extra inning, and a serious chance to develop a career as a full-time pro, with the new project — the first of its kind in China funded by corporate stakeholders — breathing new life into the sport's promotion.

With all its founding clubs financially backed by deep-pocketed enterprises, including State-owned and listed companies, the new league, with its opening day slated for Jan 1, is expected to expand career pathways for all baseball enthusiasts in China — pros or amateurs — with a draft system being introduced, and more games promised, in an initial three-year plan.

The CPB league will open the 2026 season on New Year's Day with five clubs — Changsha Want Want Happy, Xiamen Dolphins, Shenzhen Bluesox, Fuzhou Sea Knights and the Shanghai Dragons — set to play a total of 40 regular-season games through Feb 4, according to the league's Shanghai-based operating company Coolbang Sports.

The regular-season winner will directly advance into a best-of-three final series, scheduled from Feb 6-8, with its challenger to be decided by an extra playoff between the runner-up and third-placed clubs.

The majority of the spring season will be staged at Shenzhen's Zhongshan Park Baseball Field, with a second facility in Zhongshan, another city in Guangdong province, prepared as a backup host.

The goal, according to Coolbang Sports, is to help the league evolve into a full-fledged, home-and-away professional program by the 2028 season.

'It's about time'

It sounds like a pretty wild ambition, given the lack of facilities and baseball's modest public profile across China, but it's time to give it a try, said Chung Chun-hao, operating director of Coolbang.

"With Chinese teams doing better on the international stage in recent years, drawing more attention from fans and potential investors, we believe it's about time," Chung, a native of Chinese Taipei, which will compete at next year's World Baseball Classic, told China Daily in Shenzhen last week.

"We are not yet ready (for the home-and-away format), but it's the goal in the next three years, beginning with makeshift facilities in each city, before developing larger-scale venues.

"We're not expecting to make decent revenue right away, but with the commitment from our investors and club owners, we will try to develop a sustainable commercial model around ticketing, broadcasting, sponsorship and club merchandising."

As a sign of the national program's improving talent development, the Chinese men's team finished fourth at the World Baseball and Softball Confederation's (WBSC) U23 World Cup in September last year, achieving the best result of any Chinese squad at the international level across all age categories.

The just-concluded 2025 National Games also saw sell-out baseball games featuring the host Guangdong team at Zhongshan field, with plenty of spectators traveling from Hong Kong and Macao to root for their own sides.

The sport's governing body is counting on the CPB league to pick up that baton.

"The CPB league was born at the right time, benefiting from the National Games momentum and the shared passion of baseball enthusiasts," said Xie Bin, a vice-chairman of the Chinese Baseball Association.

"Building on this advantage, we expect the league to flourish step by step, first by growing awareness of the sport in the short term, with the long-term ambition of helping us narrow the gap with international powerhouses and pave a sustainable path for baseball development in China."

First draft

The newly formed league also completed China's first-ever baseball talent draft in Shenzhen last week, which saw the five clubs select 57 players from over 500 prospects that signed up to tryouts that were held across five cities since early October.

The open draft attracted elite athletes, including Chinese national team players, veterans from overseas pro leagues in Japan, South Korea and North America, and amateurs, such as college players, expats and ordinary enthusiasts, to vie for opportunities to rebuild, or kickstart, their careers on the diamond.

"I am really grateful to be able to put my glove back on and compete as a player again, thanks to the establishment of the CPB league," said the 23-year-old Liang, a pitcher drafted by Want Want Happy, the franchise based in the Hunan provincial capital Changsha.

"It's a really great opportunity for many players, like me, who'd given up on the sport due to the lack of competitive games, to come back and play again," said Liang, a product of the MLB Development Center in Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

Huadan Cairang, a left-handed pitcher who represented Team China at the 2023 Asian Games and the 2024 WBSC U23 World Cup, said he feels extremely excited to be able to show off his stuff against experienced international pros, after also being selected by Changsha in the draft.

"The best part for me is the opportunity to compete with, and against, players from international baseball powerhouses," said the 23-year-old, who hails from the Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Northwest China's Qinghai province.

"The fact that the league season runs between the national championships and National Games gives us more consistent competition, which is ideal," he said.

While interest in the new league from abroad is riding high, according to Zhang Xiaotian, general manager of Shanghai Dragons, each of the five franchises is limited to just 10 imported players on their 26-player regular-season rosters.

"With the draftees and imports from the United States and South Korea, we've signed around 20 players. The international field is expected to keep growing," said Zhang.