It’s a little past 6 a.m. here (remember it’s 12 hours AHEAD) and I have the option of watching Monday Night Football in my hotel room …
BUT … we are here to chase Cal Ripken a bit, and will be heading over to the Baseball Olympic Stadium with him around 8:15.
Later in the day, Cal will be working with Chinese youth who have NEVER played baseball before. Many are orphaned children, so this should be a spectacular treat, seeing Cal reach out to these kids from half a world away.
We’ve been here LESS THAN A DAY, and it’s just been brilliant so far.
The sun is rising over the skyline of Beijing, and it looks like another smoggy day! It literally looks like a city in the clouds, but these are NOT clouds at all.
We will be attending a State Department dinner tonight to meet ambassadors, dignitaries and, apparently, some VERY HIGH PROFILE Chinese celebrities. Cal being in China is a BIG, BIG deal here!
Someone wrote about which “Western” athletes are a big deal here.
So far: we’ve seen a few Chinese athletes on poster boards that we don’t recognize (clearly Olympians) and other than Yao Ming, the ONLY “Western celeb” is just as I expected:
DAVID BECKHAM!!!!
His face is all over these Moto ads on billboards.
Drew, Rob, Bob and several others at WNST have had MANY an argument over the years about what sport and what athletes are the most famous in the world.
I ALWAYS tell them it’s soccer and it’s David Beckham, but they don’t
“get it,” figuring it MUST be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, because that’s the way it is in America.
So, on this trip — which will take me through Hong Kong this weekend and Tokyo early next week — I will be on HIGH ALERT for ANY Tiger Woods references in Asia.
I bet I haven’t seen the last of my Beckham spottings.
Matter of fact: I’ll get Cal Ripken on video later in the day and ask him some “world athlete” stuff.
OH … last thing …
My videos would already be up and platformed (great stuff with Cal Ripken sitting on a plane over Siberia talking baseball with me is forthcoming) but YOU TUBE is BLOCKED by the Chinese government.
So, I can access my admin on wnst.net but NOT youtube.
The videos will have to wait.
But they ARE worth the wait.
We’ll check in first thing Tuesday morning your time.
BTW: I LOVE getting the comments and questions! Keep them coming!
