Li Menghua

Li Menghua was Minister of Sports from the People’s Republic of China and a leader of the powerful Communist Party Central Committee from 1981-1988. He was a member of the 12th and 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Menghua was appointed to the Chinese Olympic Committee in 1986 and became its president. He met with O’Malley as Minister of Sports in June, 1985 as O’Malley explored options for privately building China’s first baseball field, which came to fruition 15 months later. Wearing a white Dodgers cap with blue script “Dodgers,” Menghua threw the ceremonial first pitch at the September 12, 1986 dedication ceremonies for “Dodger Baseball Field” privately built by Peter O’Malley at the Tianjin Institute of Physical and Cultural Education. Menghua hosted a reception for Peter, Bowie Kuhn, Dr. Bob Smith, Rod Dedeaux, Dr. Shigeyoshi Matsumae and others at the Great Hall of the People to celebrate China’s first official field dedicated to baseball. 

Peter invited Menghua and Wei Ming, President of Baseball Association of the People’s Republic of China, to be his guests for the 1984 Olympic Games baseball competition, an eight-team exhibition tournament at Dodger Stadium from July 31-August 7. They sat with Peter in the President’s Box with Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Menghua and Ming invited O’Malley to visit China in October, 1984, through the China Sports Commission. Peter traveled to China for productive meetings, which resulted in the Dodgers sending minor league manager Kevin Kennedy and scout Tim Johnson, the first members of a Major League Baseball team to visit the People’s Republic of China to instruct players. In December, 1984, they spent two weeks in China, holding a series of clinics in Kunming. Kennedy (Texas and Boston) and Johnson (Toronto) later served as major league managers.