Wei Ming

Wei Ming was a high-ranking member of the People’s Republic of China responsible for all sports in Beijing. He served as President, Baseball Association of the People’s Republic of China and was also a leader of the All-China Sports Federation. Peter O’Malley first visited the People’s Republic of China in February, 1980. He wrote a letter to Wei Ming on May 19, 1980 inviting him and coaches and an interpreter to observe baseball at Dodger Stadium. Ming sent five representatives to Los Angeles from July 24-August 5, 1980. Ming was Peter’s guest for the 1984 Olympic Games baseball competition, an eight-team exhibition tournament at Dodger Stadium from July 31-August 7. China Sports Minister Li Menghua and Ming enjoyed games with Peter in the President’s Box with Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Ming and Li Menghua reciprocated in October, 1984, inviting O’Malley to visit China at the invitation of the China Sports Commission. Peter then sent Dodger minor league manager Kevin Kennedy and former major leaguer and scout Tim Johnson to China that December for two weeks to hold a series of clinics in Kunming. They were the first members of a Major League Baseball team to be sent to the People’s Republic of China for player instruction. Both Kennedy and Johnson later were major league managers – Kennedy with Texas and Boston, and Johnson with Toronto. From June 5-9, 1985, Peter and Kuhn visited Beijing and watched an exhibition baseball game between Sichuan Province and New York’s C.W. Post College. Ming sat with them behind the home plate screen. In an AP story, Peter pledged that he “wanted to help the Chinese develop baseball any way I can.”

In 1982, Ming worked closely with Dr. Bob Smith, president of the U.S. Baseball Federation and Duck Lee, president of the Industrial League and the Korean Amateur Baseball Association in America, to arrange for an all-star team of Asian-American amateurs to tour China for two weeks and play seven exhibition games against China’s top amateur teams. This tour took place in August, 1986. Ming was involved with the Chinese government to aid O’Malley in finding a premier location for the first field dedicated just to baseball in the People’s Republic of China. They found the perfect location in Tianjin. On September 12, 1986, Ming participated in opening ceremonies for the dedication of “Dodger Baseball Field,” privately built by Peter at the Tianjin Institute of Physical and Cultural Education. The field was used for professional, amateur and youth games and tournaments for decades. On June 27, 1988, Ming joined Peter, his assistant Akihiro “Ike” Ikuhara and Dr. Creighton Hale, President of Little League Baseball, in Tokyo, Japan to make the following announcement: “The first Little League Baseball field in the People’s Republic of China will be constructed in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in the People’s Republic of China. These arrangements have been made through a gift to Little League Baseball by Mr. Tatsuzo Mizukami, former Chairman of the Board of Mitsui (and a Little League Baseball Trustee).”