I saw this a week ago on Baseball Think Factory  and just finally got around to reading it. I expected a little more, but that might due to the fact that it’s about Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese coming together to play a baseball game in Xinjiang, the remote province in Western China.

It’s still worth a read —  just for the sheer improbability of the meeting.  Apparently, there’s  a documentary being made about these games, so keep an eye out for that.

Even though they must make do with a soccer field for a diamond, and their gear – worn gloves, frayed balls, rough bats – wouldn’t be fit for Little League, these players have triumphed. On the field, they’ve transformed, in four years, from a skinny group of mostly freshmen (none of whom had ever seen a baseball game on TV) into a cohesive team that has held its own against bigger, better-equipped opponents from the east coast.

Off the field, their tales of overcoming bitter racial divides – there weren’t enough players to have separate Han and Uighur teams at the university – beg to be baseball’s answer to “Remember the Titans.”

“Before baseball, I had no Chinese friends,” says Parhat Ablat, the star pitcher and captain. “Then I became friends with them because we were forced to talk.”

I found this bit pretty funny…

He’s also enjoyed getting to know the Uighurs on the team and says that they even “hang out” after practices, perhaps to shoot hoops or watch a Major League Baseball game online in their dorm. And if the conversation ever falls short, they have one bedrock bond in common: They’re all devoted followers of the New York Yankees.