This winter the Yankees announced that they had established a working relationship with the Chinese Baseball Association. Despite their reliance on a pitcher from mainland China's bugaboo, Taiwan, the country was eager to get into bed with the winningest team in baseball history. That association has borne its first fruit with today's announcement of the signing of two players from behind the Great Wall.
The New York Yankees announced today that they have signed left-handed pitcher Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang to minor league contracts, becoming the first Major League team to sign a player from the People’s Republic of China with approval from the Chinese Baseball Association.
Liu, 19, is a member of the Chinese National Team as well as the Guangdong Leopards of the Chinese Baseball League. Zhang, also 19, plays for another outfit in the six-team league. The Tianjin Lions have played in three of the last five championship series with Zhang in the lineup. He was also a part of the Chinese team in the World Baseball Classic last spring. It's a long way from happening, of course, but a Wang-Zhang battery would tickle the fancy of both the puerile as well as those that hope for detente between mainland China and the breakaway island just off their coast.
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