Now that Major League Baseball has completed its first trip to China, it's looking ahead to a repeat visit. “I would love to come back,” Los Angeles Dodgers chairman Frank McCourt said Sunday, when his team lost to the San Diego Padres 6-3 in the second of a two-game exhibition series. “I feel we would be making a mistake if we felt that by playing these exhibition games the job was done. The job has just begun.” Padres pitcher Josh Geer picked up the victory, and Scott Hairston hit a double for San Diego to gave the Padres a 4-3 lead and help overcome a three-run deficit. Saturday's opener ended in a 3-3 tie after nine innings. Sunday's game drew a near-sellout crowd of 11,890, down slightly from 12,224 the previous day. “I absolutely think it's been a memorable weekend for the fans and for us in a different environment,” Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff said. “It was pretty cool to play in front of people who had never seen baseball before.” The first ball used in Saturday's game will go into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. There were also raves for the new Olympic field, which players all praised. It was 320 feet down both lines and 400 to center. The infield was hard and fast. “The guys were saying the field was at least as good as facilities back in Florida or Arizona,” said Murray Cook, in charge of MLB's international field preparations. Batting in the bottom of the first, the Dodgers showed the Chinese some textbook baseball. Taiwanese shortstop Chin-lung Hu singled, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Xavier Paul. He then swiped third and scored on Matt Kemp lineout to left. Kemp also delivered in the third with a two-out, two-run single that made it 3-0. The Padres closed to 3-2 in the fourth as Kouzmanoff hit an RBI double before Matt Antonelli hit into a run-scoring double play. Hairston's double and an error by left fielder George Lombard put the Padres ahead 5-3 in the fifth. They added another run in the seventh. “This has opened the eyes of all the Americans here,” McCourt said. “We came with a gift, the gift of baseball, but we left with a bigger gift _ the hospitality, the warmth and friendship of the Chinese people.” Meanwhile, baseball might yet feature at the 2012 Olympics despite being voted off the schedule for the London Games, according to International Baseball Federation (IBAF) president Dr Harvey Schiller. Schiller said the IBAF was campaigning hard for the sport to be restored to the Olympics when the schedule for the 2016 Games was considered next year and, if successful, would lobby hard for a place in London too. “We are working hard to get baseball back in the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will consider this in Copenhagen next August,” he said. __
