Hillcats' Chang, pitchers Mildren, Cheng made World Classic debuts

Ray Chang’s timing was perfect. Last offseason, he was in China acting as a coach at a Major League Baseball youth camp. While there, he met China’s president of baseball operations. After a brief conversation, Chang was asked to play for Team China in this spring’s World Baseball Classic.

Never mind that Chang was born in Kansas City, Mo., lives in Leewood, Kan., and played college ball at Rockhurst University in Kansas. His Chinese heritage was enough to earn him a spot on the team.

Chang, who started at designated hitter Friday night for the Hillcats and hit a three-run double in his first at-bat, not only made the team but was China’s best hitter during three tournament games. In a 4-1 win over Chinese Taipei — China’s only WBC victory to date — Chang hit a two-out RBI double in the fifth inning to put China up 3-2, and he rapped a solo home run in the eighth inning, China’s only homer of the tournament.

“It was amazing,” Chang said. “I was honestly living in a fantasy world when I was out there for a week. It’s different. The fans are so hardcore over there about their baseball. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Probably one of the top three baseball moments of my life, if not the greatest one. It was awesome.”

Chang is one of three Hillcats who were on international rosters for the 16-team tournament, won by Japan last month. Pitcher Paul Mildren, who is slated to start Monday here against Winston-Salem, made two appearances for Australia. Pitcher Chi-Hung Cheng was on Chinese Taipei’s roster but didn’t make an appearance.

Though the tournament was met with a certain level of ennui in the United States, it was a huge deal abroad, especially in Asia.

But even in Australia, where cricket, rugby and soccer garner much of the national attention, the WBC helped drum up interest in baseball.

“We could be playing marbles, and if it was for Australia, people would kind of follow it,” Mildren said. “So there was a fair bit of publicity, a lot more this time, which was good. It’s not necessarily on that larger scale, where people stop and turn their TVs over like in Taiwan or Korea. But it’s noticed. Without a doubt, it’s noticed.”

Mildren didn’t fare as well as Chang in this year’s classic. He allowed four hits and three earned runs in 2 1/3 innings in two WBC appearances, finishing with a 11.57 ERA. But Mildren holds fond memories of his 2006 stint in the WBC.

“Being able to pitch against big leaguers (was big),” Mildren said. “I was fresh out of A-ball and I threw against the Dominican Republic, threw against Albert Pujols and Miguel Tejada and Alfonso Soriano, and I got a few of those guys out. I said, ‘well, hey, you know, I don’t need to do anything different.’ Obviously, I need to be more consistent. It’s about being consistent and knowing how to pitch.

“It’s not having the best stuff in the world to get them out. That’s the best thing, being able to give guys experience against big leaguers. And then big leaguers playing against big leaguers at that level of competition, it raises their standards as well.”

Chang and Mildren both welcomed the opportunity to raise the profile of the game in their respective countries. China basically started its baseball program from scratch in 2006, and the team looked the part, getting outscored 40-6 in three WBC games. The goal was to be competitive by the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and China won once there. The win over Chinese Taipei last month was another sign that China’s program is progressing.

There is no professional baseball league in Australia, but MLB has an academy on the country’s Gold Coast in Queensland, which is used to identify and train young talent. Mildren took advantage of that program, and as a 16-year-old in 2001, signed as a non-drafted free agent with the Florida Marlins. If an Aussie can’t latch on that way, he’ll most likely move to the U.S. and attend college in hopes of furthering his baseball career.

“It’s not as if good competition doesn’t exist,” Mildren said. “But it’s harder to get recognized as a dominant nation when we don’t have (a pro league). It affects the future of baseball for us, because the kids are choosing cricket or soccer. We lose a lot of kids to that. But we still have a hundred guys over here.”

China doesn’t have that sort of presence in the States just yet. In fact, the only Chinese-born player to ever play in the big leagues was Harry Kingman in 1914, and he was born of missionary American parents. If Chang makes it, he won’t fall in that category either, considering he was born in Missouri. Still, he can sense baseball in China is growing, and the experience can only help him in his pursuit of making a major-league roster.

“The pressure of playing in front of 60,000 people, for your country, on national television, that’s helped me,” Chang said. “It was only three games, but I felt like I learned a lot.”