BASEBALL:THIS IS the last round up for baseball at the Summer Games. Something about the game's leisurely pace, or the failure to attract major league stars has condemned the sport as a space hog and ratings failure among the people who matter, large American TV companies.

That and the fact Cuba have won three of the four Olympic editions of the great American pastime since the sport's introduction to the schedule in Barcelona have brought Olympic baseball to the point of extinction.

Pity. Last night at the lovely Wukesong Baseball complex's main field one of those sweet cultural exchanges which are part and parcel of Olympism was due to unfolded to the gentle rhythm of the game China played against the USA at baseball. Everyone got more than they bargained for.

Jim Lefebvre, an old infielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been in China for half a decade now evangelising for the game. Last night he was managing the Chinese national side.

Lefebvre's toils have made him fluent in Chinese and even if his charges haven't quite acquired the same fluency in the art of baseball they have provided enough evidence here in Beijing to suggest that perhaps the IOC have been a little hasty in bumping off the sport.

The Chinese objective here was not to embarrass themselves and to that end they have done well, beating Chinese Taipei in their first round game and holding South Korea without a run through 10 innings before losing by a single run in their clash.

With a population of 1.3 billion people it would take just a small sporting revolution to jump start the game in China and already Major League baseball clubs in the States have begun scouring China for raw talent and Chinese players are to be found at several big league outfits, while other teams have begin funding feeder clubs and staging exhibitions in China.

Lefebvre is 66. His own time at bat was many years ago. It takes a brave soul to come to China in his 60s and try to ignite a flame for a sport like baseball. Last night was his night in the moonlight, his evening under lights. And found himself thrown out of the game half way through. The curious Chinese present weren't sure what to make of a game which saw three ejections and several near brawls but they liked it.

The Americans had come to the game hoping to get what is known in Olympic baseball as a mercy win. That is when a team gets 10 runs ahead they win the game without it going its full course, thus sparing the pitchers a full night's work.

Instead they were making heavy weather of things until the fifth inning when they found some hitting form and ran in four runs to go ahead four-nil. If there was a slight feeling of anti-climax among those of us hoping for a huge surprise it was diminished by the fun on the field.

The excitement wasn't really on the scoreboard. First the US right fielder Matt LaPorta ran right over the Chinese catcher Wang Wei as Wang crouched behind his batter at home plate. Wang had to be carted off.

Not long after, Nate Schierholtz repeated the treatment to Wang's replacement Yang Yang as he ran in a score to make it 5-0. Yang was incensed and went for Schierholtz. Half of China held him back. Meanwhile, Lefebvre was feistily in the face of the umpire arguing about American rough play. He got thrown out of the game.

It wasn't over yet. The Chinese, still furious, waited for their revenge and it came in the seventh inning when relief pitcher Chen Kun drilled a ball right at Matt LaPorta's head, catching him on the helmet and cuing more argy bargy. La Porta was carted off ( for a CAT scan, the Americans said afterwards, and Chen and the Chinese pitching coach were both ejected too. Easily the most fun everyone had ever had at a baseball game in Beijing

The Chinese were never going to win but the enthusiasm of the home crowd never waned through three hours of play and roughhousing and in the end they got some reward.

Yang Yang, the catch, had his turn at bat, American Neil Blane pitching. And bang. One pure, swing meeting the pitch on the sweet spot and the ball was up and away, a white dot in the inky Beijing sky, up and up and out over the outfield boundary for a home run. Yang Yang circled the bases with his right arm in the air.

A moral victory. Baseball and geopolitics on a warm night in China. Great stuff.

Baseball at the Olympics

Only men compete in Olympic baseball (women compete in softball). Eight teams - Canada, China, Cuba, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and USA - have been competing in a round-robin preliminary tournament since last Wednesday, which ends tomorrow.

The top four teams meet in the semi-finals this Friday - beginning (Irish-time) at 3.30am and 11am.

The final is scheduled to begin at 11am (Irish-time) on Saturday.

Did you know . . .At the IOC meeting in 2005, baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.