A recent article in United Airlines Hemispheres magazine offers a fascinating look inside the MLB Development Center in China.

Located in Wuxi, about 80 miles west of Shanghai and nearly halfway to Nanjing, the academy is run by Rick Dell, longtime baseball coach at The College of New Jersey.

"Sometimes you start to think you're Ronald McDonald with a fungo bat."
- Rick Dell, MLB director of baseball development, Asia

"I am happiest on a baseball diamond. It is an unspeakable feeling."
- Zhu Songjun (nickname "Soldier")

Read the article
See the photos

Consider….
300 million - Chinese playing basketball
307 million - entire US population in 2009 census
4 million - Chinese playing baseball
0 - Major League players from China

Might one of Rick Dell's students "Soldier," "Shoeshine," "Wanger," "Bernie," or "Cowboy" be the first?

For more on Rick Dell and MLB baseball development in China...

• Chinese TV segment, October 2011
• New York Times story, July 2007
• Interview on ChinaExpat.com, April 2009

So naturally I was PUMPED! to see Nike offering some of their popular baseball cleats in gray, or as they're calling the color scheme "Stealth, white, and light graphite."

Here are four models of Nike baseball cleats with this sweet gray look.

Nike Air Show Elite 2 - see at Eastbay

Nike Huarache 2K4 Low - see at Eastbay

Nike Air Huarache 2KFresh - see at Eastbay

Jordan Jeter Cut Metal - see at Eastbay

ESPN Films 30 for 30 Gift Set Collection
$39 Vol 1, $48 Vol 2 at Amazon
Only 4 of the 30 films are about baseball, but they're very popular with sports fans in general. Volume 1 includes a film about the birth of Rotisserie Fantasy Baseball, and Volume 2 includes films on Michael Jordan playing Minor League baseball, the amazing 2004 Red Sox comeback and World Series win, and 1981's FernandoMANIA with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bergino gift baseballs
$20 to $25 at Bergino.com
These cool gift baseballs aren't for the field, but they're perfect for the office or a collection at home. And if you're ever in New York City, you have to check out their amazing "clubhouse" store.

official MLB baseballs
$19-$30 at RawlingsGear.com
They have the regular official MLB ball as well as special editions like from the All-star game, Futures game, or even to commemorate Jeter's 3000th hit and Mariano Rivera's 602nd save.

baseball caps
various prices at Lids
Can't go wrong with an official MLB New Era cap like their favorite team wears on the field, or a special edition cap they might not have seen.

Baseball America magazine subscription
starts at $33 for 6 issues at BaseballAmerica.com
The most complete news about prospects as they come up from high school through college and the minors.

book: THE SCIENCE OF HITTING by Ted Williams
$11 at Amazon
An oldie but a goodie, and I'm shocked that so many baseball fans and players haven't heard of it. Who wouldn't want to learn what the greatest hitter who ever lived said about how to do the most difficult thing in sports.

Batting Gloves
$30-$40 for nice ones, look at BaseballRampage, BaseballSavings, and BaseballExpress
Baseball players quickly wear through batting gloves but many are reluctant to buy new ones. Not sure why. Having another good quality pair never hurts, and most players enjoy trying a new brand or style and trading with their teammates. Even non-player fans get a kick out of batting gloves because it's an easy way to feel a little bit like a player again, and it's fun to wear them as regular gloves sometimes.

Free Shipping, Closeout Prices, Daily Deals... it's all here. Just click the store name below and browse some of the best deals of this holiday season.  Having trouble finding exactly what you're looking for? Email us at team@morebaseball.com and we'll gladly help.

• Homerun Monkey (Take even more off of clearance prices)
• Baseball Savings (Closeout Prices... seriously... CLOSEOUT)
• Rawlings Gear (Daily deals and free shipping)
• Baseball Express (Phiten, Evoshield, Rawlings, Nike, TPX, and more deals)
• MLB.com Shop (20% off order, additional 25% off clearance)

Homerun Monkey

ENDS TODAY - Friday, Nov. 25.
If you spend more than $50.00 on Clearance Items, take an additional 20% off all items in the Clearance section using the coupon code BLKFRIDAY20. Click here to check out the clearance items.

This offer may not be combined with any other offer or coupon and only one coupon can be used per order.

Baseball Savings

Extra 10% off storewide products and free shipping on orders over $99.

Here are some of the best deals we found, but check out the entire closeout list here.

82% off Under Armour Men's Heat Gear Piped Pants (was $50, now $8.98)

75% off Under Armour Boys HeatGear Slider Shorts (was $24.99, now $6.28)

50% off Majestic MLB Therma Base Triple Peak Premier Jackets (was $125, now $62.97, many teams available)

40% off Majestic MLB Therma Base YOUTH Triple Peak Premier Jackets (was $60, now $35.97, many teams available)

44% off Nike Men's Air Max Edge 10+ Trainers (was $80, now $42.97, many colors available)

82% off Mizuno Youth DryLite 2-Button Jerseys (was $24.95, now $4.48, Red, Navy, Black, White, Royal)

80% off Majestic Adult Pro Style Piped Baseball Pants (was $26.80, now $5.38, many colors available)

46% off Majestic Youth Authentic Replica Jerseys (was $50, now $26.97, many teams available)

37% off Lousiville Slugger Pro Flare Gloves (was $199.95, now $125.97, limited size options)

Rawlings Gear

- Nov. 24 - Nov. 28 - receive FREE SHIPPING on any order over $49.99.

- Nov. 16 - Nov. 30 - 15% off all outerwear.

- Until Nov. 30 - Chance to win a Rawlings Maple Ace Wood Bat

- November 30 - December 15 -  Daily holiday sales on gloves, pants, bats, sunglasses and more! Below are a few highlights from the list, click here for the entire holiday sale.

Dec. 1 -  43% off the REVO SOLID CORE 350 Series 11.5 inch Glove (was $70, now $39.99)

Dec. 9 - 30% off Adult or Youth Flare Relaxed Fit Pro Weight Pants (was $40, now $27.99)

Dec. 12 - 29% off Adult or Youth Pullover (was $35, now $24.99)

Dec. 14 - 47% off Half-Rim Athletic Wrap Sunglasses (was $29.99, now $15.99)

Baseball Express

DEALS EXPIRE DEC. 23

20% off Phiten when you buy 2 or more - Click BBEXP and search BBXMORE_1

25% off Evoshield when you buy 2 or more - Click BBEXP and search BBXMORE_2

20% off Pro Flare Pants when you buy 20 or more - Click BBEXP and search BBXMORE_3

$10 off Majestic Pants when you order 2 or more - Click BBEXP and search BBXMORE_4

Team Express Tees (2 for $25 or 3+ for $10 each) - Click BBEXP and search BBXMORE_5

18% off Pant belt sock combo - Click BBEXP and search BBXSET_1

$80 off All star Catchers set - Click BBEXP and search BBXSET_2

$10 off Rawlings Pro Flare combo - Click BBEXP and search BBXSET_3

$10 off Nike Shorts and Tee combo - Click BBEXP and search BBXSET_4

$15 off Louisville Bat Glove Wristband Combo - Click BBEXP and search BBXSET_5

MLB.com Shop

Black Friday Deal Ends tonight, Nov. 25 at 11:59 pm.

Clearance Deal Ends Sunday, Nov. 27 at 11:59 pm.

The mesh back in these TPX Hybrid Lite gloves makes them lighter than leather (Louisville says 18% lighter) and supposedly enables for quicker break-in, too.

The four styles below usually cost $150 to $170 but are now down to $99.99 while supplies last.

Also the current Baseball Express promotion of free shipping on any Louisville product will save you another $7 or more (free ship ends December 16, 2011).

- 11 1/2" Modified Trapeze Web H2L1154 Originally $149.99 | Now $99.99

(only 2 left in stock as of Nov.16, 4pm Eastern)

- 11 1/2 Pro H Web H2L1150 Originally $169.99 | Now $99.99

- 12" Basket Web H2L1200 Orignally $169.99 | Now $99.99

- 11 1/4" Pro I Web H2L1125 Originally $149.99 | Now $99.99

Last week the 2011 Rawlings Gold Glove awards were announced. Of course all the news stories share tidbits such as there were nine first-time winners and the Red Sox and Dodgers won the most awards, with three each.

But what we really want to know is...Which gloves do the Gold Glove winners actually use?

CLICK PHOTO TO PLAY CLIP

Because we all know that with the right glove, anyone can make millions, right?! So we dug through photo and video archives, searching for the glove brand and model of all the 2011 Gold Glove winners.

Below are lists of the honorees from each league. Player names link to video highlights (who doesn't like web gems?!) so you can see why each player deserves the award.

Help us! Although we found most of the gloves we were looking for, we didn't catch all of them. If you discover any that we missed, let us know at team@morebaseball.com.

* Buerhle's video is from 2010, but we think he deserves the Gold Glove for a decade based on this play.

We also found some rare pics of these Gold Glovers Bucknering a ball. Enjoy!

Marucci is clearly the hottest brand of wood bats in professional baseball right now. When you're watching MLB games it seems like everyone has a Marucci bat.

Chase Utley, Jose Reyes, and Big Papi swing Marucci.

If you're watching the World Series, you'll notice Adrian Beltre, Michael Young, and even the new Mr. October himself, Albert Pujols. (photo)

But Marucci bats are expensive -- for two reasons: (1) the brand is so hot right now, and (2) the bats are very high quality.

Well now's the best chance we've seen to get top-grade Marucci wood bats for cheap.

Usually a pro Marucci wood bat costs $120 for maple, and $100 for ash.

Then to save money, you can usually get Marucci blem bats at $70 for maple, and $60 for ash. Although you don't get to pick the exact cut/model, this is still an awesome deal. Pro-grade wood bats with only minor cosmetic blemishes...and you can buy them for $40-$50 less than regular price?! Sign me up.

BUT WAIT...IT GETS BETTER!

Right now Baseball Express has a CLOSEOUT SALE on Marucci blem bats.

Marucci blem Maple bats for only $50!

Marucci blem Ash bats for only $40!

That's another $20 off the usual blem bat prices, and now a full $60-$70 cheaper than regular price.

Looks like my mom is going to have her Christmas shopping for me and my two brothers all done in one fell swoop

Three options here...

Marucci blem ASH wood bat $39.98, 33" or 34" click here->

Marucci blem MAPLE BLACK wood bat $49.98, 32" 33" 34" click here->

Marucci blem MAPLE NATURAL wood bat $49.98, 32" 33" 34" click here->

These prices for Marucci blem bats are also available on Amazon in case you prefer shopping there or have a store credit or something. The bats are still sold by Baseball Express (or one of their sister brands). Only difference is shipping costs $8.95 through Amazon. It's only $6.95 direct from Baseball Express.

Man, I might get several of these. I noticed JustBats sells 3-packs of these Marucci blem bats to offer a slight discount, but those are $160 and $180 for ash and maple. With the closeout prices from Baseball Express above, you can make your own 3-packs for $120 or $150 (plus only $6.95 flat rate shipping).

A few years ago Louisville Slugger's Pro Flare series turned heads in the baseball world by giving us gloves straight off the shelf with their thumb and pinky fingers already bent outwards to mimic the preferred glove shape of many infielders, especially players from Latin America.

Now Louisville offers the Silver Slugger glove series, with stylish new models in that same Pro Flare shape and in a sweet silvery white color. This is about as close to a white baseball glove as you can get now, since the Mizuno GMP6BBRG was unfortunately banned.

There are 7 models in the Louisville Silver Slugger glove series.

5 Silver Slugger glove sizes in the silvery white color

11 1/4"
11 1/2" (also for lefties...that's left hand throwers, not commies)
11 3/4" (also for lefties)
13" (also for lefties)
Catcher's mitt

2 Silver Slugger glove sizes in BLACK (yeah, we don't get this either*)

11 1/2" black (also for lefties)
12" black (also for lefties)

* Seriously, how did this happen? Our best guess is that some guy at Louisville was in a meeting and said "Hey, maybe a pitcher will want a Silver Slugger glove but they won't let him pitch with this silver/white color because it's deceiving to hitters, so we should make a black glove."

And then apparently no one replied, "Uh, that kid could just buy a black glove. Why do we need to make him look like a moron for having a black glove called Silver."

Both of these people should be fired.

LINKS to Silver Slugger gloves - Get Some

- To see all 12 gloves or to get a lefty glove for $209.95, click here to Louisville's site.

- For the best deal on right-handed Silver Slugger gloves (except 11.75") and the Catcher's mitt, click here to Baseball Rampage. They tie for the lowest price ($199.99) and offer free shipping which saves you $7 you'd pay at Baseball Express or Homerun Monkey.

- For the 11 3/4" right-hand throw glove, get it from Baseball Express

Since custom gloves usually cost an arm and a leg, we're always excited when we spot a good value.

Well this weekend Rawlings is offering some custom pro-level leather at discounts of up to 45%.

These are Pro Preferred and Heart of the Hide custom gloves made to the exact specifications of top players such as

• the wildly colorful "J Hurt"
• one-name international soccer phenom turned power-hitting lefty first baseman "Patrick"
• steady performers "Sam Myers" and "Joshua Cotton" who are #16 in your programs but #1 in your hearts

hahaha…yeah, we haven't heard of those guys either.

These are "one-off" custom gloves that apparently Rawlings got suckered into making, only to have the customers no longer want them or return them or something.

Regularly priced at $400 and $300, they're marked down to $245 and $185, respectively.

And then you can use this weekend's clearance coupon code 10OCTOBER (expires Tuesday, Oct. 11) for another 10% savings, which makes your total discount a sizeable 45% off the original price that "Bollenbacker" and "Jake Vaccari" would have paid.

(The glove pages say "Not eligible for discounts or promotions" but we tested the coupon and it works.)

And...at last glance there were 18 to choose from, down from 19 yesterday, so someone must have bought one. (You could be next!)

Click here to see the awesome custom Rawlings gloves of complete strangers

"You know what really grinds my gears?"

When I see a pro player using some really sweet glove or bat or cleats and then I can't actually get the same thing for myself because it's made custom for the bigshots but not for sale to us little guys…arrrrrgh! So frustrating!

Well in 2009 when I saw Longoria using the all-tan, single cross web glove but it wasn't for sale anywhere, I sent an email to Wilson and let 'em have it (actually not really, it was very polite and un-Peter Griffin).

And then in 2010 Wilson started selling the same model but in an entirely different color scheme, I posted this disappointing report (including my email to Wilson).

Then months later, I was made to think...Wilson..."just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this…AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!"

I got an email from Michael Markovich, head of Wilson ball gloves, who said he read my post here on MoreBaseball and explained a little of what happened behind the scenes.

Michael wrote:

Evan was a new athlete for us in our 2010 product offering, and at that time, the black and blonde gloves were getting great feedback from players at all levels – college, pro, high school, etc.

With Evan’s glove being a new pattern, it was a great opportunity to offer his exclusive game pattern that we worked on with him directly in the new color combination.

So, we charged forward into production (which is finalized in December of 2008 for release to the market in August of 2009).

There was one small problem – Evan didn’t like the color.

[He] loved that classic looking glove that we made for him with that color of leather that we had in our shop. It turns out, lots of other people did too.

Awesome!

And now in 2011 you can finally get the exact Wilson A2000 glove that Evan Longoria uses, right down to the boring cool old-school all-tan color.

Did you see him flash that leather in the Rays triple play on Tuesday night?!

And click here for a pic from that game's gallery where you can see the glove.

And below, gratuitous photos of the Evan Longoria Wilson A2000 BBEL3GM glove from the DeMarini / Wilson store at the 2011 College World Series.

To see this glove at BaseballExpress, (click here, and then search for Longoria Glove