向命运叫板吧，少年！像“强棒天使”那样
提到孙岭峰，关注中国棒球的朋友们一定不陌生，他在18岁时被选入中国国家棒球队，担任过队长，六次荣获亚洲棒球锦标赛“盗垒王”，曾被评为中国棒球联赛最具价值球员。
2010年退役后，孙岭峰开始从事棒球运动推广工作。由于曾经做过公益培训，孙岭峰深知贫困家庭的孩子比一般孩子更需要关爱和机会。于是，他萌生了将公益与棒球推广结合的想法。
2015年，孙岭峰和几位好友创办了“棒球天使救助”公益项目，他们将身体健康、家庭贫困的孩子集中在一起，让他们在上文化课的同时，参加免费的棒球培训。
“强棒天使”棒球基地位于北京市郊，目前已有67名孩子正在接受训练。
In a beautiful mountainous area, children jump over creeks clear as mirrors, laughing and racing on country roads. Joyful as it is, the roads sometimes don't necessarily lead to proper education.
42-year-old Sun Lingfeng, former captain of the China men's baseball team, also famously recognized as "forever the first batter," has been to such places many times during the past five years looking for kids in need of help as the founder of "Power Baseball Angel Foundation."
In 2015, Sun launched the foundation to provide baseball training and education for children in poverty, and has since taken in 78 kids. Among the 67 who stayed, children of minority ethnic groups make up 75 percent of them.
The PB (Power Baseball) Angel Baseball Center is situated in Tongzhou District on the outskirts of Beijing, and has dormitories, a dining hall, a library, and two training pitches.
蜕变
该基地招收队员有一项特殊条件：必须是来自于贫困家庭，或者是缺失父母的孤儿等困境少年。
这些孩子们与普通孩子不同，贫寒的出身及恶劣的成长环境使得他们格外缺乏自信，他们中的许多人都处于低自尊状态，又或者有一定的性格缺陷。
幸运的是，在“强棒天使”棒球基地，孩子们开始了新生活。在文化课老师和棒球教练的共同帮助下，他们逐渐建立起自信，慢慢地重拾了对生活的美好期待。
马虎，绰号“游侠”，刚来基地时，他桀骜不驯，一言不合就开干，浑身是“刺儿”。
孙岭峰说，马虎从加入棒球队开始，就一直“拔刺”，是棒球让他发生了改变。“回到老家以后，马虎发现别人对他的评价变了，他知道自己变得更好会被大家喜欢，他就有了成就感，愿意往更好的方面发展。”孙岭峰说。
同样因棒球发生改变的，还有梁正双。小双出生前父亲就已经去世，出生后母亲不知所踪，他是被亲戚养大的。刚进队的时候，小双内心细腻脆弱。“他跟只猫似的，特别蔫，不爱说话。”马虎说。
三年后，小双变得爱说爱笑。孙岭峰说：“小双跟过关一样，过了自己心里那道坎儿，一下就打开了。”
The kids are in high spirits during training – throwing balls, swinging bats, doing lifting, and running drills. One can hardly spot the occasional flicker of doubt behind their eyes.
But unlike most children, some of these underprivileged children struggle with issues of abandonment and low self-esteem. A child named Ma Hu used to call himself a "stray dog" when he first came to the team at age 12, exemplifying how his living situation has been internalized into his identity.
Some of these children were abandoned, some raised by grandparents who are incapable of working, or left behind by parents who headed to the city for work.
The foundation has given them the chance to chart out a completely different kind of life. But it's still not a cake walk.
历练
2018年的8月，“强棒天使”棒球队作为亚太区唯一一支代表队，受邀参加了PONY世界大赛U11 Bronco组决赛阶段的角逐。这是中国棒球历史上首次直接获邀代表亚太区参加国际青少年棒球赛事。
尽管孩子们已经竭尽全力，但仍输给了对手。比赛结束后，队友们抱在一起痛哭，哭得最厉害的就是小双。马虎拿着汉堡劝小双吃一点，还安慰小双：“我们以后多的是机会啊。”小双哭着说：“机会只有一次。”
对于比赛失利，孙岭峰表示，这趟来美国比赛值了。“因为这次经历触动到了孩子们心里，这对他们来说是人生的成长，是很重要的。”对于小双说的“机会只有一次”，孙岭峰却不认同，“机会永远都在，只要愿意去争取就一定有机会。”
Life towards professional athleticism include tough training and games that take one through emotional highs and lows, which can break even a grown man. And it's arguably more difficult for these youths who have to pull it off while struggling with low self-esteem, homesickness, and quirky little problems that make their caretakers want to scream.
“她力量”
值得一提的是，孙岭峰还格外关注女孩的成长与教育，这与他的一次特殊经历有关。
几年前在四川考察时，孙岭峰遇见了一个女孩，她背着重重的柴火走在上学的路上，手里还抱着年幼的妹妹。当孙岭峰再次来到这个地方的时候，小女孩竟已结婚。
目前，“强棒天使”棒球基地共有26名女队员，而孙岭峰仍在加速女子棒球队的建设。
“我以后想在奥运会上打棒球。”这是一位8岁女队员的梦想。“训练没有背柴火累，”她说道。
只要女孩们足够努力，我们完全有理由相信她们能够实现自己的梦想。
即便奥运之梦未能实现，对女孩教育的重视也应该继续下去。因为她们长大后，就是社会的“半边天”。
Sun also spoke of his goal of helping girls, recounting an experience that pushed him to accelerate building the girls' team.
"A few years ago, I went to the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, and saw a girl carrying heavy firewood on her way to school, holding her little sister. The next time I visited the area and saw her again, she was married already."
As of December 2020, there are 26 girls on Sun's team, with the U10 and U12 teams launched already.
There's no reason not to believe great things can be expected from these girls. As people often don't realize, hard-work itself is an ability. With everything managed well, these girls' Olympic dream isn't just a dream.
Even if it doesn't happen, the efforts to empower girls should be carried on, as well as the awareness of uplifting young women of the future when reaching out to underprivileged children, because as far as we know, "women hold up half the sky."
“强棒天使”的故事被拍成了纪录片《棒！少年》，已于12月11日在国内上映。
该影片获得了第十四届FIRST青年电影展的最佳纪录片大奖，还被网友们评价为“2020最值得带孩子去看的电影”。