Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

Banned by Chairman Mao and disregarded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), baseball has never quite felt welcome in China.

Yet even with bulldozer's ready to flatten Wukesong Field following the final out of the Olympic tournament and replace Beijing's biggest baseball stadium with apartment buildings, China remains a field of dreams for Major League Baseball.

Dropped from the Summer Games program after Beijing, baseball may have struck out as an Olympic sport but MLB still believes it can hit a home run in China where it has already invested millions trying to tap into 1.3 billion potential baseball fans.

"The Yankees the Dodgers are among the teams who have already made investments here," said Bob Watson, Major League Baseball's vice-president of on field operations and Team USA general manager.

"Major League Baseball thinks this is an untapped market just like basketball has.

"When you have over a billion people there has to be some people here, who with the proper instruction and development, can play at the professional level.

"The television market is huge. There are more TVs here than there are people in the United States."

Introduced to China by American missionaries, baseball has enjoyed brief moments of popularity and total obscurity.

During the Cultural revolution, the great American pastime was branded an evil Western influence and outlawed by Chairman Mao.

GRENADE THROWING

But even among Revolutionaries baseball had its uses.

According the China Baseball League website (http://news.cbl.org.cn/class/League_History), in 1911 on the eve of the Chinese revolution, revolution leader Sun Yat-sen organized a baseball club in Changsha mainly to serve as a cover for military training, teaching young soldiers how to throw grenades.

Over the decades, Major League Baseball has kept a close eye on China, eager to tap into new revenue streams and talent pool.

The Chinese Baseball Association (CBA) has entered in a formal agreement with MLB, which has provided everything from grass roots clinics to coaches and training for the China's Olympic team.

In March, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres played the first Major League Baseball exhibition games in China and are unlikely to be the last, MLB having gone record that its goal is to one day open the regular season in China.

(Source: Reuters)