Can baseball hit home run in China?

Joe Torre grew to love baseball playing with his friends on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, using nothing more than a wadded-up piece of paper and a broken broomstick.

Four World Series titles and a storied career later, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers will play a part in what Major League Baseball (MLB) hopes will become a new era for baseball in China.

Torre will lead the Dodgers to Beijing on March 15 and 16 to face the San Diego Padres in the MLB China Series 2008 at the Wukesong Baseball field, the venue for baseball events during the Olympic Games. They will be the first MLB games ever played in China.

"In the next 10 years, we want kids to grow up in China thinking of baseball as a Chinese sport," said Jim Small, vice president of MLB in Asia.

Small is quick to point out that baseball has been played longer in China than it has in Japan, one of the top baseball countries in the world. He said that is one of MLB's biggest advantages in gaining a foothold in China.

"People here look at baseball as an Asian sport, not as an American sport," he said.

But capitalizing on those advantages is by no means easy in a country where table tennis is considered the national pastime. In a nation also crazy about sports like soccer and basketball, there is hardly any room for baseball.

"Hopefully, we can help you develop a love for the game as we love it in the United States," San Diego Padres vice president Dave Winfield said during a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

That love for the game translates into enthusiasm among the athletes headed to China in March. Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the MLB Players Association, said the players are thrilled for the opportunity to share their game with China.

"Unlike any other international event I've been involved in, I haven't heard any players on the Dodgers or Padres say they didn't want to come and play in China," Orza said. "The players back in the States realize this is truly a start - a first step - in globalizing the sport."

Such globalization is significant for baseball, a sport that has been voted out of the 2012 London Olympics but is hoping to return in 2016.

"It's a personal disappointment that baseball won't be part of the Olympics in 2012," Winfield said.

"We'll do everything we can to keep baseball on the agenda and on your minds and keep making it part of the world, our gift to the rest of the world."