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MLB remains upbeat on China project
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-27 10:45
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"We are fostering these hopefuls with patience and expect some of them can grow into a Yao Ming of baseball," Xie said.
"The success of this program will not be judged on whether someone is good enough to play at the major league level, which is a small thing we will evaluate on. We will evaluate on what we talked about here today. What was the experience of the kids that came here, what kind of education did they get, did they have fun, what kind of overall experience did they have in school?" said Bob Dupuy, president and chief operating officer of MLB.
"Yes, we would like all 16 of them to be good enough to play in the major league but that is not very likely. Even the best high school players in the United States don't often make it to that level. But we can have students graduate from here with a good education. If they can't play professional baseball in the US, they could play here in China in the Chinese league, play professionally somewhere else in Japan, Korea or anywhere in Asia or in Latin America and go to college.
"The worst that could happen is that a kid graduates from here and decides that he doesn't want to pursue baseball. He wants to go on and continue his education to become a doctor, a lawyer, a journalist and we feel pretty good about that.
"We talked about major league baseball, the impact it may have on our future but that will not be what this program is ultimately judged on."
Supported by Gao Hui, vice sports chief of the city of Wuxi, MBDC will launch a brand new program, "Golden Guest", which will invite athletes, coaches and gym teachers around China to visit the center. They will be provided with free baseball instruction in the hope that they carry it back to their hometowns.
In China, MLB has been running summer training camps for children and supporting university baseball programs, among other charitable and cooperative efforts.
China Daily
