For baseball players and fans, Major League Baseball, or MLB, is definitely a big name.

The reason?

It represents the highest level of professional baseball on the planet.

Almost all baseballers dream of competing in a major league ballpark.

Now in China, a few young athletes are pursuing their goals with momentum from the MLB.

LIFESTYLES takes you to meet these future baseball stars.

MLB first signed cooperation contract with the China Baseball Association in 2003. Since then it has been committing itself to promoting baseball in the country.

To help young Chinese baseball talents improve their techniques and skills, MLB established its first development center in Wuxi in September, 2009.

Wuxi is a booming medium-sized city in prosperous Jiangsu Province, about an hour drive from Shanghai.

This year, MLB opened another development center in Beijiao Middle School near the city of Changzhou, also in Jiangsu。

Beijiao Middle School was founded in 1970's and has an enrollment of around 2,500 students.

The school set up its first baseball team in July 2007. Now its AAA team has 15 players and its AA team has 20.

In 2008, the team from Beijiao Middle School won a silver medal and Sportsmanship Award at the Youth Baseball Competition in Jiangsu Province. It achieved a silver medal at the Asia International Competition in 2009.

Jim Small is MLB Asia's Vice President and responsible for MLB's business initiatives throughout the Asia-Pacific region, managing events, players, sponsorships and broadcast sales.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) JIM SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF MLB ASIA
"Baseball is perfectly suited for the Chinese culture. Chinese culture is about intelligence. When you look at baseball, baseball is perfectly suited for the Chinese mentality and Chinese culture. Another great thing about baseball is that you can be of any size. We have players that is 5-foot-9 and we have players 6-foot-10. You can be any size in baseball and that's another reason we are very optimistic about baseball in China."

A 2008 survey by market research firm TNS Sport Asia showed that 16 percent of Chinese are interested in baseball and 26 percent are interested in MLB merchandise.

According to Chinese Baseball Association, 4 million Chinese are currently playing the game.

So Jim Small believes baseball will become popular in China, just like in Japan and the United States..

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) JIM SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF MLB ASIA
"There is so many opportunities for the game of baseball in China. Chinese have accomplished so much in so many sports. In swimming, in track and field, so why not baseball? Why can't Chinese be among the best baseball players in the world? What we are trying to do it to work with the Chinese government, the China Baseball Association, with the Ministry of Education, to create a platform for baseball, to create the foundation, so in the years to come, the game will continue to improve and someday, we will be able to talk about China as a baseball-playing nation in the same way we do about Japan and the United States. I think that day will come and it's just a matter of when it will come, not if it will come."

The MLB development centers in China combine a solid academic education with advanced baseball training.

Based in regular middle schools, the development centers offer a "student-athlete" model that benefits players greatly. They can develop their baseball skills under the direction of MLB professionals without neglecting their schoolwork.

Rick Dell, MLB Asia's Director of Baseball Development, has 27 years' experience coaching college baseball. He has been promoting the American game throughout Asia for MLB since 2007. Now, Rick Dell works as the head coach of the Wuxi Development Center.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) RICK DELL, BASEBALL COACH
"The training schedule is year-around. They are players mainstream in the academic element. But first of all they have to understand that they are not just baseball players, they are student athletes. On a daily basis, just like every other player here, every other student in Beijiao school, they go to school along with the students. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we don't have any training, our players focus on the evenings that we have English study halls. On Wednesday afternoons, they train. On Thursdays, they train for about on hour, doing some fitness. On Friday, they train after classes. On Saturdays and Sundays when the school is out, they also train. So the baseball session is four days a week. And that's with their academics."

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) WANG ZHIQI, BASEBALL PLAYER
"Except for playing baseball, we pretty much devote ourselves completely to our studies. After all, studying is also very important."

The coaches hired by MLB are bringing the sport's best training methods to China. In this country, baseball is still in an early stage of development, compared with basketball and soccer.

Mike Griffin is a former member of Canada’s Junior National Team. He tries to help oversee the development of players under 20 years old.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MIKE GRIFFIN, BASEBALL COACH
"We get to the field usually on 12:45. And we spent about 5 minutes talking to our players. And then they go through dynamic warm up, stretching and some agility movements, some running. After the warm, we have catching and throw program to help build arm strength. And we break up into different groups, in fielders, out fielders and catchers. And we spent time doing specific training for them, some specific drills to help them get better at their position, individual position. After that, usually pitchers or thrower. Bull pens. Working at their bull pen. And our hitters will do better in practice. And at the end, we do stretch as a team. So we cover a lot of things in our practices."

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) WANG ZHIQI, BASEBALL PLAYER
"The Americans have arranged the training very well. It's very systematic. It's neither too tiring, nor too easy."

So far, 37 players take part in training at the Wuxi Development Center and 20 at the Changzhou Development Center. All of them are from 12 to 16 years old and come from various parts of China.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) RICK DELL, BASEBALL COACH
"Some of our players you see here today did not touch baseball until two years ago. Some of them have been playing a little bit longer that that.Very interesting we have players never on a baseball field until two years ago."

Players at the development centers are making great progress under the guidance of MLB coaches.

In order to broaden the young players' exposure to the game, MLB creates every opportunities to see they face opponents from countries with a developed baseball culture.

In 2010, three players participated in the seventh South Asian Youth Softball Championship in Singapore. Liu Deqian won the best player award and Huadeng Danzeng was named MVP.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MIKE GRIFFIN, BASEBALL COACH
"We play games in Korea, in China and some other players get to travel to other places to play."

Good training and exposure to players around the world has noticeable effects.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MIKE GRIFFIN, BASEBALL COACH
"Our kids are getting a lot better. It's good to see athletes develop. It's good to see them grow up and become better. It's been fun just to watch the kids grow over the last couple years. We have some good pitchers and we have some good hitters. We have good pitchers and good hitters. So right now we are really balanced. I like where we are."

At the development centers, young Chinese players show great passion for the sport, and MLB is also trying to build up interest in the game among younger kids.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MIKE GRIFFIN, BASEBALL COACH
"I think our players love to play the game, practice is always difficult to every sports, but our players you can see they love to play the game. So when there is game time, they are ready to go, they have fun, they have energy."

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) RICK DELL, BASEBALL COACH
"If you notice our facilities here, every one of our rooms has a television monitor with a DVD player. They have that opportunity every single day in their lives."

Playing in Major League Baseball is every baseball player's dream. But getting into the world's top baseball league is very difficult.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) WANG ZHIQI, BASEBALL PLAYER
"I want to try as hard as possible to play baseball. If I could play in the majors that would be best. That is everyone's dream."

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) JIM SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF MLB ASIA
"It's very difficult to make it to the major leagues. Kids from all over the world try. It's difficult. However that said, when you see the talent level that is out here, and when you see the quality of athletes we are starting to see come into baseball from China. I think that's very possible. And again that is a question of when we will get that top-level player, not if. I do believe there will be a Chinese major league player someday."

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) MIKE GRIFFIN, BASEBALL COACH
"I think we have a few guys who can sign professional contracts. Never know about the major leagues. But we have some good athletes, and they are young. If they continue to get better, they may have some opportunities to play minor league baseball."

The MLB is fully aware that to promote the game, it needs to be patient.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) JIM SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF MLB ASIA
"The biggest challenge is that this is a very dynamic culture. It's a country that is changing everyday. What we need to do is to be able to share baseball with as many people as possible. If we do that, I think we will be successful. Once we explain the game to the Chinese public, they will grow to love it, just like the way we love it in the United States, people love it in Japan and in Latin America."

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) RICK DELL, BASEBALL COACH
"I think the biggest challenge is putting the complete training together. And we've done that, so now it's just being patient. It's not gonna happen in 15 minutes. The biggest challenge is just being patient."

Executives declined to go into detail about costs, but the annual budget for operations in China is in the million-dollar range.

Making profit are still years away for MLB in China.

SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) JIM SMALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF MLB ASIA
"It's a long term prospect for major league baseball and it's not about the money right now. Because it will be many many years for us to recouping the investment that we are putting in right now. That said, I hope Chinese fans, once they understand the game of baseball, once they care about the game of baseball, they'll look at major league baseball as the best brand of baseball in the world, and want to watch it on television, buy products endorsed by our players, and there will be a business model based on that. But again, that's pretty far down the line."