Baseball is not a sport one commonly associates with the world's most populous country, but 18-year old Gong Haicheng, fresh from competing at the World Baseball Classic and the latest product of MLB's China-based development centers to sign for a Major League franchise, is the latest hope that America's favorite pastime will successfully sow seeds in the Middle Kingdom.

Gong is a product of the Changzhou development center in Jiangsu province and signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 16. As the second China-born player to make the journey to the tough world of American professional baseball, Gong represents the MLB's latest hope of tapping into a potentially enormous market through developing homegrown players.

"All I can do is train hard and gain more experience to reach higher and higher levels," Gong said after the announcement of the signing.

While Gong might not be clocking the type of fastballs thrown by some of Latin America's hottest talents, he nonetheless drew considerable attention following his performance at the Asia U18 championship in Taiwan where he was named the top right-handed pitcher. His reputation grew further in March when he became the youngest player to represent Team China at the World Baseball Classic in a short-lived cameo against hosts Japan.

The MLB development programs have proved relatively successful on a baseball front with 12 players established in the Chinese Baseball League and three individuals having being called up to the national team. Additionally, the program also offers youngsters the chance to reach high education and can boast 27 individuals that have reached graduate school at Chinese universities and a further five that now attend US universities.

Yet at its core the goal of MLB Play Ball is simply to spread the joy of one of the world's most popular sports. This it achieves through visiting hundreds of schools and giving youngsters the chance to take their first swing of the bat � it provides equipment and instruction too and estimates having brought the spirit of baseball to over 100,000 students.