The Chinese first heard the crack of a bat striking a ball in the 1860s when Henry William Boone, a medical missionary who spent 11 years in the United States, brought baseball to Shanghai.

Despite being introduced nearly 150 years ago, baseball doesn't have a large following in China today. Basketball and soccer rule. It's a matter of time, said Michael Marone, who heads marketing and business development for the Beijing office of Major League Baseball (MLB). MLB, the elite professional baseball league in North America, expanded to China only three years ago, decades after other organizations.

"The NBA has been [in China] for 30 years now," Marone said. "Michael Jordan is one of the most popular athletes here even though he's not playing anymore. We're just starting to air games."

According to a 2008 survey by TNS Asia, a market research firm, more than 16 percent of Chinese have interest in baseball, and about 26 percent have interest in MLB merchandise. The Chinese Baseball Association reports more than 4 million Chinese play baseball. That number pales to a 2008 estimate by the China Basketball Association that 300 million Chinese play basketball. A 2008 USA Today article noted China had plans to construct 600,000 basketball courts across the nation, approximately one new court for every 2,200 Chinese.

But if MLB has its way, the number of people interested in baseball will challenge basketball for China's attention.

Chinese students at MLB's Development Center play catch. [China.org.cn]