With one out, a runner on base and his team trailing by two runs, China's Wang Wei stepped into the batter's box during the fourth inning of the 2006 World Baseball Classic game against Japan at the Tokyo Dome. Japan starter (and future major league All-Star) Koji Uehara kicked his leg and delivered. Wang swung, connected and tied the game 2-2 with the first home run ever hit in the WBC.
Alas, after that, China gave up 16 consecutive runs in an 18-2 loss. China did not win a game that WBC, nor has it ever gotten past the first round of the event. It has gone 2-7 overall in the tournament that will begin its fourth edition next week. First-round pool play will take place in Jalisco, Mexico; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo and Miami.
Wang, still a catcher at age 38, will be playing in his third WBC and hoping that China will finally advance out of the first round, despite being in the Tokyo pool along with two-time champion Japan, Cuba and Australia (the top two teams will move into the second round). Baseball, he says, has grown exponentially in China since he started playing as a boy three decades ago.
"Baseball will get better and better and more popular. In 10 years or more, baseball will be the top, most popular sport in China, instead of basketball or soccer," Wang said through an interpreter.
Although that prediction might be overly optimistic, Major League Baseball certainly is working to make it happen. It has three baseball development centers in China -- in Changzhou, Wuxi and Nanjing -- that give scholarships, including free education, to student-athletes across the country. Jim Small, MLB's vice president for Asia Pacific operations, says the league has grassroots programs in schools that have exposed more than 5 million kids to the game since 2008 and road shows at malls that have reached 2.5 million others.
That's still a small number for a country with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, but it's a start.
"It is up and coming," said infielder Ray Chang, who homered in China's first WBC victory in 2009. "It is one of those things where they're flying under the radar. They've done such a good job of, over the last 10 years, developing the game."
The son of Chinese immigrants who raised him in Kansas City, Missouri, Chang logged 12 seasons in the minor leagues. The closest he came to the majors was in 2011, when he was expecting to be added to the Minnesota Twins' roster. Before the official call came, he broke his leg in a collision while trying to field a popup.
Fluent in Mandarin, Chang, 33, has helped at the China development centers for a month or more each year since 2008, and he will manage the Nanjing academy full time after he finishes his playing career in his third WBC.
"When I first started, I was like, 'Man, this is going to be a long process,'" he said. "And then every year I go back, gosh, they get better and better and better."
"We have a motto, and I use it whenever I talk baseball. We say this before every practice: Get better every day. That's all I ask of these guys." John McLaren, manager of China's WBC team
Veteran major league coach John McLaren is managing Team China in the WBC for the second time. A big proponent of global baseball, he says MLB is committed to growing the game in China and that the sport is making strides.
"I know it's a big task," McLaren said. "We have a motto, and I use it whenever I talk baseball. We say this before every practice: Get better every day. That's all I ask of these guys. The wildest dream is to win the WBC -- that would be a story. It's not going to happen, but our motto is just to get better every day, and that's what we try to do."
HARRY KINGMAN, who played four games with the New York Yankees in 1914, is the only major leaguer who was born in China. He was the son of Western missionaries and moved to the United States while still young.
No player who is Chinese by birth and ethnicity has made the majors, though Xu Guiyuan (pronounced "shoo GEE-win") is hoping to become the first.
Nicknamed "Itchy" because of his admiration for Ichiro Suzuki, Xu signed with the Baltimore Orioles last year at age 20 and hit .247 with a .271 OPB and .555 OPS for the rookie league team. Obviously, he has a long way to go, but he is playing more games and gaining experience. Also, he is on China's WBC team.
"He has a very, very nice swing. He reminds me of David Justice when Justice was young," McLaren said. "We're really high on him. He's a young kid, and it will be a big challenge for him playing against these older players, but we're really happy to have him aboard."
Chang says Xu has the necessary tools, work ethic and focus to reach the majors.
"It's just a matter of coming over here and learning the culture and picking up the game," Chang said. "But he's got the tools, a left-handed bat, and he can run. ... Hopefully, they will give him an opportunity to play a full season in A-ball and see what happens."
Small says the goal is to have at least 10 minor leaguers signed out of the Chinese development centers in the next five years.
"That will increase our chances of getting a major leaguer out of that," he said. "There are so many outside factors once a kid becomes a minor league player we can't control. We just stop looking at that and work on what we can control, and that is just try to produce minor leaguers. And with the hope that once they get into the organization, that they will take those kids and groom them into becoming major leaguers."
Regardless of whether Xu or someone else becomes the first Chinese major leaguer, Wang says the breakthrough player will have an enormous impact on his country.
"It will be just like Yao Ming when he played in the NBA," he said. "People will be going crazy."
WANG PLAYS FOR the Beijing Tigers in the China Baseball League, which plays far fewer games (30 last year) than the American major leagues, which limits opportunities for players to develop. Plus, the average velocity of the pitchers there usually is in the mid-80s or under -- significantly slower than what hitters face in MLB.
Thus, Wang says that having three Americans of Chinese ancestry with minor league experience on the WBC roster -- Chang, infielder Joey Wong and pitcher Andrew Chin -- plus former big league pitcher Bruce Chen, a Panamanian of Chinese descent, is important. Ju Kwon, a Chinese native who pitches in the Korean league, also will be a help.
Wong, the great-grandson of a Chinese immigrant, is an eight-year minor league veteran who played three seasons for the Perth Heat in the Australia Baseball League. Before he went to Oregon State and helped the Beavers win the 2007 College World Series, Wong played for the 2004 U.S. national U16 team.
"That was a really special feeling to represent my country and where I was from," said Wong, 28, who was born in Salem, Oregon. "This will be a different feeling representing China. It will be just as special. It just will be real different. Once I get there and get to know the guys, it will be just as special because it's a place where my ancestry comes from, and that's very special for me and really important."
Although many star players choose to stay with their major league clubs during spring training, rather than playing in the WBC, Wong says the tournament is awesome for the game.
"I think the more it can become a global international game, the better it will be for the sport," he said. "When you look at global sports like soccer, it brings everyone together. Even people who aren't fans of the sport of soccer watch the World Cup. I think if the WBC can keep on going, then it would be great for baseball just to get more countries involved -- and the exposure it would bring for the game worldwide."
WBC success would certainly help the game in China.
"There is no reason we shouldn't get baseball players in China," McLaren said. "They're good athletes. They're dedicated. They're disciplined."
Following his 2006 home run that remains a cherished memory, Wang signed with the Seattle Mariners. Although he never played for the organization beyond a short Arizona Fall League stint in 2007, he says he will never forget that experience.
"That is the most important time period in my life," he said. "During that time, I felt pure. Baseball was the only thing."
Wang hopes other Chinese players will gain similar memories -- and more.
"For now, China baseball is pretty weak compared with American baseball and many other countries," he said. "But in China, it's different generations of baseball players. Like me, I'm on a pro team. I feel like my generation are playing baseball as a whole life career. And our goal is to make China baseball better than other countries. Pro teams are playing in a very hard situation, but they're still doing their best to progress.
"MLB has been cooperating with China local baseball a lot, and I think we have benefited a lot. I hope we can continue this cooperation and make Chinese baseball better."