Opinion | Xu Guiyuan faces a long, hard road to become Major League Baseball's first Chinese star

If you dig deep enough, you can probably find a Chinese proverb which states that the itchy shoe needs to be scratched. Shenzhen-born and raised, 19-year-old Xu Guiyuan is the proverbial itchy shoe.

Last week he became the first player from one of Major League Baseball's (MLB) China development centres to sign a professional contract when he inked a deal with the Baltimore Orioles. At US$10,000, the deal itself was fairly modest. The expectations, however, are not.

When Xu arrived five years ago at MLB's development centre in Jiangsu, he claimed Japanese star Ichiro Suzuki was his idol, hence the Itchy nickname. Combined with the phonetic pronunciation of his surname Xu, the legend of Itchy Shoe was born. "Ichiro is a hitting god and I love hitting," Itchy said when he signed his deal. "I want to work hard to be as good as he is."

With all due respect to the Japanese legend, this deal is much more about Yao Ming than it is about Ichiro Suzuki. MLB desperately needs a breakthrough talent to help promote its cause in China. After six largely non-descript years of running development centres in China, they needed to make some noise. For better or worse, the signing of Itchy is just that.

It's certainly a low-risk move for Baltimore and already the photos of Itchy posing on the Great Wall in his Orioles jersey are making the rounds and help support the theory among some baseball insiders that this signing is merely a marketing ploy. However, according to Orioles executive vice-president of baseball operations Dan Duquette, there is a lot to like about the left-handed hitting outfielder. "He has excellent balance at the plate and very good left-handed power," said Duquette, "which we think will play well at Oriole Park, at Camden Yards".

But by even the most optimistic barometer, it could be a long time before we see Itchy at Camden Yards, if ever. The immediate plan is to have him play in China this year and finish high school before reporting to the Orioles spring training camp next year where he will be assigned to one of their minor league clubs.

Unlike Yao, who signed a contract and was basically in the NBA one day later, Itchy's apprenticeship will be arduous. They ride buses forever in the minor leagues and the talk is raw and unfiltered. That's as much a part of baseball as a curve ball or a double play and how Itchy handles things culturally in the backwaters of the US will certainly be an ordeal. But since so much of what MLB is doing in China will be riding on his success, he is likely to have a handler or two to help out.