A former Chinese baseball player and Olympian has touched the hearts of many by taking orphans and left-behind children from across the country under his wing.

"My dream is to train these children to be 'Yao Ming' in the field of baseball in the future,” Sun Lingfeng said, referring to China's former NBA star.

Since retiring, Sun, 39, a former captain of the national baseball team, has put all of his heart into creating a baseball base for disadvantaged, low-income youngsters.

“Baseball gave me all I want and what I have. If baseball can change my fate, why I can’t use baseball to change other children’s fate?” he told the Paper News.  

The base was set up in 2015. Since then, the little players have not only beat all of the same age groups in China, but were also crowned champions of the development group at baseball tournaments in Japan.

Very few people, the coach said, knew that the team was made up of orphans and children left behind by parents who, in some instances, have migrated to other cities to find work.

“All of the children come from village and mountains areas, which means they come from very poor families. I chose them because they can endure hardships and on the other hand they are the people who really need help," Sun, who represented China at the 2008 Olympics, told the Paper News. 

Some of the children’s parents have passed away but their grandparents were getting on in years and could not look after them. 

Sun still remembers that some could not adapt to the new environment at the start. However, over time they got stronger and stronger. They looked to him as a “father.”

Sun also arranged for the children to attend nearby schools. According to the Shanghai-based website Eastday.com, it costs 150,000 yuan (28,800 US dollars) a month to operate the base and the costs for each child amount to more than 50,000 yuan a year. 

As a result, it has not been easy for Sun.

“I can run two baseball schools to teach students if I want to earn money, but I don’t like doing that,” he said, adding that baseball gave him everything so that he wants to give back to the society. 

There are also many people who supply free services to the base, including Sun’s former coach, Zhang Jinxin.

Sun’s efforts have attracted the attention of businesses and he has received sponsorship from Chinese conglomerate Fosun and a venture capital firm Black Butterfly, according to Paper News. He expressed his appreciation to the investors but he honestly indicated that the baseball base does not have the ability for maximum output at present. Baseball is not yet popular in China and it is really long-term hard work.

Sun hopes to get the children to take part in the baseball tournaments in the US and Japan after they reach 16 years old. Failing that, he said they can enter Chinese universities to become professional coaches.