Dreams of glory reaches far beyond the dusty fields in Taiwan

Taiwan won the 34th Baseball World Cup bronze medal last November

TABALANG, Taiwan (CNN) -- Just as basketball has for years provided a way out of inner city poverty in the United States, in Taiwan baseball has offered similar opportunities to an aboriginal population long treated as second-class citizens.

Taiwan's indigenous people -- who settled the island thousands of years before mainland Chinese but now just a small minority -- have been known for a colorful and traditional tribal dance handed down from their ancestors.

But their prowess on the baseball field is changing the way they are treated.

Their hero is Chen Chin-fong, a 24-year-old aborigine who powered Taiwan to its first ever medal at baseball's World Cup competition in Taipei last fall.

After being recruited by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chen is widely expected to become the first Taiwanese to play in the American major leagues.

"He's so great," says 12-year-old Lin Kuang-hui. "I want to be like him when I grow up."

CNN NewsPass VIDEO For many of Taiwan's poor, the road to a better life starts on the baseball diamond. CNN's Mike Chinoy reports. Play video

For Lin and most other aboriginal kids, alternative life would likely be a lifetime tilling the soil or working as a manual laborer in the impoverished mountains of eastern Taiwan where most aboriginal tribes come from.

"Tribal people lack opportunities available to city dwellers," says Tabalang Junior high coach Chen Ming-ren.

"So economically it makes sense for kids to pursue a baseball career. It's better for their future."

Wang Kuang-hui has come a long way from his days at Tabalang Junior High.

Just retired after a successful career as a player, he is now a coach of the Brother Elephants, one of Taiwan's leading professional baseball teams where many of the top players are, like Wang, aborigines.

Wang remembers growing up poor in Tabalang.

"I had to play baseball in bare feet," he says.

"I didn't own a pair of sneakers until I was in sixth grade. All our bats and gloves were handed down from relatives."

The presence of Jamie Storvick at Brother Elephants' practice near Taipei is one sign of how far Taiwanese baseball has come.

He is a scout for the Seattle Mariners whose Japanese star, Ichiro Suzuki, was last season's Major League Most Valuable Player.

Storvick is the first American scout to be based in Taiwan.

"There's definitely potential here. The Mariners are definitely interested in the Asia-Pacific rim," says Storvick.

And aboriginal stars like Brother Elephants third baseman Wang Jiung-yong are definitely interested in the major leagues.

"I want to go there," Wang says. "I want to taste the atmosphere. I want to see what it feels like to play in front of tens of thousands of people."

Storvick says it's not surprising that aboriginal players are among Taiwan's top prospects.

"These kids are a little bit bigger, stronger, a little more athletic types. Their body build, it is right for baseball."

On an island deprived of international recognition in so many other areas, the prospect of other players following Chen Chin-fong to the U.S. major leagues has been a huge boost to national morale.

"That brings the entire country together," says a baseball fan.

"We have something to show on the international stage. That's why baseball is so important to Taiwan."