There is a baseball website called ‘Strikeout’, which is an open blog set up specifically as an forum for discussing French baseball. It is really interesting—people are discussing all kinds of topics, from teams in MLB to the teams here in France, to elsewhere in Europe. Most of the discussions center around the activities of the various teams here in france, for instance one blog entry is titled ‘How do we defeat Montigny?’ Montigny being the Elite Champions last season (and the team that Kaunas Lituanica will be playing in Hoofddorp, Holland, in the European C [View Full Entry]

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We played our first games of the season on Sunday. It was against the Cergy Teddy-Bears. For real, their team name was the Teddy Bears. We played at their stadium in Cergy, which is a town just outside of Paris. I pitched the first game, winning 6-3. The second game we won 23-2. It is clear that this is probably the weakest team we will face all season. In the second game Eric Quebecois pitched, as well as Artur, one of the 15 year olds on our team. They both pitched well, I thought, only one walk between the two [View Full Entry]

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Another day, another exciting practice. We got there at 2 and began the youth practice with Eric. It went great, we went over base-running technique which I think was very helpful for the youths. It was flo and eric and I, and with three coaches a practice runs smoothly. Immediately following this practice the Bois-Guillaume adult team was to meet, those players who could make it, and work on fixing the batting cage. It turns out that we did not have the materials to do so, so Eric left for the store to buy some hooks, ropes, hinges, etc., while [View Full Entry]

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Last Friday we had an evening with Adele, Florent, Olivier, Fred, and myself, grilled up some meat and cheeses, red wine to go with it, it was fun time. Towards the end of the evening we found ourselves watching WWE (the new WWF, 'professional wrestling'). As is every time when some bizarre American television creation comes on the screen, it was interesting to be watching this with my French friends here around the dinner table. The culminator for me, I know that is not a word, was when two fighters came out, it was Finlay (an Irishman) vs the Boogey [View Full Entry]

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After our practice on Wednesday Florent and I went downtown to Rouen to grab a drink with both Erics from our team. We stopped off at a Kebab restaurant for a bite—4 euros for a huge kebab wrap and a tray piled high with French fries. From there we headed down to a hip bar and tasted some worldly beers (the one I had was called ‘Kwak’—a Belgian brew. Really good one). On our way home (around 12 a.m.) we were flagged down by a group of Gendarmes (cops) who had set up a checkpoint at a traffic circle not far [View Full Entry]

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Snapshots of Rouen Europe » France » Normandy » Rouen By Vilius March 23rd 2007 Will GordonHere are some pictures of Rouen. I spent the afternoon walking around the city with Eric, the Quebecois and history professor. It is an interesting and beautiful (very old) city. [View Full Entry]

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These are some thoughts I was having about baseball in France and in Europe in general. They are not conclusions; they are solely based on my experience thus far (and were evoked by a conversation I had the other day with Jonathan Cutler, my advisor at Wesleyan). It is apparent that while in Lithuania baseball appears to be on the rise, in France it is certainly in decline in terms of total clubs in the country and involvement of players in the clubs. There seems to be an apathy about the whole thing, like people don’t really care about the game [View Full Entry]

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The day after my arrival we had our first practice with the Bois-Guillaume sqad on the main field. Initially we were not going to practice on the field, but then after some convincing on my part (though flo agreed), and some phone calls, we planned a practice. At the first practice was both Erics, Charles, Pierre, Ardo, and maybe a few others. Ardo is very small, under 5 foot 6, and he is really into baseball. He has played for this team for the past 22 years. I think he is in his mid thirties. He lives alone, single, in an [View Full Entry]

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Monday morning Florent and I drove to Louviers, met his mom at her house, and then headed on to a 'parc des animaux', a park/fenced in forest area about 45 minutes from Louviers. We arrived, unlocked the gate, and entered. The moment we were inside we were greeted by five men with walking sticks apparently walking around looking for something. They all had very focused and determined looks on their faces as they trudged through the forest in our irection. A wiry guy who seemed to be the leader of the gang gave us instructions in a brusque rapid French [View Full Entry]

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It has been an interesting ride thus far here in France. About a month ago I got an email from Jean-Luc, the manager of the Bois-Guillaume Woodchucks, a team competing in the Nationale 1 league in France. Bois-Guillaume is a suberb of Rouen, a city about 100 kilometers west of Paris in the Normandy region. So I received this email, a formal invite to come spend two months playing for the Woodchucks. The contract ends mid-may, at which point I will fly to Lithuania where I will spend the rest of the summer. I arrive in Lithuania just in time [View Full Entry]

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