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More thoughts on baseball............
I have been thinking hard about baseball while I’ve been here. And about sports, why we play them, why they are important to us, and how they become important to us. And I think about how structured sport is in the US, even at the youth level (YMCA, Rainbow Soccer, Challenger, Little League, Pop Warner football…). Take little league baseball, for example. There is a clear structure for how it works.
There is the coach. He is in charge of bringing the balls, helmets, gear, some bats….he is in charge of making sure the field is ready for play when his team is the home one. The league provides him with equipment, guidance for how things should be run.
There are the parents, their job is to bring their kids to the games and practice at the very least, and be supportive and encouraging if they are going the extra mile. Many of those parents grew up knowing baseball, maybe playing it, maybe even loving the game.
At the beginning of the season the coach hands out a sheet of paper to each family listing the games, times, etc. so that everyone knows. Then the season
Donatas
Second Baseman, adult team. Coach, youth teams. Umpire, teenage games. Founder of Fantasy Baseball, Lithuania. begins, the games are played, everything goes as planned. Umpires are at the games on time, kids are wearing uniforms, the teams have all the equipment at every game, the parents bring their children to the games and many of them stay to watch. Some even come to practice to help out, or volunteer as a base umpire during the games.
The coach is generally an adult.
There are different leagues, teams for different age groups.
There is structure.
And it works.
Here in Lithuania, it is a different story. And the structure is such that I can’t give you a list like I just did for little league in the US.
The youth (little league) team here in Kaunas is coached by Donatas, a 19 year old baseball fanatic. He is a 2nd baseman on the adult team (the team I traveled to Prague with), one of the youngest players on that team. Ultimately Sigitas, the adult team coach, is in charge of each team, all age groups, and if he is available he will coach a game. But usually it is Donatas coaching the little guys. Often, the little guys will practice with my team (yes, 12 year
After Practice
The future stars of Lithuanian Baseball olds practicing with 35 year olds) because there is only one field and one available time to practice, and one coach, Sigitas. He runs the show.
There is only one field in the whole city. There are only eight or so bats, all of them ‘big barrel’ bats for the adults, though when the little leaguers play games these bats are the ones they use. There is about thirty baseballs at any given time for the WHOLE CITY, all teams, all age groups. And there is one set of six helmets. Yesterday, for example, at the end of practice I was helping Sigitas divide the equipment up into two bags because two teams were going to have games on the same day in different cities. One of the teams only got three helmets and a handful of (old) balls, because that is all there was. One of the teams did not get a full set of catchers’ gear.
There is no sheet of paper with the schedule on it handed out at the beginning of the year, and the players are usually informed of the games a few days in advance at practice. And things are not set in stone, either. Thursday, for example, was the Lithuanian Championship for the 16-18 year old Kaunas team. They were playing Utena for the title. I was planning on attending the game, but when I arrived I learned that the Utena team had not shown up. They did not have enough players to field a team that day because most of their guys were in school or working. Why they hadn’t foreseen this problem days before, I’m not sure of. The Utena team forfeited, automatically losing 9-0.
And parents, on the whole, do not attend many games. Most are busy with work, working one and two jobs. The younger kids mostly take the bus to practice, the older ones drive themselves. There is one family that is consistently at all of their sons’ games, one of the players on the 16-18 year old team. Yet another thing I took for granted in the US: the fact that my parents were active supporters of my games, of me playing sports. Let me take a moment to thank my sister, Hannah, for coming to many of my games as well, even if she often had no choice. : )
And though the structure does not in any way resemble that of the US, they are playing baseball. It is the same game. The guys enjoy playing, there aren’t many people participating but those who do love it. Even if a practice consists of 50% baseball, and 50 % looking for baseballs (there are no fences at the field), guys love playing the game and love practicing.
But even without the same structure, even without equipment and support, the game is played. It works.
Some of the guys (lead by Donatas, the little league coach and second baseman) have started a fantasy baseball league online—each player drafts a team of major leaguers, follows their stats online, and scores points based on how their ‘team’ does throughout the season. It is interesting to watch how this ‘culture of baseball’ is developing here in Lithuania, in both big and small ways. As Sigitas says, ‘what is important is that we are moving forward, I think. Every little bit is good. It is good for us and for baseball.”
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