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Published: June 20th 2006
I am back in Kaunas, my Lithuanian home away from home. The bus ride from Prague to Kaunas was only about 20 hours this time, because luckily we managed to not get lost this time. We did, however, stop almost every hour for cigarette breaks and such. I have never played on a sports team that smoked so much.
So all of this is very undramatic (is that a word?) since I have been unable to get pics up yet. But bear with me.
One story to tell you. In my eyes, the tournament was a success even though we only won one of our four games. Our goal was to qualify for next year's tournament, and we did just that. We finished fourth out of six teams, the top five teams qualify for next year. And our one victory was one to remember. We beat KrC Altron, the Czech team, on their home field, 10-1. Christian Jackson, the other american pitcher, pitched a complete game and had sixteen strikeouts. And pretty much everybody on our team was hitting the ball, which is incredible considering that this is their first time playing at this level, hitting against solid pitchers, using wooden bats. But the moment that stood out for me came in the sixth inning (I think it was the sixth) of our valiant and courageous victory.
There was one out, and Shaquillas (they call him that because he is huge and muscular like Shaquille O'Neal) was on third base. Our coach called for a squeeze play...so Kisa, our third baseman squared around to bunt. He bunted and it rolled foul, so Shaq went back to third. Coach calls another squeeze on the next pitch-Shaquillas breaks for home and Kisa shows bunt, and like any smart pitcher, the Czech pitcher throws the ball high and out of the zone so Kisa has no shot at hitting it. He misses, and the catcher is standing there with the ball. Shaq is hustling down the line, and as he explains it later to me, he doesn't even see that the catcher has the ball, standing there in the baseline. He is running, head down, as hard as he can. A moment later he collides with the catcher, who is, by the way, about half the size of Shaq. The catcher is flattened by the freight train that is shaq, Shaq stops, confused as to what has just happened. The ball is rolling on the ground, Kisa yells at Shaq to touch home, so he slowly walks toward home and touches the plate. Then out of nowhere, out of excitement, I guess, Shaq starts yelling, his eyes are about twice their normal size now. And it just so happens that he is about two feet from the catcher, yelling in his face.
When I explained to Shaq later that this would be considered taunting and that the umpire could have thrown him out of the game, he was surprised. "I thought it was in the rules," he said. Like in basketball and american football, he said, the guys are yelling in each others' faces all the time. If this happened in the US, most likely the next pitch our guy would be hit in the shoulder or something. But here in Europe, I don't think that is a part of baseball.
I have never seen such a one-sided collision in a baseball game in all my years of playing and watching. And I have never get so silent, so stunned and confused, as the KrC Altron stadium was in that moment. It was pretty amazing....I wasn't sure if I should cheer or run and hid. I guess I sort of did both at the same time, and shared a moment of 'what the f-- just happened?' with my American teammates.
I was continually touched after each game how our fans would come up to me (and I observed this of the other players as well, Lithuanian and American alike) after the game, and instead of saying 'good game,' or 'tough game,' they would say 'Thank you.' 'It was very nice, thank you for your play.' And I wanted to say, 'no, thank you, what are you thanking me for?.' I interpreted this subtle difference in post-game interaction as a way of expressing appreciation for our effort, for our presence on the team and at this tournament, regardless of what the result of the game was, regardless of how we played.
I think we stunned all of the teams with our play. Many of the other teams pay most of their players, they have corporate sponsors, they have physical trainers and large pitching staffs, they play full 50 to 60 game seasons. They have baseball fields...... Our team plays 30 or so games against less than mediocre competition, with metal bats, sometimes playing teams with 14 year olds on them. No stadiums, no fences, some guys don't even have baseball cleats. I could go on and on....you get the idea. There is a lot for this team to be proud of.
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