Sports/Olympics / Feature and Column
Baseball-Ireland pitches for the big time
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-26 12:49
DUBLIN, July 26 - In 1996, a group of Irish softball players decided to
form a national baseball team.
They had little experience, less money and nowhere decent to practise --
just a boggy field, a few posts, a bit of netting for a backstop and some
old softball gear but they were determined to compete in that year's
European Championship.
"We were very green," admits captain John Dillon, who played in that
first B-Pool tournament in England.
Ten years and a European bronze medal later, Ireland's national team are
not only gunning for a place in the European premier league but also
starring in their own film, "The Emerald Diamond", which premiered in
Dublin this week after a U.S. tour.
It is a long way from their early knockabouts when a group that included
business executives, shop workers and teachers who played softball in
their spare time decided to try something with more of what coach Sean
Mitchell calls "an edge".
The assembled Irishmen, expatriate Americans and immigrants faced off on
a soggy Dublin field with many, already in their 20s and 30s, learning
the arts of pitching, catching and batting for the first time.
"We had no idea," said Mitchell. "We hadn't played in a proper field, we
hadn't played in a proper competitive match."
The Irish were confident, however.
The newly-formed team looked at their competitors -- sides such as Poland
and Lithuania -- and thought they had a good chance. After all, how big
could an American sport be in Eastern Europe?
"It was a bit of a shock," Mitchell recalled.
HOME GROUND
Ireland lost 23-2 to the Czech Republic in their first game and managed
just 18 points to their opponents' 77 before the final game of the
tournament, where they squeaked out a victory over Yugoslavia.
The single win gave Ireland's players fresh impetus and they began work
on securing a decent baseball field, delivered in 1998 thanks to a
$140,000 donation from Peter O'Malley, former president of the Los
Angeles Dodgers.
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