Crackerjacks and Big League Chew

Growing up, my favorite sport in the world was baseball.  I watched it, I collected baseball cards, I played it in little league.  I was not by any means good.  I wasn’t bad, but I had the normal children’s problems—I wasn’t particularly coordinated and was afraid of getting hit by the ball, especially by a pop up.   But I loved the game, and would assemble and reorganize my baseball cards, creating lineups and rosters, which I would then act out by pitching against a wall by our driveway.  

One of the most flat out fun times I’ve had a volunteer here has been when I’ve been working with the Ismayilli softball team.  This has been the second year we’ve played, so by now some of the boys have a strong handle on the game and can now explain the rules and positions to new boys.  The fine details are still elusive, of course, but that’s to be expected.  This year, my host brother, Orxan, when not in Baku, has helped as an assistant coach.   He has been a huge help, both on and off the field.  I downloaded Game 6 of last year’s World Series to show the boys.  Orxan was a huge help in explaining the calls, the finer rules, the announcing.  We didn’t make it all the way through the game, but we did have popcorn and I think they learned a few things.

This year, the boys have really built on the skills they struggled with last year, and have, after changing the team name to the Dragons, become one of the best teams in the league.  When they play well and as a team, they’re on fire.  They’ve also done a great job of learning from the playing styles and techniques of other teams. 

Part of the fun was that in anticipation of the big tournament in Baku this spring, we made our own t-shirts.  I spent several hours designing and cutting out the stencils we then used to spray paint the shirts.  I led the painting by myself, so the paint kind of got away from me, and we ended up with spray painted gloves, bats, balls, and trees.  I was able to put a hold on everything before they got around to the building.

We played four tournaments in the spring, including one we hosted here in Ismayilli, at the Olympic Complex.  And, while we don’t really keep track, or announce winners at the end of each tournament (“Everyone wins,” etc etc), we won the majority of the games.  You can imagine this has done wonders for the boys’ egos.  The spring season is over now, but will pick up again in September.  Until then, we just have to wait and watch the professionals and hope the Orioles don't collapse too quickly.  It's been nice being part of a winning team here, and it's keeping me going until the Orioles can get their stuff together.