Baseball Has Been Very, Very Good To Me

We met Theo, a Boston transplant, at the Canopy art gallery where we purchased our second piece of Australian art , a print by Roy McIver.

As we chatted, the topic of baseball came up and Theo mentioned that he was on a team that was playing on Sunday at a nearby park and we told him we would try to come. As Sunday neared, we consulted various maps and people and determined the correct local bus to get us there. No one we asked knew anything about baseball diamond locations let alone specific games in town. Luckily, we found it and as we walked up to the park, our pulses quickened, and we were greeted by this sign.

Theo (who is 60) had told us there were 4 teams in his league (35 and over) and two other leagues (that appeared to be teenagers and college aged kids) playing that day. We arrived toward the end of Theo’s game. The grounds and assembled fans were reminiscent of co-ed softball at Hooker Oak Park. Just as in CARD softball, these baseball teams also require at least 2 females per team. Theo plays for the Heat (which made us feel quite at home as we used to be Chico Heat fans). They were playing the Reds, whom the Heat beat.

After the game, we chatted a bit with the 70ish year old umpire whose eyes were hopefully better than his ears. He gave us the low down on the differences in how they play baseball in Australia. Note, snack bar item on the table is sushi, not a hot dog. Green curry was the other featured item for sale.

While we were chatting, Theo was recruited to play a second game with team Korea. The Korean team didn’t have enough players, and Theo had been taken out of his game early, so he was happy to play again. Korea played the Bandits, who were rumored to be a pretty decent team. Andy and I were the only spectators and the game was something reminiscent of the Bad News Bears. Korea’s pitcher had a hard time keeping the ball out of the dirt and the Bandits were training a new pitcher, a woman named Linda.

We surmised that she was in training based on the stance lesson performed prior to the game and the fact that she hit 4 (!) of the Korea batters in one inning. The batters genuinely looked in pain, but almost everyone on the field, including the Koreans, were laughing about it. We hoped our friend Theo would be spared. After hitting 2 more batters the next inning, there was a pitching change. That required a bit of shuffling players about, as each team only had nine players.

The senior ump called this game as well, and called it fairly well (infield fly rule called correctly) but when there was a controversial call, everyone looked to the other Ann, the official league scorekeeper, to advise on the rules. That Ann reminded me a lot of a Catholic school lunch lady. Despite the clear inexperience or lack of skill on team Korea, the game remained entertaining for a few innings until we decided to wave goodbye and head down the road to Trinity Beach.