Major League Baseball took steps to expand America's national pastime into the jungles of Southeast Asia on Friday, bearing baseball equipment and a coaching clinic into Cambodia's heartland.
MLB representatives handed over several boxes of baseball gear to children and young adults in Kraing Khmer, a village 130km northwest of the capital Phnom Penh.
The initiative, part of MLB's foreign outreach program, also featured two visiting coaches from American universities who schooled dozens of the young players in how to field a ground ball, catch a pop fly and swing.
PHOTO: AP
The local youngsters tossed baseballs around the diamond, a former rice field they cleared themselves, ringed by other fluorescent green rice paddies.
A bush serves as the home run marker.
MLB International is going into countries ranging from Cambodia to China "to develop the game and get baseball to be played ... and try to get it to be relevant in the country," said Jim Small, vice president of market development for MLB International.
The would-be ballplayers assembled for the event in mismatched jerseys, caps, and pants donated by American high schools and universities, as well as T-shirts, pants and flip-flops.
MLB International is currently promoting baseball in more than 60 countries, and can claim some credit for today's existence of organized national baseball federations in more than 100 countries, up from just 54 in 1987.
Even so, Cambodia might not have been on their map if it weren't for Joe Cook, a Cambodian-American who landed in the US state of Tennessee at the age of 12 after surviving the genocidal rule of Cambodia's communist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.
Cook, a 35-year-old father of two and chef at a Japanese restaurant in Dothan, Alabama, took up baseball as a way to learn English, make friends and to fit into his new American setting.
When he returned to Cambodia on a visit a few years ago, Cook wanted to give local children -- usually burdened with jobs like tending the family water buffalo -- a chance to play a sport that had motivated him and given him confidence.
"We probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him, because the world's so big and there's only so many things that you can do to get baseball started," Small said of Cook.
"We had no choice, we had to get involved," he said. "When you hear about what he's done and the fact that he's made such a commitment because he loves baseball, you can't turn your back on someone like that."
Cook, whose Cambodian name is Joeurt Puk, said he has spent at least US$37,000 to bring baseball to the youth of Kraing Khmer, which like many Cambodian villages has neither electricity nor running water.
"You can see the kids, so inspired with the game of baseball. Without that, they have no hope," said Cook, who speaks with the distinctive drawl of America's deep south.
On the Net: http://www.cambodiabaseball.com
Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday homered for the fifth consecutive game, tying a Los Angeles Dodgers franchise record. Yankees star Aaron Judge was the last player to homer in five consecutive games, accomplishing that feat last year. Ohtani, who leads the National League with 37 home runs, homered in the first inning off Minnesota Twins starter Chris Paddack. He hit a slow curveball 134m to center. He carried the bat midway down the first-base line and then did a bat flip. He did not hit a home run later in the game with the Dodgers trailing, but his presence was felt. With two outs
US top seed Taylor Fritz dropped an early yesterday morning marathon to Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina of Spain, while the UK’s Emma Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez reached the semi-finals of the ATP and WTA DC Open. World number four Fritz, two points from victory in the ninth game, dropped the last five games in falling to the 26th-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-5 after three hours and five minutes in a match ending just before 2am. Davidovich-Fokina advanced to the semi-final against US fourth seed Ben Shelton, who beat sixth-seeded hometown hero Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fritz, who had 20 aces and six
Ben O’Connor won Thursday’s monster Alpine stage to the ski resort of Courchevel as three-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks from Jonas Vingegaard and dropped him to cement his grip on the yellow jersey. With just three stages left before the race ends in Paris, Pogacar looks poised to retain his title, with a comfortable lead of more than 4 minutes over Vingegaard, a two-time champion. Stage 18 featured three extremely difficult ascents, including the 26.4km climb of the Col de La Loze to the finish. At 2,304m, La Loze is the highest summit in this year’s Tour. Two
Taiwan’s world No. 6 shuttler Chou Tien-chen yesterday defeated India’s H.S. Prannoy to advance to the quarter-finals of the China Open in Changzhou. It was former world No. 2 Chou’s eighth win in 14 matches against Prannoy, who had earlier this week lamented the age divide between him and up-and-comers, although he is only two years younger than 35-year-old Chou. The Taiwanese, who is seeded sixth at the tournament, rebounded from a close 21-18 loss in game 1 on Court 2 at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. He bounced back to take the next games 21-15, 21-8 and set up a tough quarter-final
RSS