The baseball pitch is shared with grazing cows, but the rustic conditions are no distraction for Ugandan MLB hopeful Dennis Kasumba.
The 18-year-old is to play in a top-flight amateur baseball league in the US this summer, the chance of a lifetime for an orphan raised in a slum who dreams of going pro.
“I am very, very happy. I can’t explain my feelings, I feel blessed,” said Kasumba, who comes from Gayaza, a town about 12km from the capital, Kampala, where he was raised in grinding poverty.
Photo: AFP
Spotted online after videos his exploits went viral, Kasumba received an invitation to the MLB Draft League, which started yesterday in the US.
“Today I’m starting my Journey,” Kasumba wrote on Twitter on Sunday alongside a video of family, friends and supporters waving him off at the airport.
Determined to impress the scouts, and do his coach and teammates proud, Kasumba has been fine-tuning his pitch and swing ahead of the MLB fixture, where prospective stars are put through their paces.
Photo: AFP
Ahead of his departure, Kasumba trained day and night at Gayaza, running drills with a worn catcher’s mitt and bat held together with tape at the local diamond.
Off the field, he keeps fit any way he can, using everything and anything at his disposal.
Puffing away in the equatorial sun, Kasumba runs through squats using barbells made of concrete and discarded car tires, with water-filled plastic bottles taped to his legs for resistance.
Friends and relatives have filmed his sessions and posted them on social media, and Kasumba has attracted thousands of followers inspired by his grit and cheer.
Raised in Gayaza by his grandmother, Kasumba never knew his parents.
His mother abandoned him as an infant along with two siblings after their father, a soldier, died fighting anti-government rebels.
By the age of eight, he had dropped out of school to work for his meals, slaughtering animals in an abattoir until meeting volunteer coach John Bosco Sempa, who invited him to the local baseball pitch.
As his natural talent and determination became clear, Sempa encouraged his protege to promote his skills on social media, where the rising star found another source of motivation and support.
“It started like a joke, but now I am going to US for MLB,” Kasumba told reporters.
It has not all been smooth sailing.
Kasumba was twice rejected for a visa to travel to the US before his application was at last granted last month.
“I am so excited,” he said.
The quest to become a pro is a tall order in a country that has never produced a MLB player, and where interest in baseball is dwarfed by that for soccer and athletics.
“We want Kasumba to play in the highest league in the world, that’s our hope,” Sempa said. “If he plays [his] best, just as his heart says, he can get a chance.”
His journey represents a bigger win for the wider community, where Kasumba has become a local celebrity and an inspiration.
Many of the other kids scrambling about the dirt diamond in Gayaza are also orphans raised in desperate poverty, Sempa said.
“As a coach I’d love all our players to be successful. Kasumba’s news is not only for himself but for our country,” he said.
EARLY LOSSES: Some sports have already started at the Asian Games in Hangzhou ahead of the opening ceremony on Saturday, including volleyball, with a Taiwan loss South Korea’s bid for a third straight men’s gold medal in soccer at the Asian Games got off to the perfect start with a 9-0 thrashing of Kuwait on Tuesday, but coach Hwang Sun-hong is giving his players little time to enjoy it. With a more testing group match against Thailand today, Hwang is wary of complacency creeping in after his side ran riot against Kuwait in Jinhua, China, southwest of host city Hangzhou. “We’ll pretend this match never happened,” Hwang said after the Kuwait game, Yonhap news agency reported. “We have even more difficult matches coming up later, and we have
‘NOTHING HAS CHANGED’: Jenni Hermoso said that the striking players had been ‘caught by surprise’ by the call-ups, saying it was a strategy to intimidate them Striking Spanish internationals called up to the women’s team on Monday reiterated their desire not to form part of the squad in a new blow for the shaken the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). However, they were told by the government early yesterday that those who did not attend the team’s camps when called up would have to be punished. Spanish National Sports Council president Victor Francos said he would have to apply the country’s sports law. “If they don’t turn up, the government would have to apply the law, which is a pity for me, but the law is the
China hopes to make a splash with the Asian Games, which officially open tomorrow, but nationwide excitement has been muted as the economy sputters and some question the cost of the sporting extravaganza. Delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the quadrennial Games, kicking off in the eastern city of Hangzhou, will be China’s biggest sporting event in more than a decade, with more than 12,000 athletes from 45 nations competing in 40 sports. Organizers this week expressed confidence in holding a “magnificent” Games, thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “important instructions” and great, broad-based efforts. Analysts agree the event would likely
Hong Kong is one of the smaller Asian Games teams by population, but when it comes to fencing the territory is a regional heavyweight with ambitious medal hopes. Edgar Cheung won gold at the Tokyo Games two years ago — Hong Kong’s first Olympic fencing title and first Olympic gold in any sport in 25 years. It turned Cheung into a celebrity overnight and prompted parents across the territory to rush and sign their children up for fencing classes. Cheung’s historic win in the foil competition was a much-needed dose of good news for a territory mired in social unrest and COVID-19 gloom
RSS