Baseball, in Spain. It’s bigger than Yahtzee, but not as big as, say, rock/paper/scissors. Maybe not as popular as bowling, but definitely more popular than curling. Gen and I went to the European Baseball League Olympic qualifying tournament here. No, really. Mostly there were American college kids or others not quite ready for single-A ball. We saw Sweden play the Czech republic. I tried to get us in at the door by telling the rather bored ticket vendors in the ticket shack that we were friends of the Swedish team (not true) and that I was invited by the outfielder named Johannson (not at all true but I figured I had a good chance). Nope. I had to pay my 5 euros like the other 8 spectators. It was like those old Mets games (in the 70’s when they were lousy) that my grandfather used to take to when we would call the stadium to ask when the game started and they would reply, “When can you make it?” Not that bad.
We were sitting on the Sweden side, with maybe 20 other fans. The Czech side has maybe 10 fans. The Czech team was thinner, faster, except for the first basemen, who was a giant. The Swedish team was beefier, slower (2 players were picked off at 1st base and the Czech team turned at least 2 double plays), and luckier. At the top of the ninth, Czech was leading 1-0, and Sweden was up at the plate. After 3 errors (1 passed ball, a throwing error, another passed ball, then a fielding error), Sweden pulled ahead 2-1. Czech could not rally in the bottom of the inning to tie it, sadly. We wanted extra innings.
The cheering from the dugouts was unintelligible. There was Czech chatter, Swedish chatter, and spanish chatter (from the stands). “Varish! Varish!!!!” So I started saying the same things. No idea what it meant.
The announcements were in Spanish and English. Most of them. They didn’t translate everything. Also, the names were a bit of a problem. We’d hear: “Now batting for the Czech team, (pause)…..(longer pause)….(a slight exhale as it to say ‘Oy, look at all those consonants’)….Myrkowtz, el first baseman.”
Oh, and the center fielder’s name was Johansson. But he didn’t know me. Also there was a pitcher named Johansson. He didn’t know me either.
All in all, a fun day. We got our Euros’ worth.
We were sitting on the Sweden side, with maybe 20 other fans. The Czech side has maybe 10 fans. The Czech team was thinner, faster, except for the first basemen, who was a giant. The Swedish team was beefier, slower (2 players were picked off at 1st base and the Czech team turned at least 2 double plays), and luckier. At the top of the ninth, Czech was leading 1-0, and Sweden was up at the plate. After 3 errors (1 passed ball, a throwing error, another passed ball, then a fielding error), Sweden pulled ahead 2-1. Czech could not rally in the bottom of the inning to tie it, sadly. We wanted extra innings.
The cheering from the dugouts was unintelligible. There was Czech chatter, Swedish chatter, and spanish chatter (from the stands). “Varish! Varish!!!!” So I started saying the same things. No idea what it meant.
The announcements were in Spanish and English. Most of them. They didn’t translate everything. Also, the names were a bit of a problem. We’d hear: “Now batting for the Czech team, (pause)…..(longer pause)….(a slight exhale as it to say ‘Oy, look at all those consonants’)….Myrkowtz, el first baseman.”
Oh, and the center fielder’s name was Johansson. But he didn’t know me. Also there was a pitcher named Johansson. He didn’t know me either.
All in all, a fun day. We got our Euros’ worth.
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