Acatari

The town is predominately ethnic Hungarian. We met with the mayor, showed up for the first evening of there summer festival, allowed kids to pitch into our target and hit into a net. We stayed for a few hours, threw down some bases and played some sand lot ball. The following Monday morning we had 9 or 10 boys show up for first practice. We had 15 at the last one and are getting to know the boys. We are short on Hungarian speaking coaches so we offered to let an older boy who plays with us to be there coach, with staff oversight and help. He is from that town and should be able to grow into a coaching position and bring his hometown boys along with some good baseball training and some fun. Zoli is 18, is a strong young man, with a pitchers height and our fastest thrower.  He will continue to train as a coach and intends to play at the over 18 year level.

Acatari has one of the new sport halls that have been built with EU grants. They had everything completed and ready before the festival…except the football field behind the facility. We hope they will have that ready for play in 2011. At least they can hold some winter training sessions indoors using rubber balls. Until then we will train them on a grassy area on one end of the hall. The area for the future soccer field is now unsafe due to construction material, stones, metal scrap and an uneven dirt surface.
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AIESEC

It was a pleasure to entertain this fine organization on two consecutive Sundays in August. The first event was attended
By the staff who were here on some sort of a conference. The second was better attended and included young adult volunteer social workers here in the local area. Some stayed to continue participating with our regularly scheduled practice. Print media was present at both events. A local TV station shot some footage and did some interviews for the second one.

Rotaract

The orphans are functioning as a team. They have had two practices a week with kids there own age: teens. Our experienced kids are so patient with them. It is a joy to attend these training scrimmages. We mix them up and give everyone a chance to play different positions. The oldest boy is a natural, short and powerful and a leader on and off the field. I will highlight his abilities in a separate article soon. He is already recognized as a man with potential by our boys who have been playing for 2 or 3 years. On 12 September they will get their chance to play the younger boys from Panet who beat up on them pretty well on their first competitive meeting.

August 2010

We had a great month with lots of sun and fun and too hot on most days. I was kept busy hauling water to the field.

Another team now exists. The town of Acatari joined us several weeks ago. They will compete for the first time with other players on 12 September. More on that tournament later.  Acatari joins our teams of Rotaract (orphans) and Panet in expansion plans. Catalin wants to start another one that has given us a promise of cooperation, but I feel we should wait until next spring to bring them into our camp. I know we wanted four, but three new teams in two months is about all we can handle and time is running out with schools starting and the late fall weather is fast approaching. We intend to revisit Nasaud for a fun, friendly game next week, taking a mixture of kids who did not get to travel anywhere all summer, including a few of our girls who play well with the smaller white hard balls. This is in accordance with my insistence that everyone gets a chance to play.  Here are some highlights and pictures that will bring you all up to date.

Upcoming events in August

15 August a group from AIESEC that is here in Tirgu Mures will bring some of their international and local members for a demonstration and active participation on our field. These young university students are a team of future leaders in their respective countries. We look forward to a fun and rewarding day for all of us.

22 August there is a group of social workers, over 18 who want to do something similar to the group mentioned above…just for fun. We will make sure to show them a good time.

The American military is here with a group of NATO forces in the city. We have offered to stage an event for the soldiers and those Americans or soldiers  from any other country will be able to watch our kids play and also show off their baseball skills as well…this event is still being negotiated…but should happen sometime this month.

Our satellite program being set up in surrounding towns and villages will be in full swing. Expect comments and photos of the ones we do in the coming two months. I grew up in two mid west small towns and was convinced that the concept of town teams would be a good idea….and if the town of Panet is any indication I was correct. I expect to see this regional effort to grow into a full fledged league in our north central area in this and the coming years…allowing us to play all season with only a few long haul travels that are our only chance to play other teams until recently.

Orphan Program

Our contact with the director of all orphanages in the northern region helped get this started in July. There are potentially 2000 kids living in various homes and we are happy to have 3 homes cooperating in getting those wanting to play to our field and back. One house is 10 miles out of town, but they have a fenced in small soccer field that is perfect for introduction, fundamentals and drills. The fence is high enough to stop most foul balls. We visit them twice a week. These younger kids are a challenge but will benefit from the discipline that comes with any team sport. A few minutes sitting outside the area looking in solves most behavior and rules infractions. We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and excitement we get when we show of at the House Glodini. One obvious need is for shoes appropriate for playing ball. I will keep checking their feet and get an idea on how many pairs it will take to accommodate those players that will continue with us and currently show up in unsuitable footwear. One boy shows up with rubber boots…kicking them off to play baseball. Most have sneakers however and this will not be a large unbudgeted expense.
The house Rotaract has teenage boys and some good talent. The two girls on their team have been playing soccer with the boys and will certainly be a welcomed addition to our softball team.

Foundations Day Parade

Downtown streets were closed to traffic on May 8th.  Fifty eight charities had information booths, tents and activities to promote their respective Foundations/Associations the entire day. It is well known that many are present in Romania because of the state of the economy and needs of a large number of citizens. I was surprised at the numbers in this town of 140,000. Our booth was a hit because of our active demonstration of our sport and what we can offer children. About half of our youngsters showed up for the march; some stayed to play ball on the empty streets and to help with kids and few adults who wanted to try hitting off a tee into a net. Donations of several people surprised me. One young mother with a child still years away from Tee Ball gave us 2 percent of her income; the highest deductible amount allowed by law. It was a long day for our staff and some of the players…we stayed longer than most because of interested people to chat with or wanting to hit baseballs.

Tirgu Mures school yard program, Tee Ball.

Seven of the eight schools (grades 5 through 8) played ball on their play grounds starting in March…We held a tournament the last week of school in June. The venue was the old soccer stadium. Three days of games, lots of fun…a DJ with loud speakers played nonstop music, two games were played simultaneously on each end of the soccer pitch. We had local TV coverage and reporters from papers and magazines. About 60 kids showed up for and awards presentation held in a local theater’s refreshment center…Three teams took trophies back to their schools…all kids received a certificate of participation,  and some got special awards….it was a fun evening on the Sunday night of the last games. Gallons of Coca Cola were consumed….they were high on sugar and left the theater singing, laughing and playing on their way home. Our staff was exhausted after 3 days…and we were happy to be headed home to bed after helping the management clean up the tables. 

We will try to do the same this fall, but will target kids grade 1 through 4….and the spring school league will start again in March of 2011. I am confident this is the only program of its kind in Romania and probably has not been attempted in Europe.
We are also considering the game of kick ball for younger kids…it will give them the understanding of base running and scoring and may be used as an introduction to the fall program I mentioned above…

Panet

This town, just 15 minutes from Tirgu Mures is ethnically Hungarian. We met with the Mayor and city councilmen in May and agreed to equip and provide training. They now have a coach and a team that plays very well after just a few weeks of practice. We had a couple scrimmages a few weeks ago…and just put on a demo game with our Junior II kids and some of our younger softball girls for their annual town festival…It was a wonderful success and we enjoyed having the whole town there to watch the play. Panet’s pitching matched ours….the boys had NEVER pitched in a game before…(we used our ball thrower for our first meeting.)
The Panet boys who all grow up together, attend school together showed wonderful enthusiasm at each successful run as did the parents and local residents, though probably only a few know anything about baseball. HIGHLIGHTS: Mures’s long ball hitter had a home run…which by Romanian rules is held to a double. Vicentiu Dobrau hit one probably300 feet that was only stopped by a fence…Panet’s centerfielder caught a line drive on a bounce and threw out a runner sliding into third!...AND the third baseman made a picture perfect throw home in time to get the runner but the catcher dropped the ball….this is impressive on its own merit but even more so because this was their first real game, after only a dozen 2 hour practices in six weeks. 

Panet will be our showcase in picture presentations that our staff will take with them in the coming weeks to other villages in the area expressing interest in forming teams…the meetings will be held with local Mayors to set up demo games with our teams…possibly in conjunction with town festivals which is a perfect venue to promote the sport…we will certainly take some of the Panet players with us!

Nasaud July

Catalin found the local sports school team there, just 2 hours north of Tirgu Mures. They came to play on our field and we travelled there to play them a couple weeks later.
The game on our field was the first competition at home this year. Our boys, Junior II, 13 through 15 surprised our staff with a win on a beautiful Sunday. Solid pitching from Alex Moldavon , good fielding, coupled with heads up base running and a few timely hits put us on top.
The second meeting they had the home field advantage…both teams played well….with less than ideal conditions with high grass on the field….Their pitching was better than ours this time and we were defeated….We all had a great trip, solidified our relations with their school professor coach Nicu Marian and we will meet again in September.  Some of his boys are travelling with teams for international play over the next weeks so we look forward to seeing them again in the fall and for years to come.

Tirgu Neamt, June

This town is “only” a 6 hour drive and I decided I had better attend. We found a very nice boarding school for sports there that along with baseball trains young sports performers and future coaches for tennis, field athletics and the most popular game in the world aptly called football…

We played 3 games, lots of runs on both sides on errors; passed balls, wild pitches etc. We played the Junior III National team in one of our games…were out matched but managed to score some runs on them…Our center fielder (Nagy Szilard) caught a long high fly ball on a dead run and both benches exploded with cheers and applause.

It is apparent that our boys learn from playing other teams…we see them improve after competitions….Our staff learns as well. Both Catalin and I are confident that with our growing numbers of children, our coaches and our program that we should be able to have an all star team ready to contest the national team the next time we meet. The field is leveled on the experience side…while our older boys play kids with years of experience are now at a disadvantage, the younger ones are more equal…and our program is starting kids at 7 years now…probably younger than any existing clubs in the country.  We will have the experience on our side starting next year and in the long term.

We intend to be a force to be reckoned with and fully expect some of our boys to be playing and traveling with the nations Junior III team (10 through 12 years old) in 2011.

Calarasi, June

We do not have enough Junior I players to compete and needed the help of some of the older Junior II boys. This town is southeast of Bucharest close to the Bulgarian border. I gave up my seat on the bus allowing another boy to go…(I was not prepared for a 10 hour bus ride to be honest).  Several games were played and our boys actually won a game defeating a much older and experienced team.

The series was held on a soccer field, everyone had fun…this is far from fierce competition…the teams we faced were easy on our boys…most of our kids got to see for the first time the high level of play there and learned what they must aspire to do in the future here in Mures county.