Let's play ball!
By Kasumi Hirokawa |
June 5, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT was nearly four years ago that newly arrived American expat Chris Matthews was sitting in a bar in Shanghai and spotted a group of men in softball gear.
He was amazed, went up to them and asked, òDo you guys play softball? ... Can I play?ó
Matthews, a member of team Boozerz and current commissioner of the Shanghai Softball League, has been playing ball for more than 25 years and it has lost none of its excitement.
And there's more excitement in store this Sunday in the final round of the league's Cakey Cup Tournament at the Sanlin Baseball, Softball and Golf Park in Pudong. The Boozerz vs Blackouts and Cruzerz vs Macaca games will open the final round at 10am.
The first round of the end-of-season Cakey Cup tourney was held last Sunday.
The coveted Cakey Cup has been around for about 10 years, says Barbeerians team member and former league commissioner Tim Anderson, an American. It is named in honor of Michael "Cakey" Cakebread, a deceased player. Even while he was ailing, he faithfully showed up at games.
The Shanghai Softball League, officially started in 1993, is one of the oldest expat sports leagues in Shanghai or China. Games are played every Sunday. The league contains 14 teams comprised of players from around the world, including a few Chinese.
According to American Mark Thompson, who is known as the league's consigliere or adviser, more than eight nationalities are represented, mostly from Western countries, as well as Japan and South Korea. The league has plans to create an adult coed division.
Teams travel to Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.
The league also plays Chinese teams in domestic tournaments in Wuxi and Kunshan in Jiangsu Province, as well as in Shanghai.
Players' stories
Bobby Fang, captain of the Taiwanese team Macaca from China, had played softball back in college. He joined the Shanghai league a decade ago. Macaca is comprised of mainly Taiwanese members in their 40s and older but Fang says a few members are neither Taiwanese nor 40.
Wearing a sweatshirt with "Queen B" on the back is American Melissa Gronemeyer, the assistant commissioner and self-described Boozerz's "team mom." She is one of the few female members in the league, where all team members are male. She played softball as a girl and her father took her to games. Today she referees, sends out e-mails, keeps the statistics and sometimes provides first-aid. Hence, her many titles: team organizer, team nurse and Queen Boozerz.
More than sport
Winning the cup is important, but the league is not just about claiming victory and defeating others. It's a community and a family.
Safety is a top priority, says American Luke Gray, a Blackouts member who sports a spikey red, yellow and blue mohawk and a sweatshirt bearing the words "Lukey Dokey." Last Sunday a player was struck on the eye with a ball, the game was halted, teammates and opponents rushed to the scene. The man was taken to a hospital.
Gray, who hails from Texas, was exposed to a heavy dose of baseball while growing up. He has been in the league for five years and says the environment is what he most enjoys.
"Everybody knows everybody. Every team has its personality," he says. "We are kind of a party team. When people think about the Blackouts, they think of a crazy, fun team. People like to hang out with us."
Playing softball provides the players a break from the daily grind and hassle and Gray says it's tough for anyone to miss a Sunday game.
Last Sunday Emily Beg went to the ballpark with her brother to cheer their father on. It was her first time seeing dad on the field, but she hangs out with her father's Boozerz teammates off the field. The YCIS (Yew Chung International School) graduate and long-time Shanghai resident says the team is "like a little family."
Bridging differences
Despite the cultural differences among members, there are no big communication problems.
"Softball is a universal language," Fang says, adding that with softball everything becomes easier.
Consigliere Thompson says the beauty of playing a sport is that though "you don't speak a (common) language ... if you know how a game works, you can still talk about it."
Much to the players' dismay, softball has not yet caught on with locals.
"Unfortunately, there are not many Chinese mainland players who like to play," Anderson says of the America's national pastime. Fang says that softball is much more popular in Taiwan than on the mainland.
Though softball is relatively new outside the city's expat world, Matthews is optimistic about the future of softball in the city.
He says people are trying to bring American softball to the Chinese mainland and says the awareness is "growing like crazy."
He was amazed, went up to them and asked, òDo you guys play softball? ... Can I play?ó
Matthews, a member of team Boozerz and current commissioner of the Shanghai Softball League, has been playing ball for more than 25 years and it has lost none of its excitement.
And there's more excitement in store this Sunday in the final round of the league's Cakey Cup Tournament at the Sanlin Baseball, Softball and Golf Park in Pudong. The Boozerz vs Blackouts and Cruzerz vs Macaca games will open the final round at 10am.
The first round of the end-of-season Cakey Cup tourney was held last Sunday.
The coveted Cakey Cup has been around for about 10 years, says Barbeerians team member and former league commissioner Tim Anderson, an American. It is named in honor of Michael "Cakey" Cakebread, a deceased player. Even while he was ailing, he faithfully showed up at games.
The Shanghai Softball League, officially started in 1993, is one of the oldest expat sports leagues in Shanghai or China. Games are played every Sunday. The league contains 14 teams comprised of players from around the world, including a few Chinese.
According to American Mark Thompson, who is known as the league's consigliere or adviser, more than eight nationalities are represented, mostly from Western countries, as well as Japan and South Korea. The league has plans to create an adult coed division.
Teams travel to Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.
The league also plays Chinese teams in domestic tournaments in Wuxi and Kunshan in Jiangsu Province, as well as in Shanghai.
Players' stories
Bobby Fang, captain of the Taiwanese team Macaca from China, had played softball back in college. He joined the Shanghai league a decade ago. Macaca is comprised of mainly Taiwanese members in their 40s and older but Fang says a few members are neither Taiwanese nor 40.
Wearing a sweatshirt with "Queen B" on the back is American Melissa Gronemeyer, the assistant commissioner and self-described Boozerz's "team mom." She is one of the few female members in the league, where all team members are male. She played softball as a girl and her father took her to games. Today she referees, sends out e-mails, keeps the statistics and sometimes provides first-aid. Hence, her many titles: team organizer, team nurse and Queen Boozerz.
More than sport
Winning the cup is important, but the league is not just about claiming victory and defeating others. It's a community and a family.
Safety is a top priority, says American Luke Gray, a Blackouts member who sports a spikey red, yellow and blue mohawk and a sweatshirt bearing the words "Lukey Dokey." Last Sunday a player was struck on the eye with a ball, the game was halted, teammates and opponents rushed to the scene. The man was taken to a hospital.
Gray, who hails from Texas, was exposed to a heavy dose of baseball while growing up. He has been in the league for five years and says the environment is what he most enjoys.
"Everybody knows everybody. Every team has its personality," he says. "We are kind of a party team. When people think about the Blackouts, they think of a crazy, fun team. People like to hang out with us."
Playing softball provides the players a break from the daily grind and hassle and Gray says it's tough for anyone to miss a Sunday game.
Last Sunday Emily Beg went to the ballpark with her brother to cheer their father on. It was her first time seeing dad on the field, but she hangs out with her father's Boozerz teammates off the field. The YCIS (Yew Chung International School) graduate and long-time Shanghai resident says the team is "like a little family."
Bridging differences
Despite the cultural differences among members, there are no big communication problems.
"Softball is a universal language," Fang says, adding that with softball everything becomes easier.
Consigliere Thompson says the beauty of playing a sport is that though "you don't speak a (common) language ... if you know how a game works, you can still talk about it."
Much to the players' dismay, softball has not yet caught on with locals.
"Unfortunately, there are not many Chinese mainland players who like to play," Anderson says of the America's national pastime. Fang says that softball is much more popular in Taiwan than on the mainland.
Though softball is relatively new outside the city's expat world, Matthews is optimistic about the future of softball in the city.
He says people are trying to bring American softball to the Chinese mainland and says the awareness is "growing like crazy."
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