Feb 10 2006 04:18 PM
Thought you Irish boys might appreciate this...
February 10, 2006
It's a Whole New Ballgame in Ireland, and a Movie, Too
By JACK CURRY
The plucky crusade to introduce baseball to Ireland ignited because of a bumper sticker. Mike Kindle, an American who moved to Ireland in 1990, saw an Irish Softball Association sticker on a car and begged the driver to tell him where he could find the group. He prayed it was no joke.
Kindle found the co-ed softball players tossing high-arc pitches on a mushy field. Softball was obviously a recreational activity, like flipping a Frisbee. The discovery still motivated Kindle, who preferred the more serious style of hardball that he had left behind in San Diego.
So Kindle persistently pushed the sport of baseball on a country without a single baseball diamond at the time. Eventually, there were about 30 regulars, some taking awkward swings, some making tortured throws and most, they said, falling in love with baseball and the notion of possibly playing it for Ireland.
"We decided we should try and form an international team," Kindle said. "We said, 'Let's get some uniforms and funding and go play.' We were sitting in the boozer over a couple of pints. Over a couple of pints, it sounded good."
The story of the recent birth of baseball in Ireland, its growth and its baby steps in international competition is told in "The Emerald Diamond," a film by John J. Fitzgerald. The film will be shown in 20 cities and towns throughout the United States, starting Feb. 25 at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, N.Y.
Fitzgerald's movie is a charming look at how baseball captivated some dedicated Irishmen. Those young men, supplemented by American-born players who had a parent or grandparent born in Ireland, transformed themselves from bumbling weekend warriors into respected competitors. Think of Rudy, the Notre Dame walk-on, and multiply it by about a dozen.
"I found out about them and I said, 'This is amazing,' " Fitzgerald said. "I had no idea Ireland had a national team."
The Irish are still minor players on the international scene and are not one of the 16 federations competing in the inaugural World Baseball Classic next month. While Ireland won the bronze in the B Pool of the 2004 European Championships, the 10-year-old Irish team remains a neophyte.
But Fitzgerald said some players dreamily speak about qualifying for the next classic. The team has playfully wondered if Derek Jeter, who has Irish roots on his mother's side, could be coaxed into playing for Ireland. That dream of Jeter wearing green would be impossible, since Jeter's grandmother was born in New Jersey.
Before Fitzgerald decided to do a documentary, he wanted to be on the team. Fitzgerald played college baseball and thought he was eligible because his grandmother is a dual citizen. After four months of workouts, Fitzgerald found out that he was ineligible because his grandmother was born in New York, not Ireland.
By then, Fitzgerald had communicated with the coaches of Baseball Ireland and heard about their humble start, their endless obstacles and their snippets of success. If Fitzgerald, a 28-year old from Valhalla, N.Y., could not play for Ireland, he wanted to follow the team with a camera and recount an intriguing, and mostly unknown, tale.
"Even now, when I talk to people from Ireland about the baseball team, they think I'm talking about hurling or an Irish-American team from the U.S.," Fitzgerald said. "Outside of Dublin, no one has ever heard of it."
Cormac Eklof, a pitcher who has a tattoo of Nomar Garciaparra, added, "Nobody knows who we are."
When Kindle, Eklof, Sean Mitchell, John Dillon, Darran O'Connor and some other originals initially played in Ireland, they trudged across rugby or soccer fields. There were no mounds, so the pitchers dug foot holes, and no backstops, so they hammered beams into the ground and attached netting. Rain was almost as predictable as the ball being white. They did have bases, which Eklof said were swiped from the softball team.
The film shows scenes of players with choppy swings and players fielding balls as if they were catching shot-puts. The Irish were learning on the fly. Dillon, a strong rugby player, was 25 when he made his baseball debut, an age when many Americans have stopped playing. He has now been the starting center fielder for a decade, combining grit with grace.
Ireland debuted in the 1996 European Championships and lost to the Czech Republic, 23-2, but the proud players were content because they had succeeded in at least competing. Losses to Norway (19-1), Poland (20-10) and Lithuania (15-5) followed, and exasperation bubbled. Could they be that terrible? The answer was no. Ireland stopped Yugoslavia, 8-6, in the final game, and the team was ecstatic and relieved.
Still, to continue growing, the Irish needed a real place to play. Peter O'Malley, the former owner of the Dodgers, donated $140,000 to build adult and youth fields that sit side by side in West Dublin. Some locals who did not know a double from a double play had to be told not to tear up the infield while practicing golf shots.
The diamond gave Irish baseball a home and an identity. Ireland won two games in the 1998 European Championships and one in the 2000 tournament. By 2002, the Irish, who had followed the practice of other European teams by adding a few American-born college players who possessed dual citizenship, thought they were threats to win the title. They finished fourth.
But, in 2004, with the additions of Joe Kealty, who hit .337 at Boston College; Chris Gannon, who was 11-4 for the same university; and Brendan Bergerson, an intimidating left-hander from the University of West Virginia, Ireland beat Serbia-Montenegro to win a bronze medal.
"It feels like we've been on a good trip," said Chris Foy, who is from Seaford, N.Y., and moved to Dublin and joined the team in 2000. "It took guts for the guys who were playing softball to pick up baseballs and say, 'Let's give this a try.' "
One of the challenges has been developing pitchers because the popular sports, like hurling, soccer, rugby and Gaelic football, do not involve throwing. When Ireland adds talent from America, the focus is on pitchers.
The Irish are also wary of keeping their team from becoming what Eklof called "a bunch of ringers" who could ruin team chemistry. So the roster is limited to one-third American-born players.
As important as the national team is to the future, the current players are also concerned about having successors. Rory Murphy, a sturdy catcher, hit .538 as a 16-year old in the 2004 championships and is considered the premier prospect in Ireland. In a country where 300 children play baseball, that Murphy favors the new sport over rugby is a coup.
"We need to keep the kids coming," said Will Beglane, the youth director. "If we don't do that, the national team will end."
Several players will be in New York to see "The Emerald Diamond" before returning to prepare for the European Championships in August. The two top teams from the B Pool advance to A, and keener competition in 2007 against the likes of Italy and the Netherlands.
If Ireland can rumble into the A Pool, Kindle, who spied the softball bumper sticker, thinks Fitzgerald should plan a sequel.
"Even if I wasn't involved, I'd think it was a great story," Kindle said. "You've got a bunch of knuckleheads running around playing in the rain because they love baseball. It's a writer's dream."