happy to contribute a few bucks to this cause. Money is exactly what they need. Rec'd with thanks!
With one bat and no uniforms, Iraq's baseball team hits field
USIRAQ-BASEBALL
Laith Hammoudi / MCT
Mohammed Tariq is the only player on the team who has a baseball shirt, Yet, it's for a Japanese team, not Iraq. | View larger image
By Laith Hammoudi | McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — They've only got a five year-old softball bat, a threadbare cap, three scuffed balls and nine second-hand gloves from a flea market. They train on a college soccer field. And there's not a uniform among them. However, they love America's pastime as much as Crash Davis of "Bull Durham" ever did.
Meet Iraq's national baseball team.
The venture was the brainchild of three young Iraqi men from the U.S. They played ball at their American high school schools, came to Baghdad on a visit five years ago and left behind a curiosity and interest about a sport that, unlike soccer, didn't involve yellow cards, flops or nets.
"We were a group of physical education students," recalls Ysir Abdul Hasan, 23, the assistant coach. "We loved it because it's a new and strange game for our society." The Iraqis were also struck with the challenge, he adds, "especially for the striker who plays against the whole other team."
Striker or batter, coach Hamza Madlool, 26, formed the current team after an earlier team had to be disbanded at the height of the country's civil unrest. Players on that club and the baseball federation president, Isma'eel Khallel, got e-mail and telephone threats from Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaida Iraq. The insurgents accused them of playing "an occupation game."
However, it was lack of money, not death threats, that sent the earlier team to the showers.
Even so, Madlool says he loves the game "because it is more enthusiastic than any other." His family was delighted with his new sport and encouraged him to go on. Eventually, he wound up coaching a women's softball team, which won a championship. "I felt as if I were the No. 1 man in the world," he beams.
The reincarnated ball club still faces money problems today. Ali Abdul Hussein, the general secretary of the baseball federation, said there are many talented Iraqi players, but they lack gear and a place to play. "The Iraqi Olympic Committee didn't allocate a budget for our federation because it's new," he explained. "This year they gave us only 100 million dinars (about $84,500) as a donation."
Some 60 percent of that goes for organizing local championships, fees to join Asian and other international baseball associations and other costs. Besides the Baghdad squad, teams have been formed in four other Iraqi cities.
more...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/71740.html?storylink=MI_emailed