It was the mid 1960’s. I was teaching English in the recently independent
African nation Sierra Leone, more than 4,000 miles from my home in
The Bronx. and the two fields which I thought of as the baseball
Centers of my life, Yankee and Shea Stadiums. I was used to the heat
But what was missing was the heat of a pennant race on my TV or
In person. Instead, I had the occasional game on Armed Forces Radio,
But the time difference made listening to games sparing and occasional.
There were four basketball courts in Sierra Leone in those days but
No baseball fields. Playing baseball wasn’t possible – – – with an absence
Of equipment – – – so I, who slept and dreamed baseball, was forced to
Improvise. I reached back to my teenage years, when we took slices of
Baseball to play “Errors” – – – testing our defensive prowess and no more.
We played varieties of baseball: softball, stickball and punchball – – – but in
Port Loko, on the compound of the school I taught in, I had no partners
Teammates or opponents) to imitate the American pastime with (in any
Form). Some four years earlier, I had tried out for my Bronx Bombers in
Yankee Stadium as an ambidextrous pitcher. In Port Loko, the closest
I came to testing my pitching skills was to put a target on a wall in my
Bedroom and pitch darts at that target, racking up numbers of strikes
And balls based on which concentric target circle I threw the dart into.
The imaginary crowd roared (and perhaps even booed) with every toss
And there was the occasional wild pitch which missed the target and
Chipped some plaster from the hosting wall . . . but I had my baseball
Games of a sort and my competitive juices found a way to flow.
It’s fascinating how the human creature adapts to new or unfamiliar
Surroundings. Four thousand plus miles away, my Yankees played
The Cardinals in the World Series while my targeted series found a
Home in a garden environment, away from Bouton and Ford but
Just as valued as any series of games they ever played in. I was,
For two Peace Corps years, the pitching ace
I’d once dreamed of being.