ABUJA “2003” ALL AFRICA GAMES

BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

An exciting, fun and challenging event filled with competition and young men out to measure their skills and see how much far or closer they are getting to their dreams, the 2003 ALL AFRICA GAMES. An event that stands to bear a very important mark in every young African man’s life with high hopes and expectations about baseball in his life. Some people may call it a wild goose chase young African boys who have never really gone to watch a professional game being played in their lives who only watch it on television but have so much faith in the sport and themselves that they adopt the sport to be part of their lives in countries that sports like soccer, cricket and athletics dominate.

Another interesting thing to note is that in most African countries sports are not considered as a route that kids can take to getting a career in their lives and survive out of it. Even with this kind of thinking and attitude in our countries we are still dedicated and faithful to the game because of the love that we have for it.

The 2003 All Africa Games baseball tournament as it was the second for Zimbabwe there six of us players who had participated in the previous All Africa Games in 99` where we got a bronze medal . The association organized several camps and this really helped in our preparations .As said by the MIZUNO baseball company logo “BASEBALL UNITES THE WORLD” this really could be witnessed in the Zimbabwe baseball team. The coach and manager of the team coach Yosuke Murai together with his assistant coach Ito Masuro come from Japan, the other coach Fred Hilton Sorrells is American Morris Banda one of the local umpires who worked with the team up to the time that we left is Malawian. Four nationalities blending together to build up the team in different departments, this was a big achievement through baseball on its own. Later going to the games and meeting other nationalities from all corners of the world was another extra achievement.

Before we left for the games coach Ito Masuro from Japan secured a donation of baseball uniforms and caps from the DESCENTE baseball company in Japan and this really motivated the team a lot everyone really appreciated what the coach and DESCENTE had done Fred also secured some equipment from America to help during the games. Morale was very high in the team. The tournament started off rather shadily because the field had not been prepared on time and also many teams were still trying to adapt to the hot and humid weather in Nigeria. As the games went on all the teams were beginning to get used to the field and weather and were starting to play their normal game. Play was fair from both players and umpires, although they were quite a lot of bad calls from the umpires. The African Baseball and Softball Association has got to really look into the standard of umpiring especially at a big tournament like the all Africa games, because from my own observation bad umpiring really worked against the development of the sport .I also feel that if at tournaments like the all Africa games there could be awards like for example scholarships for baseball to study in countries that are well developed in baseball this could really benefit both the continent in its development of the sport and also benefit the individual player. With the exception of a few errors and mistakes I can say that our team really played well, we gave strong opposition to both Nigeria and especially South Africa.

I think that with a lot of international exposure a lot of players can really play top-level baseball and play in Japan leagues or American leagues.

Summing up I would like to thank people from Japan who most of them have never met with the players but put in a lot of support in all aspects financially, material things like equipment and most of all morally. I hope one day most of us Zimbabwean players will be fighting for jerseys with Japanese players in both the Central and Pacific league teams.　私達ジンバブエ野球選手は日本人の皆様のサポートに大変感謝しています。ありがとうございます。これを励みにこれからも頑張りたいと思いますので今後とも宜しくお願い致します。　

LOVEJOY SAUNGWEME.