John Miller, head coach of the Brussels Kangaroos and a reporter for a major American newspaper, is chronicling his team’s 2008 season in a column that will appear every Monday on mister-baseball.com. It is the first of several Mister-Baseball Blogs this year.
During my two-week honeymoon in Vietnam, the Kangaroos won their first two games. The first was while we were waiting for our flight to Hong Kong at Heathrow airport. A club member watching the game sent me text messages. “Losing 4-1.” “Vincent just hit a homerun.” And finally, triumph.
Then two weeks later, against the Brasschaat Braves, we won again. Beautiful. Caroline and I returned to Brussels Sunday morning, in time for me to travel to our game on the road – and lose, 10-0. I need to go back to Asia.
The good news is that Harold, our young lefty, pitched back-to-back complete game wins. I don’t know what his pitch count was. It was probably on the high side, but there is mental virtue in learning how to dig deep and beat a team on the mound. All the great pitchers know how to be the stopper when they need to be. That’s what Harold was for us these last two weeks.
Sandwiched in between, he also beat the Flemish All-Stars at the international “4 nations” tournament last week in Wanze, a pleasant, flat field in the south, nudged in a valley next to a train station and the ruins of a castle. The French-speaking league, now in the hands of young, capable administrators, put on a show, or so I’m told.
We said goodbye this weekend to some members of the Kangaroo family. Marc and Nancy McLean arrived here last year to follow the progress of their son Tim, a powerful Haverford infielder and pitcher who played for us last summer. The McLeans live in Paris now, and Tim has moved on to an assistant coaching job at Haverford, but Marc has continued to work with some of our players and to help out at practices and workouts. Now they’re leaving for good.
One of the nice things about our program is how so many different people have contributed over the years. One of the big differences between us and the Antwerp teams is that our base is not a tight-knit community that funnels generations of players and coaches through the clubhouse. Brussels is a transient town so we need the talent and enthusiasm of people passing through. One of the club’s first head coaches was a political refugee from Nicaragua. He threw hand grenades before moving to Brussels to throw batting practice. Marc was our latest such free agent.
The end result, we hope, will one day happy, thriving, winning baseball club.
CORRECTION: It is the government, not the baseball federation, that administers drug testing. Thanks to Tony Illegems for pointing that out. (We still have not received our results.) Thanks also to everybody who wrote in on that, and other issues. A future column will publish the most interesting mail I’ve received.
Have I have any other mistakes? I am humble at oldworldpastime@gmail.com