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.
To prevent the greedy assembly of muscled 12-year-old guns, Steinbrenner-style, Little League Baseball requires teams who want to play in its global tournament to meet a list of requirements. The rules are meant to guarantee a fair chance for every city showing up for the dance.
These include living in a defined geographical area (no national squads), playing a minimum 12-game regular season prior to a selection of “all-stars” and submitting birth certificates and other paperwork for each player.
Consequently, no team heads to Kutno, Poland – seat of Little League’s regional headquarters and annual European championship — without paperwork-capable, clear-minded, motivated and organized adults behind it.
In Brussels, we have those in abundant supply. In the two years we went to the World Series – 2004 and 2006 – my co-coaches were Patrick Gerard, a top-line big industry sales director and Mike Steege, a labor expert and human resources vice president. Already professional leaders of men, they were expert at directing the energy of 14 and 16-year-olds, and essential to our success.
This year, the stars are aligned and we again have a critical mass of young talent – this time in the 11-12-year-old division. Many of our best young players are Japanese. They are the sons of top managers for companies that make everything from cars to chemicals. Add to that highly-trained Rising Sun bunch some athletic Belgians and Americans and we have a squad that with proper coaching could do well in Poland.
The problem we faced in the beginning of the season was that the Kangaroos, as a club, don’t have a Little League charter. (There is a movement afoot to LL-charterize every European club, but that is not yet the case.)
Enter Dave Gutmann. He has two boys who play on the Kangaroos, and has been helping to coach their team over the past few years. While not working part-time for Coca-Cola — his wife is the family’s principal bread-winner — he has poured energy and care into our youth program. He’s the best kind of American abroad – enthusiastic, generous and sharp, without ever being overbearing or rude.
Dave set up a team of Kangaroos who wanted to compete in the Little League tournament. He integrated the group with the Little League-chartered Brussels Sports Association, an expatriate-run league with a rich history.
The team plays in the BSA league every Monday night, and by all accounts, has been having a terrific time. Tryouts are on June 15th. Sam, our New York slugging catcher, will coach the team at the European championships.
Baseball is not like water, trees or cows It has received no God-given order to grow on its own. Baseball is like a warm dinner party. It takes people who care about others to set up the chairs, pour the drinks and cook the turkey. Dave is moving to Georgia this month. We will miss him, for he served up some mighty fine turkey.
Don’t like my metaphors? Do you think baseball is not like a dinner party at all, but rather like a box of chocolates? Send your fresh meat to oldworldpastime@gmail.com