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Around Town

Soaking up suds

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 30th, 2007 issue

Of all the excuses to drink beer, softball may be the most strenuous.

Or maybe not, judging by The Prague Post’s “Heavy Hitters” weekend, a semi-annual celebration of warm suds, three-base errors and desolate plots of land in Krč.
The just-concluded spring version featured a lot of sitting around in various bleachers or standing around on patches of grass, punctuated by wild moments when one or two players would chase down an errant throw.
To make matters worse, the beer generally runs out by mid-afternoon, forcing rapidly sobering participants to make a long, dejected stroll over to the nearest pub.
For this, folks from as far away as Moscow converge on Prague 4 twice a year. School teams compete against companies. Embassy squads battle local athletes. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) sponsors one group of players and this newspaper another.
Of course, The Prague Post team is composed of ringers. Scribes’ ability to sling words seldom transfers to the athletic field.
But let’s face it: Even the former high-school stars on staff here — admittedly few in number — are worn-out shells of their former selves. Take it from one who knows.
Still, we’re not the only ones bringing in hired guns. One of the corporate squads featured two guys who once played professionally for the Tegola Titans, a Gambrinus liga baseball team based in suburban Prague, and another guy who is still under contract in Germany. They were relatively easy to spot, because they were sitting around looking like veteran ballplayers: empty one-liter bottles, wads of chewing tobacco (you do the math) and a protective layer of sunflower shells.
On the other hand, a team from CERGE-EI, an economics institution, spent its downtime flipping through notes for upcoming exams. Such is the rigorous mental preparation required for success in the Heavy Hitters tournament.
The dedication of these weekend athletes is something to see. I was personally inspired by one of the RFE/RL contingent who stood up and addressed all around him in Rockne-esque terms: “We’re not very good. I won’t be here for the next game.”
Just as well. The kegs ran dry a moment later.
Economics students from the Invisible Hands (get it?) team learned of this catastrophe while studying. At almost the same instant, someone informed them that their next opponent — undergrads from NYU — lost “24 to something” in a previous outing. This however, was not foremost on the minds of the future economists.
“Did they drink all the beer?” asked one.
Not that they were deprived. One of the players from Invisible Hands had already wrapped his fingers around several plastic cups of lukewarm beer. Either that or he had discarded his sense of equilibrium and fluency in two languages.
Meanwhile, girls from a visiting Warsaw team had sauntered over to a neighboring diamond where Krč Altron was engaged in an extra-inning battle. The girls busied themselves snapping pictures of various players — presumably to study the technicalities of each batting stance and the mechanics of a good swing.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, you understand.
The Warsaw Hussars and the International School of Prague won the tournament, but in the end, it’s not really the scores that matter. Softball tournaments are basically an endurance test to see who’s left standing after two grueling days of alcohol and sun, and the occasional at-bat.
What matters is that everyone involved has a good time. And, while we’re in a congratulatory mode, here’s a tip of the baseball cap to the Prague Post Foundation, which somehow takes over a plot of ground in the city and makes it feel, in every respect, like a sunny afternoon on a rickety softball field in rural Indiana — warm beer and all.
Well done.
 

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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