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November 22nd, 2008

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Hit and run

Nine days of baseball in China

September 5th, 2007 issue

By Tomáš Čása

For the Post

COURTESY PHOTO

Krc Altron teammates Jan Homolka, left, and Tomas Casa didn't fare very well on the diamond, posting a 1-4 record with the national team, but they returned as heroes from their visit to the Great Wall.

Last month, the Czech national baseball team traveled to Beijing to play in a four-team tournament held to try out China’s new Olympic facilities. The trip turned out to be as much a cultural excursion as a sports outing.

The Prague Post asked Tomáš Čása, the right fielder for Krč Altron in the Czech Extraliga, to keep a diary of his travels. Here is his report.

Wednesday, Aug. 15

Beijing welcomes us with warm weather and lots of pollution. The government is limiting the number of cars on the streets to ensure reasonably clean air in time for the Olympics. But, during our stay, there are only two days when one can see blue sky. The rest of the time Beijing is covered in soot.

At the airport, we are greeted by five Chinese volunteers — our chaperones for the trip. They speak English and are learning Czech. When the Olympics start, every goup will be taken care of by volunteers who speak their respective language. I guess these students have a hard year ahead of them.

After a couple hours of sleep, we ride to the baseball complex for our first practice. The fields are brand-new, designed by Americans and truly major-league quality. We take some BP [batting practice], run through defensive drills, and go back to the hotel ready for a good night’s sleep in China.

Thursday, Aug. 16

My Krč Altron teammate Jan Homolka and I sleep through breakfast. In the afternoon, our guides take us to a famous market. The stalls are loaded with brand-name clothes sold for very cheap prices. Locals sellers try to attract the attention of white tourists, but it’s too much work negotiating prices. We manage to walk through this huge place without buying anything,

Rain washes out our evening practice. We spend two hours at the indoor batting cages.

Friday, Aug. 17

In the morning, Jan and I visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It takes us about two hours to walk around the gardens and palaces. We finish the morning by climbing a hill with a nice view of the city center, but it’s flooded with tourists.

Our final practice before the tournament is easygoing, with a long BP session. The ball carries in the outfield, which helps power hitters to hit quite a few BP home runs with brand-new Mizuno balls. We don’t have such luxuries back home, so it’s fun for us.

Tomorrow is our first game, against the Japanese team.

Saturday, Aug. 18

The last time we faced Japan, at the World Cup two years ago, it was not pretty. They hit a bunch of home runs and killed us 19–0.

This time, however, it’s a different game. Arrows Ostrava lefty Jan Řeháček holds the Japanese bats silent until the fifth inning. By then we have a 2–0 lead, thanks to a home run by Pavel Budský with Jakub Malík on base.

The Japanese pitcher throws a fastball in the low 90s and wicked off-speed pitches. Pitchers in the Czech Extraliga don’t offer much in the way of comparison, which is one of the reasons we often lose against Asian and U.S. teams.

Still, Homolka takes the mound and does well. We go into the ninth with the score tied at two. Lack of power and experience at this level hurts us, though. We lose in the 11th

3–2. I strike out twice.

Sunday, Aug. 19

We begin the day with a short trip to the Summer Palace, another crowded cultural attraction. It’s dominated by a huge bronze statue of a Buddha with 1,000 hands.

At 6 p.m., we play China. Their team spent the entire spring at a training camp in Arizona and is coached by Americans. Boris Bokaj starts for us and pitches well into the fourth inning, allowing one run. We tie the game in the fifth, but waste opportunities from there on.

The Chinese win 9–2, although we played well and had our chances. If we meet China in the elimination round, we have a shot. But we have to beat France tomorrow.

Monday, Aug. 20

France is a European team and we want to see how we match up. Draci Brno’s top starter, Martin Schneider, takes the mound and holds them to one run thanks to a couple of key double plays. Our offense produces six runs and we win, 6–1.

We are satisfied, of course. But we have seen that the French can hit and run. And we got lucky in a couple of critical situations.

Tommorow is a day off. We’ve planned a trip to the Great Wall. As a Chinese legend says, you cannot become a hero if you have not been to the wall.

Tuesday, Aug. 21

The Great Wall is about two hours by bus out of the center. The walk up to the wall and back is about a mile — more of a climb than a walk, really, through a crowd of tourists. After two hours of climbing and taking pictures, we head back home eligible for hero status.

In the evening, we visit another market, this time for a shopping spree: souvenirs, Chinese tea, some terra cotta soldiers. It’s great fun.

Wednesday, Aug. 22

We face China once again in a semifinal game. This time, Řeháček struggles to find the strike zone and has to be replaced by Homolka in the second inning. He pitches well, throwing strikes and making the hitters swing. Our defense does not perform too well, however.

China’s pitcher is a lefty. He does not possess dominating speed, but we are unable to put pressure on him. As a result, the game goes to the bottom of the seventh inning with the score 10–1 in their favor. Homolka then allows a long three-run homer to end the game in the seventh — the 10-run mercy rule in effect.

There’s no time to contemplate the loss. Tomorrow we have to beat France for the second time to win third place and rebuild our confidence.

Thursday, Aug. 23

It’s a see-saw game. At the end of eight innings, France is ahead 4–3. Leading off the ninth, coach tells me to get on base and he’ll replace me with a pinch runner. But I don’t need a pinch runner. I get a good pitch to hit and drive a home run to tie things up.

Yet, we can’t come up with the winning run. We go into extra innings again, and again we lose. The French pound us for four runs in the 11th.

So, we finished last. The next day, we returned home. Overall, the tournament was impressive. The Chinese took care of every detail: press conferences after every game, drug tests — everything under the same conditions as the Olympics. When we traveled from the hotel to the stadium, police blocked traffic so we never had to stop.

The Olympics are the main topic of every conversation in this city. Everywhere you walk you see Olympic posters and billboards. It seems the entire city is under construction. But you can’t see the sky, thanks to all the smog. Really, hardly anything except the baseball stadiums is ready yet.

Tomáš Čása can be reached at features@praguepost.com

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