Moscow News: Discovering Russian Baseball

Well there goes Sterling’s chance to uncork a Belga-rod Oblast.

It seems that Russia’s small community of baseball lovers endures, and their teams have even made re­spectable showings in international tournaments. This isn’t surprising: Russians have a knack for picking up sports and ex­celling at them. Just look at what they’ve accomplished in ice hockey. But the problem this year is that the Russian national team failed to make the Beijing Olympics, which will be the last time the game will be featured as an Olympic sport.

“I really fear that baseball will soon die as a sport in this country,” Russian baseball federation vice-president Dmitry Kiselev told Reuters last week. “In Russia, most of the money is spent on sports that are a part of the Olympic program, others get very little, and since we didn’t qualify for Beijing in baseball or softball, the funding will be cut drastically.”

...But while I can appreciate its universal values, there are plenty of esoteric aspects of it that would seem to limit its broader appeal. Unlike the “put a playing piece in a goal” sports, baseball’s rules can’t be grasped simply by watching it for awhile. Through the years, it has evolved its own language of “Bronx cheers,” “Baltimore chops” and “Texas leaguers.” And as every non-fan will point out - and every honest fan will grudgingly admit - its ponderously slow pace can be out and out stupifying at times.