MVP

With hopes of giving you all a better sense of the baseball scene in Ghana (and my work with the game here), I am going to write a series of posts about baseball in Ghana with a particular focus on the different actors involved. This first post is about Peter Tamberson, one of the best baseball players in Ghanaian history.
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Last Saturday, I watched Peter Tamberson, a 26-year old Ghanaian man, crush a softball at least 300 feet on four separate occasions. For the most part, his homeruns sailed towards left-center field and landed in the tall grass just behind the soccer pitch (which doubles as a softball diamond) at St. Thomas Aquinas Field in Accra, Ghana.

Had things gone just a little bit differently, Peter’s homeruns might have been sailing over the Green Monster at Fenway Park or the ivory covered walls of Wrigley Field. Several years ago, Peter traveled to the United States for a tryout with the Florida Marlins. Unfortunately, the audition, which was organized in part thanks to the efforts of a former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, ended prematurely when Peter busted his knee during the 40 yard dash.

Though Peter no longer aspires to play professional baseball, he is still involved with the sport. Every Saturday, he and some of his friends from church play softball in Accra, and Peter is also teaching baseball to orphans here.

What impresses me most about Peter is that he does not seek fanfare or wealth (which, as I will discuss in a subsequent post, distinguishes him from other folks involved in baseball in Ghana). At this point, what drives Mr. Tamberson is a love of the game and genuine desire to help kids enjoy a wonderful sport.

In a country rife with corruption and a sport tainted by illegal drug use, Peter Tamberson stands out to me as a true MVP.

All Star Weekend

This weekend, I had the pleasure of practicing with some of the most talented baseball players in Ghana. Specifically, on Saturday, I attended the practice of the Little League All Stars, who are competing in a tournament in the Ivory Coast in two weeks. Then, earlier today, I trained with the Ghanaian national baseball team.

Both experiences were stupendous, and I will write more about them as well as the general baseball scene in Ghana in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy these photos that were taken at the practices and posted online by my colleague, Joe Luna: baseball photos

Baseball Stadiums Article

During my senior year of college, I wrote my thesis about government subsidies for professional sports stadiums, and, since graduation, I have done some work for a professor who studies the same issue.

This morning, I read this article; it provides an interesting perspective on the stadium subsidies debate by describing the derelict conditions of a minor league baseball stadium in Vermont and the team’s effort to obtain government assistance for a new park.

Typically, state and municipal governments subsidize new stadiums to prevent teams from relocating. This minor league team in Vermont, however, is arguing that it should receive government assistance because of the stadium’s historical value. The field the team plays on is older than Fenway Park!

Admittedly, the team is fairly explicitly threatening to relocate, and there is something that resembles a precedent for this. A few years ago, Soldier Field was renovated instead of replaced in part because of its historical value. Likewise, Fenway Park has been renovated and not rebuilt because some people argue that it has tremendous historical significance.

Still, to my knowledge, few teams have framed their case that a stadium should receive government aid vis-a-vis the field’s historical significance.

Very interesting stuff.

Early Bird…

In Ghana, the business day for a lot of people starts at sunrise. Because my work day usually starts at 8:00 a.m. or so, I typically turn my phone off at night (I don’t want anyone waking me up with a 6:30 a.m. phone call). This morning, however, I am off to Tema for baseball practice, and, because I had to get up early on a Saturday morning, I left on my phone and switched on the phone alarm clock. Big mistake: by 7:45 a.m., I had received four separate phone calls.