Article

2004-09-19 Iraq-Jordan

U.S. Soldiers Introduce Baseball to Iraqis

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Posted by Fred 2004-09-19 1:38:20 PM|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 How long until 14 year old Iraqies start to dominate the Little League World Series? Can't come soon enough though.

Posted by Lucky 2004-09-19 1:58:32 PM|| 2004-09-19 1:58:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 That's the only thing the GIs failed to introduce in post war Germany: Baseball never caught on... Soccer dominates the field.
The Iraqis are soccer crazy, too... will be interesting to watch.
I think in Japan baseball turned out to be a huge success but there soccer didn't dominate then.

Posted by True German Ally 2004-09-19 2:16:04 PM|| 2004-09-19 2:16:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Baseball was actually introduced to Japan in the 1870s by an American missionary. The Japanese took it as a form of American martial arts and behaved accordingly.

Posted by Pete Stanley 2004-09-19 2:35:07 PM|| 2004-09-19 2:35:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 The Japanese took it as a form of American martial arts and behaved accordingly.

I've always thought that baseball would be more interesting if the batter could keep (and employ) his bat while running the bases. Of course to be fair the infielders would have to be similarly armed.

Posted by AzCat 2004-09-19 4:20:50 PM|| 2004-09-19 4:20:50 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I sometimes wonder if it's a good idea to teach Arab children how to throw. It's already a problem when they start hurling rocks but at least now they throw like with terrible form - like John Kerry. If some of them start developing into Pedro Martinez or Ichiro, then our troops are going to have biggr problems.

Seriously though. I don't think baseball competes with Soccer. It's a summer sport and completely different. I think it would compete with Cricket but cricket is not very popular outside of Pakistan and India and a few other former colonial outposts so there's a lot of potential for baseball and I think it would be an excellent game to export.

But maybe I'm wrong because although S. & Central America are all soccer-mad, the baseball playing countries like Panama, Venezuela, Cuba and the Dominican Rep. all suck at soccer.

Posted by Prince Abdullah 2004-09-19 5:48:13 PM|| 2004-09-19 5:48:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 So the Iraqi's are going to adopt the Japanese national past time. "As Japanese as sushi at a besoboru game".

Posted by A Jackson 2004-09-19 6:25:43 PM|| 2004-09-19 6:25:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 [C]ricket is not very popular outside of Pakistan and India and a few other former colonial outposts...

LOL 'colonial outposts' like Australia and New Zealand, I suppose. And obssessing the whole of South Asia isn't really much. Face it: cricket is BIG. No, I'm not sure why, either.

Posted by Bulldog 2004-09-19 6:32:05 PM|| 2004-09-19 6:32:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 OK, just how do you explain the infield fly rule in Arabic? And, I assume there's no designated hitter.

Posted by Chuck Simmins 2004-09-19 11:09:54 PM|| [http://blog.simmins.org] 2004-09-19 11:09:54 PM|| Front Page Top

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