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UGANDA LITTLE LEAGUE
BASEBALL HISTORY
The story of Uganda
Little League Baseball starts in August of 2002 and is a story of overcoming
obstacles and doing things that people said could not be done.
Beginning
Richard Stanley was a
volunteer sent to Uganda by ACDI/VOCA to assist the Uganda Vegetable Oil
Development Project in late July 2002. While there, Mr. Christopher
Gashirabake asked him if he would help start baseball in Uganda. He agreed
if the government would help in building fields and not hold up the delivery of
baseball equipment with taxes and duties. On his return to the U.S., he
found that Little League International was willing to donate a starter kit, as
was Major League Baseball, but he had to pay for the shipping from the U.S. to
Uganda. With the help of the Transform Foundation, this was arranged, with
the equipment leaving the U.S. in early January 2003.
Ms. Priscilla Sarah
Nakibuuka, had expressed an interest in baseball to Mr. Stanley in July 2002,
and now volunteered to assist in working to get Uganda Little League Baseball
started. Little League International appointed her as the Country Director
in the fall of 2002, and she then proceeded to convince 4 international schools
in Kampala and the Sir Apollo Kaggwa school to agree to become leagues and play
when the equipment arrived.
With the help of the
ACDI/VOCA office in Kampala, the container with the two kits arrived in Kampala
late in March 2003. The government valued the equipment at $40,000 and
wanted to collect $16,000 in taxes and duties. With the help of many
government officials, especially Mr. Francis Wafula at the Ugandan Mission to
the UN in New York and the people he introduced us to and who we met in Kampala,
Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Mr. Moses Kaggwa, Peter Malenga, and many others, the
equipment was finally freed of customs in late June 2003 and distributed to the
schools. It was too late to start the schools playing for the tournaments
of 2003, but they promised to start play when the schools returned later in the
year.
Little League
International agreed to supply two more starter kits in the fall of 2003, and
Major league baseball agreed to match what they had given us in the prior year
after some discussion. This time, with the help of U.S. Ambassador James
Kolker and his assistant, Jack Lopinski, the container of equipment was shipped
to the U.S. Embassy and arrived without trouble. Future shipments of
donated baseball equipment from Little League International and Major League
Baseball also were shipped through the U.S. Embassy until Ambassador Kolker and
Mr. Lopinski were rotated out of Uganda in the late summer of 2005 to other
posts as their normal three year assignments were finished.
Tournaments
The schools began to
play baseball for children 12 and under in the latter part of 2003. At the
International School of Uganda, which has a full size, all grass soccer field,
Mr. Evan Bringham, the games master and an American, built the first backstop in
Uganda at one corner of the soccer field. The two people who are most
responsible for Little League Baseball succeeding in Uganda are Ms. Nakibuuka
and Mr. Bringham. Ms. Nakibuuka for convincing the International School of
Uganda to start baseball and Mr. Bringham for building the backstop and giving
the Uganda Little League a place to hold its National tournaments which for the
first time was held in June 2004.
Four leagues
participated in the semifinals held at 9:30AM on opposite corners of the soccer
field. The championship game followed, and the Heritage School defeated
the International School of Uganda for the title. The Kabila School
defeated the Sir Apollo Kaggwa School in the consolation game. The
Heritage School now had the right to play for the European/Middle East/Africa
Little League Regional title which is held in Kutno, Poland each July. The
problem was that they had to pay their way there and for $30,000 in travel cost,
that did not happen.
The success of the
Little League program in 2004, and the arrival of new equipment in 2004, allowed
the program to expand to 11 leagues for the 2005 tournament. More
equipment arriving in 2005, allowed us to expand to 15 leagues for the 2006
season, and for the first time, we held a tournament for 13-14 year olds, in
addition to the third 12 and under tournament. The lack of money to pay
for the travel to play in the European/Middle East/Africa tournaments continues
to keep the championship teams at home. The schedule for the 2007 season
has eight tournaments scheduled for June 2007. We will hold tournaments
for 12 and under, 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18 in baseball and also in softball.
The first half will be played at the International School of Uganda during June
16 and June 17. The latter four tournaments for the older children will be
played in Jinja during June 23 and 24th.
Elimination tournaments
will be played during the early weeks of June to get each tournament to the 4
semifinalists that will be playing on the above dates. Uganda Little
League Baseball has now expanded to 25 leagues covering baseball and softball
from ages 6 to 18. While our goal is to expand to 100 leagues over the
next several years, the major thing holding us back is the lack of equipment and
money to obtain it, ship it and to distribute it. While the equipment is
meant to start leagues, almost all of our leagues need funds to obtain new
equipment to maintain their programs. Baseball equipment is difficult to find
and very expensive to buy in Uganda.
Recent Developments
With the departure of
our helpful contacts in the U.S. Embassy, Uganda Little League Baseball has been
very fortunate to be getting great assistance from several people in the Ugandan
Ministry of Sports, the National Council of Sports, and other Ministries.
We first met Mr. Apitta Omara in 2005. Mr. Okello Oryem and Mr. Jasper
Aligawesa about the same time. It is a result of their efforts and
encouragement that we were able to receive the latest and largest shipment of
donated equipment to ever be shipped to Uganda Little League without
encountering problems with duties and taxes. They have also been most
helpful in allowing Little League Baseball to expand to large schools in Lira,
Luwero and Mbarara this past spring.
2006
- 2007
In August 2006, Major
League Baseball gave Uganda Little League Baseball $15,000 to help level fields
and install backstops. With that money, we have leveled five fields and
will be installing several backstops. We hope Major League Baseball will
grant additional funds to continue to make playing fields available.
In October 2006, due to
a generous donor, Uganda Little League Baseball purchased 40 acres of land near
Kampala to build a central complex of at least 6 fields to host National and
International Tournaments. We are now in the process of seeking additional
funding to actually build the fields, and then eventually dormitories to house
the visiting teams so that week long tournaments can be held with as many as 12
to 16 teams playing everyday. We expect to finish the fields by the end of
2007. The cost for building the fields is approximately $350,000.
The dormitories needed will cost an additional $300,000.
At the Little League
International Congress held in Houston, Texas in mid April 2007, Uganda Little
League Baseball, joining with South Africa, Ghana and Burkina Faso, formed a
committee to coordinate the development of Little League Baseball in Africa.
Some of the five year goals are to expand into 30 countries and to host All
African Tournaments at all age levels in baseball and softball with the winners
coming to the U.S. every August to play for the World Championships. We
will need large quantities of equipment, corporate sponsorships, many trained
coaches and umpires and many volunteers to make this happen. Uganda Little
League Baseball has over come many obstacles in its short 5 year history, this
is just a few more.
2008
For the first time in the more
than 75 year history of Little League Baseball, an African team will travel
to Europe to play in a Little League Regional
Tournament. The winners of these regional tournaments travel to the
U.S. to play for
the World Championships every August. That will be the dream of the 12
players, age 12 and under, and the 5 adults making up the traveling squad
that will step off the plane in
Warsaw,
Poland on July 21. They
will then travel by bus to the Europe/Middle East/Africa Regional
Headquarters in
Kutno,
Poland where the tournament
will be held.
For the
Uganda team,
there will be a lot of firsts. They are scheduled to land at
Brussels at 6 AM after their almost 9 hour overnight flight from
Entebbe
Airport. There they will step on
European soil for the first time prior to boarding their plane for
Warsaw a little after 9AM. For all
but the country director, this will conclude their first flights in a jet
plane. When they get to Kutno, they will see a real baseball field with
grass for the first time, and be able to practice on it before the actual
tournament games commence on July 24th.
Ms. Priscilla Sarah Nakibuuka,
the Uganda Country Director will be leading the adult contingent of
Washington Mugzrawa, the Head Master and President of the Reverend John
Foundation Primary School Little League, Owarra Deusdedit and George
Mukhobe, coaches of the team, and Paul Kataregga, Uganda Little League Vice
President. Aside from getting the players to Poland, they are also seeing
for the first time a real baseball field in person, and this is very
important for them as they are all involved with building a complex in
Uganda similar to the one in Kutno with the hope that Uganda will be able to
host this tournament next July.
Getting to
Poland for an
African team involves overcoming many obstacles. In
Uganda’s case, the airfare of
$25,000US, plus the need for a visa for each traveler of $100US which had to
be obtained in Kenya, since
Poland does not have an embassy in
Uganda, prevents all African Little
League programs from traveling to Europe. Little
League hosts regional tournaments for boys and girls from age 12 and under
thru age 18, or eight tournaments every July, with the winners going to the
U.S. The
U.S. trips are
paid for by Little League International, but the local leagues must pay
their way to the regional tournaments. If
Uganda would send eight teams to
Europe, the cost would be well over $200,000 per year
just in travel expenses. Where the average family monthly income for a
school teacher is less than $200 per month, it is obvious why no African
team has traveled to Europe
in past years.
It is the hope of Uganda Little
League Baseball to build its complex in time to host all the eight regional
tournaments starting in 2009 so that more African Countries can play in them
without having the expense of having to travel to
Europe. Kutno was built for a little less than $2
million and Uganda Little League Baseball is trying to raise that money now
so that many African teams of boys and girls, from all over the continent,
can have the chance to make their dream a reality of playing for the World
Championships in the U.S. every August.
March 2009
We have been notified by Little
League International that our proposal to host the Middle East/Africa Regional
Tournament was not successful. Our proposal can be viewed at
www.baseballforgood.org This year, as in last year, the Middle East/Africa
Regional Tournament will be held in Kutno, Poland, the last week in July. As
this is written, the tournament will have only the three Middle East teams it
had last year. Uganda will not go this year, and instead will put the $35,000
travel costs into building the dorms at the Uganda Little League Baseball
complex. At this moment, no African teams will be participating in Kutno
because of cost and visa problems, instead, Little League International has
suggested that Uganda host an All African Tournament. We have agreed to host it
the first week in August.
The only problem at this moment is that the winner of
the All African Tournament will have to return home, instead of going to
Williamsport for the Little League World Series. Without the World Series Trip
as the reward for winning, I am not sure how many, if any African teams will
participate in the All Africa Tournament. Little League International assures
us that they will send out the invitation, and hopefully, we do get
participation of African Countries. We will be able host up to 16 teams in our
newly built dorms. The Ugandan Government has indicated that they would make
this into a National Event if it is held the first week in August. What we
proposed in our bid to host the Middle East/Africa Tournament will be what we
will do in hosting the All Africa Tournament.
As a result of the annual meeting of
Uganda Little League Baseball that took place in January in Kampala, the
schedule for the National Tournaments in baseball and softball has been set.
Each tournament will take place at the new Little League Complex in Mipigi
District during the weeks indicated on the home page. The length of each
tournament will depend upon how many teams come to the complex. By early May,
two dormitories will be finished. Each dorm will have 8 team rooms for 14
participants and also adjoining rooms to house 3 coaches. Up to 14 players and
3 coaches for each team will be housed and fed during the tournaments. Bunk
beds with mattresses will be supplied. Each team member and coach will be
expected to bring their own sheets and pillow cases and blankets. The
tournaments length will depend upon how many teams will come for each
tournament. We expect that each team will play at least one game every day of
the tournament. The tournaments are expected to all end on the Sunday. Each
tournament will be at least 4 days long, or could run as long as 7 days. We
expect each league to let us know no later than April 15, 2009 of their
intention to come to the complex to participate. Each team will then be issued
a formal invitation to attend the tournaments they are qualified to attend and
the date each tournament will start. All the teams are expected to arrive
before 5PM on the day before their first scheduled game.
This year, for the first time, we are
asking that each league supply us with the names of all players playing baseball
or softball at each age. These rosters can always be added to as the year
progresses, but we want to make sure that every player who comes to the
tournament is on the league's roster of possible players and has played for that
league. Any player not on the roster submitted during the playing season by
April 30, will not be allowed to play in the tournaments. Remember, it is the
responsibility of each team that if they win and go on to Regional Tournament
play, each player of that team must have proof of their age before they will be
allowed to play in the Regional Tournament. For boys, it is the age they are
on April 30, 2009. For girls it is the age they are on December 31, 2008.
May 2009
This month marks several significant events. We will be hosting 8 tournaments
starting in May and ending mid June. For the very first time, we will have teams
of boys and girls in the 17-18 age group playing in tournaments, along with the
15-16s, the 13-14s and the 12 and under group. They will be playing on the
fields that we have been working on for the past several months. Field one and
two are the ones with grass. We brought over and planted Blue Grass seed on both
infields to see how it makes out in Uganda in January. The outfields of these
two fields have grass plugs planted, which is the normal way of planting grass
in Uganda. Both fields are for Little League 12 and under baseball and girls
softball. Both these fields are 250 feet down the lines, and currently, since we
have no fencing around them, about 330 feet to centerfield. We had applied for
money to fence our fields from the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, but were informed, as
of the first week in May, that we were not approved to receive a grant. For the
time being, we will play without fencing.
Fields 3, 4, and 5 will be used to host the older boys baseball tournaments.
Field 3 and 4 have dimensions of 330 feet down the lines and 400 feet to
centerfield, but with no grass and no fences. Any ball that rolls past the
outfielders will drop off the playing surface and be declared a ground rule
double, until we can get fences up. If the umpires see the ball disappear
without a bounce, it will be a home run. We will have some fun. Field five, has
foul lines of 300 feet and centerfield about 400 feet, but also has no fences at
the moment, or grass. We still have lots of work to do.
At this time, we expect 5 teams of boys and 4 teams of girls playing in the
17-18 tournaments. We expect 8 boys and 4 girl teams playing in the 15-16 age
group, but 6 boys and only 2 girl teams in the 13-14 age group. We expect 8 boys
and 5 girl teams playing in the 12 and under tournaments.
It appears we will be hosting an All African Tournament for boys 12 and under
during the first week in August. We have been told that teams will be coming to
Uganda from Ghana, Sudan, Tanzania, and Kenya, and possibly from Cameroon.
Others may also come.
Arriving in Uganda on May 26 and staying for 4 weeks will be two gentlemen who
will be doing some filming to be used in making a 5 or 10 minute short that
might be used to get funding for a full length documentary film that will cover
what we are doing in Uganda regarding baseball. If they get the funding, they
will cover our January clinic with the MLB Envoy program. the every three year
International Little League world meeting in Lexington, Ky. next March, our
National Tournaments next May and June, hopefully the Middle East/Africa
Tournament, if it is played in Uganda next year, and the Little League World
Series that we hope a Uganda team might be able to play in.
July 2009
Uganda Little League held the annual
National Little League Championship Tournaments from May 28 thru June 14, 2009.
We started with the 13-14 year olds, went to the 17-18 year olds, then the 15-16
year olds and finally the 11-12 year olds. Each tournament was four days of
playing games, and required the teams to play 4 games in the first three days
and then the consolation games and championship games were played on the fourth
day. We had teams come from the west, Mbarara, the north, Lira and Luwero, and
the east, Jinja, besides Kampala. The games were being filmed by a team from
New York looking to produce a 5 or 10 minute video that will be used to raise
money for a full length documentary film which will be shot over the next 14
months. The expectation is that they will follow a player through the coaches
training program that Major League Baseball will conduct at the complex in
January 2010, the National Tournament to be held next June, the Middle
East/Africa Little League Regional Tournament next July, and hopefully on to the
Little League World Series next August. We will let you know when it is done
and when it might be appearing in a theater near you.
For the first time, we held a
tournament for 17 and 18 year olds this year. Our biggest disappointment during
our tournaments was the lack of girl softball teams that came. While a team of
17-18 year olds wanted to come, we could not get a team for them to play
against. Therefore, we asked them not to come this year. The same thing was
true for the 11-12 year olds and the 13-14 year old girls. The only girl
tournament held this year was for the 15-16 year olds. The girl tournaments
were to be held at the same time as the boys tournaments of the same age group.
We will now work on getting more girl teams playing in time for next year and
the future.
During the first week of August, we
will be hosting an All Africa Tournament for 11 and 12 year old boys. We will
be hosting teams from Tanzania, South Sudan, and Kenya. Teams from Cameroon and
Ghana have indicated their desire to participate, but were uncertain about their
funding. Hopefully they will come. The championship game for this tournament
will be held on August 8, 2010.
Now that the complex has several
fields to play on, local children have come to the fields and have asked if they
could learn to play. We are now working with the local population to form the
Mpigi Little League, which will be open to girls and boys of all ages. We will
keep you informed about our progress with this league.
August 2009
During the first week of August,
Uganda hosted the first All Africa Little League Tournament for boys ages
11-12. South Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania sent teams. All three of the
visiting squads were fairly new to Little League Baseball, but all came to
play and learn. They arrived at the complex during the morning of August 1,
2009. After a coaches meeting on the afternoon of the first day, the
coaches all agreed that the first games would be played on Sunday August 2,
and everyone would play each other twice during the week. Games were thus
scheduled for everyday at 10AM and 2PM. At 4PM on Friday, the best team
would play a team composed of the best three players from each of the other
three teams. The Championship game would be played on Saturday at 10AM,
August 8th.
After suitable opening
ceremonies, the games began. After the 2PM game on Friday, Uganda was 6 and
0, South Sudan was 4 and 2, Kenya was 2 and 4 and Tanzania was 0 and 6.
Uganda then went on to defeat the All Stars on Friday afternoon and also
defeated South Sudan in Saturdays Championship game. Uganda winds up
"Undefeated, Untied and Uninvited", just like a famous football team of 70
some years ago.
Tanzania came with 6 adults
besides its coaches. Every day, except Friday, at 4PM, a softball game
broke out including the coaches, umpires and other adults, including several
women, and some of the players. Sides varied from 10 to 15 players and the
games went on until 6PM. Everyone had a grand time and the coaches of the
visiting countries found out about how softball is played, so that they
could go home to teach softball to the girls of their respective countries.
We expect that next year, Rwanda
will be join us in this tournament along with Burundi, as they have both
contacted Uganda to help them get started with baseball and softball.
Uganda's goal is to make this tournament into the Regional Little League
Middle East/Africa tournament with the winner going to the Little League
World Series at the end of August.
November 2009
South Africa has informed us that
they intend to come to Uganda to play in the Middle East/Africa Regional
Little League Tournament for boys ages 11 and 12 during late July or early
August 2010 if it is played in Uganda instead of Europe. They will join
Cameroon, Kenya, South Sudan and Tanzania who have also indicated that they
will send teams only if it is played in Uganda. This is great news for what
we are doing in Uganda. We also know that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Dubai
will attend if it is played in Uganda or Europe. Rwanda and Burundi have
also indicated that they would like to field a team, and we also expect
several other African countries to join us if it is played in Uganda. This
puts a lot of pressure on Little League International to award the
tournament to Uganda, but it also puts pressure upon Uganda to make sure the
facility if built and operational to current western standards. We need to
not only finish the second dorm and make sure the guest house operates as a
luxury hotel, but we also have to make sure we can feed and maintain up to
250 players and 50 coaches for about 8 days of the tournament. We will be
needing money and people to do the many jobs, including transport to the
complex and maintenance of the facility.
As we already mentioned, Uganda
will be hosting two training sessions in January. Each one will be lasting
8 days and the second session will be a repeat of the first one. The
purpose of the sessions is to train coaches on how to coach baseball and
softball. We expect to host around 50 people from Eastern Africa during
each session. There is no charge for the sessions or room and board, all
they have to do is show up on time. The first session starts on January
15th and the second on January 24th. The training will be done by two
envoys sent and paid for by Major League Baseball. All the trainees are
expect to arrive the afternoon before each session begins. Little League
International will be using these two trainers from MLB to evaluate our
facility to determine if it is suitable to host the Middle East/Africa
Regional Tournament scheduled for late July or early August in 2010. That
means we will know if Uganda will host the tournament sometime around the
early part of February 2010.
In March, we expect to be
attending the Little League World Congress that is held every three years.
This one will be in Lexington, Ky during the middle of March. We expect the
Little League Africa Committee will be meeting face to face during the
congress for the first time since it was formed 3 years ago at the last
congress in Houston, Texas. At the meeting we will be working on getting
several of the Little League European/Middle East/Africa tournaments for the
older players, 17-18 year olds and 15-16 year olds in baseball and girls
softball to be played in Uganda in 2010 or future years. We are working
very hard on breaking Africa away from Europe and we can do it. The biggest
problem facing us is once again money. Little League International pays for
the regional winners to come to the World Championships every year, and in
our estimate, it would cost them to send the eight teams from Africa to the
U.S. every year about $1 million. Little League International needs money
to do this, as does the African Little League programs for equipment and
travel to the regional tournaments. If anyone knows how we can get this
assistance, kindly let Little League International, the African Committee of
Little League, or this web site how they can help.
December 2009
During December, the U.S.
Coordinator traveled to Dubai for meetings with Dubai Little League, and
then to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Annual Winter Baseball meetings. In
Dubai, it was suggested that if Uganda hosts the Middle East/Regional
Tournament, moving it to mid June would attract several other countries,
namely Egypt, Pakistan and others. Mr. Anthony Collins of Dubai will be
following up with these countries and keep us informed about the
possibilities. We had a very nice reception in Dubai. Meanwhile, we
continue to make great progress with Major League Baseball. At the Winter
Meetings, Mr. Dave Dombrowski, President and General Manager of the Detroit
Tigers, Mr. Roland Hemond, Special Assistant to the President of the Arizona
Diamond Backs and Mr. Joseph Reaves, Director, International Operations for
the Los Angeles Dodgers are now joining with Uganda Little League Baseball
to get on going support for the project from Major League owners,
Administrators and even players. They are telling our story and encouraging
support from the people they deal with on a regular basis. They will assist
us in funding, equipment support and in training players and coaches. The
January program that is discussed below, is just the beginning.
February 2010
The first month of the new year
has seen some very significant progress made in Uganda baseball. Starting
on Saturday, January 16, 33 want to be coaches of baseball and softball
arrived at the complex. Pat Doyle and Tom Gillespie, the two Major League
Baseball instructors had already arrived late on Friday night. After
everyone settled down in the dorms, with Pat and Tom at the guest house, the
classes began promptly at 8:30 every morning for the next 7 days. Lunch was
from 12:30 to 2PM, and diner from 6 to 7:30. Each day ended with a short
session from 7:30PM to about 8:15, followed by a hollywood comedy. By the
end of the program, would be coaches had been shown all aspects of fielding,
throwing, hitting, running and playing the game in a classroom setting,
watching the game played on the field and actually playing a softball game
every afternoon from 4:30 to 6PM. They had a wild celebration on the Friday
night when certificates were handed out and went home Saturday afternoon
knowing all aspects of the game.
On Saturday, January 23, the
second group of 30 arrived. The same procedures were followed for them as
the first group. The only difference was that from Sunday, January 17 thru
Monday, January 25, a game was played every day by players age 16-19, while
from Thursday, January 21 thru Saturday, January 30, a game was also played
by children age 10 thru 12. Anytime a future coach wanted to see baseball
being played by someone, all they had to do was look out the window and go
to the field. The one sad event happened just after Pat and Tom had
instructed the players on calling each other off on fly balls to the short
outfield. The game that followed had a terrible collision between the
center fielder and the shortstop, both going after the same short fly ball.
The shortstop was back playing the next day, despite the concussion and
stitches in his lip from where his teeth broke thru the skin. At the time
it was ugly, but everything worked out fine. The clinics had men and
women representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo, South Sudan and
representatives from all over Uganda. With the players and coaches, we were
housing and feeding at one time about 100 people for a period of 5 days.
Everyone had a wonderful time.
On Monday, January 25, contracts
were signed by Clive Russell of the MLB London office and NTV to broadcast
Major League Baseball games on a delayed basis starting on Saturday morning,
Feb. 6. Major League Baseball will now be seen throughout Uganda on NTV
every Saturday morning from 9-11AM and every Sunday from 11-noon. The best
game of the prior week will be shown every Saturday once the regular season
begins in April, in the meantime, we will be showing the playoff games and
World Series games of 2009. Boys and girls, men and women will now be able
to see and learn about the game of baseball on free television wherever
electricity is available. In addition, the nightly sports news will begin
to cover Major League Baseball and Ugandan baseball and softball as part of
their routine news coverage.
In late 2009, three Ugandan
baseball clubs started to play every weekend. It is expected that this will
expand to 4, and eventually 6 and then 8 clubs in the near future. It is
from this program that an eventual National Team will be selected to
represent Uganda in International competition. Uganda Little League wishes
to see this program continue to develop and will certainly supply a home for
the entire program if they desire. The Kenyan representative at our coaches
clinic wants to start competition in several month at the complex. We may
wind up hosting best of 7 International Tournaments between Uganda, Kenya,
South Africa and other African nations as early as later this year.
The next big question is what
happens to the Middle East/Africa Little League Regional Tournament for boys
age 11-12? We expect to hear about this in the near future. We look
forward to hosting the tournament this year, but that is not yet certain.
We should know in a couple of weeks. We spent time with people from the
American Embassy who came out to visit us in January. They were very
impressed by our complex and expressed a desire to bring embassy people to
come to the complex for a picnic and a day of softball. We are also working
with them to make sure the team that wins the hoped for tournament in July
has no problem getting visas for the travel to the Little League World
Series within a day of their victory.
March 2010
Uganda needs $35,000 US to play
in the Middle East/Africa tournament this July. ARAMCO oil, alias
Saudi Arabia Little League has Little League International tell African
teams that if you want to play in the Middle East/Africa Regional tournament
for boys age 11-12, they will have to come up with about $35,000US.
The every three year Little
League Congress has just concluded in Lexington, Kentucky. Uganda,
representing the wishes of Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan who all had the
hope of playing in the Middle East/Africa Regional Tournament with the
winner going to the World Series this August have had their dreams
shattered. For three years, Uganda has been fighting to have this
tournament played in Uganda. In 2007, we were told the tournament had
to be played in Poland because there was no place that could house it in
Africa. In early 2009, we were told that the tournament would still be
played in Poland because in Little League's opinion, our facility would not
be ready, instead you could host an All Africa Tournament expecting that it
would never happen. Much to Little League's surprise, Uganda did host
the tournament for a full week and Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan came and
played. Knowing the the Uganda facility was going to be totally finished
early in 2010, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Sudan chartered with Little League
with the dream of playing in the Middle East/Africa tournament, expecting it
to be held at the brand new complex in Uganda. Now, in order to live that
dream, Little League International has once again told African teams it will
cost you $35,000 to partake in the tournament because it will once again be
held in Poland. That is the cost to bring 14 players and 3 coaches to
Poland, pay for the visas that the EU will do its best not give, and for
food and other items. Basically, an entry fee.
Why is this tournament still in
Poland? No delegate at the recently concluded Little League Congress can
figure out how Little League can put a Middle East/Africa tournament in
Europe when Europe has nothing to do with the tournament. It is the
equivalent of having the Canadian Regional Championship played in the
Caribbean Region. What did come out at the Congress was the fact that
ARAMCO Little League, alias Saudi Arabia refuses to play in Africa because
they claim it is too dangerous. When a Little League Official at the
meeting that Uganda thought would determine where the tournament would be
held was asked, "If the 9 chartered African countries voted to play in
Uganda and the three Middle East chartered countries voted not to, where
would the tournament be held?" The answer was quick. "In Poland." While
the African countries still thought the decision regarding location had not
been made, it comes out that it was decided back in December and this entire
show was a charade.
At the meeting, the Kuwait
representative expressed a desire to visit Uganda. He believes that he will
also come with the Dubai representative, who did not attend the congress but
in earlier conversations had indicated his desire to also come and play in
Uganda. Since it is so hot in the Middle East in July, they are thinking of
bringing their tournament teams to Uganda to play and practice in a better
environment. We have agreed to work this out, probably the second week in
July. Uganda will once again, on its own, host our All Africa Tournament
and now Kuwait and Dubai might join that tournament early in July.
Ms. Nakibuuka, our country
director was very disturbed when she heard the Regional tournament would
once again be back in Poland. She firmly believes that we are forced to go
in order to demonstrate that we will advance the baseball program in Uganda
beyond the national tournaments and into the International Lime Light. It
will help with the government and the media. Therefore, we now must find
the $35,000US to get the team to Poland and once again fight the battle with
the Polish embassy in Kenya over giving our children the visas they need to
get there. The problem now is where do we get the $35,000. That amount of
money could buy more than 16,000 baseballs or over 1,000 gloves, which is
more gloves than currently exist in Uganda. We could greatly expand the
number of children playing baseball in East Africa. Where does this leave
Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan. The real question is how does ARAMCO exert
such power over Little League International, that no matter what they want
or do, is perfectly fine with Little League International, even though it
will hinder children of East Africa from getting the chance to play the game
due to lack of equipment. Every reason that the delegates at the conference
could come up with to explain this decision, all had a strange odor about
them. It would be unfortunate if any of them were true. I just hope it is
because they are afraid that a Ugandan team will beat them if they played.
That is another reason we must go to Poland. We will prove that no matter
what kind of entry fee you put before us, you cannot run away and hide. We
will come and get you. We could use everyone's help in funding this trip.
Donations should be made to 303 Development Corp., which is a 501 c 3 not
for profit in the U.S. where every cent goes to assist the Uganda Little
League Baseball program.
May 2010
Uganda is preparing to send its
11-12 year old country champion to the" Middle East/Africa" Regional Little
League Tournament in Kutno, Poland starting July 21. We have to be in Kutno
by the morning of July 20. Due to capacity restrictions and cost factors,
the Ugandan team will be leaving from Entebbe Airport late on July 16 with
the expectation of arriving in Warsaw, Poland early in the afternoon of
July17. We will then have to make our way the 50 miles or so west to Kutno,
where the tournament will be held. This will be an interesting adventure.
At the time this is written, we are being told that Kutno will only house
the players from July 18 on. If that is true, we will have to now find a
hotel in Warsaw to stay the night of July 17. More cost. It is now
estimated that the total cost for this trip will be about $40,000 which
includes travel, visa fees, meals, insurance etc. We have to tell the other
seven Ugandan Championship teams of boys and girls ages 11-12, 13-14, 15-16
and 17-18 that they cannot participate in their regional tournaments because
to do so would cost an additional $280,000. All this is because Saudi
Arabia (almost all Americans) refuse to play baseball or softball anywhere
in Africa and Little League International sacrifices Africa to benefit
them. Little League has made the $40,000 the cost to enter the
European/Middle East/African regional tournaments for each African Little
League team, and then wonders why no African teams come to play.
It is everyone's goal at Ugandan
Little League to win this tournament and represent Uganda and the rest of
Africa at the Little League World Series. We are not sure if that will
happen, but we will do our best. The boys and girls age 11-12 tournaments
are scheduled to run from June 10 thru 13. They will be the last of the 8
National Championship tournaments this year. Once they have concluded, we
will immediately begin the visa process. The EU visas will have to be
obtained from the Polish Embassy in Kenya. We have been told that it will
more difficult to obtain these visas than in 2008 when it took us 3 weeks
and many road blocks to finally get the visas at the very last minute.
Should we be delayed in getting these visas, we will lose the $30,000 in
plane fare we have already paid on non refundable tickets and not get to
Poland.
The
Trenton Thunder, as they have done since 2004 have once again supplied us
with uniform shirts and hats for the championship team. The shirts are
better than the ones that the team wore for the first African team to play
in a European Regional tournament in 2008. This time they all are
numbered. In 2008, they would not let us play unless all the players were
numbered. We accomplished that by using tape to make numbers that only had
straight lines by using the numerals 1,2,4,and 7 and various combinations of
them. In addition to the numbers, every shirt has "Uganda" printed on the
sleeve. Everyone in attendance will know where this team comes from. In
addition, there is a special shirt made up for the country director, Ms
Priscilla Sarah Nakabuuka so everyone will know who is in charge of this
operation.
$35,000
Needed to send Ugandan team to Poland this July
$35,000 is needed so that the Uganda boys age 11-12 can go to Poland to play in
the Middle East/Africa Regional Tournament. Donations can be sent to 303
Development Corp at 366 Ardsley Street, Staten Island, N.Y. 10306. All funds
raised will go to support the travel costs of the Uganda Little League team.
They will leave Uganda on or about July 18 and return from Poland about July 27,
2010.
Please note this ad is
placed here for it's historical value, we did raise the $35,000.00 and we did go
to Poland in July of 2010.
July 2010
Starting in late May
and continuing thru June 13, 2010, Uganda hosted its eight Little League
National Championship Tournaments at the complex. Each tournament took
place over a four day period. Every team played at least 4 games during
their stay. Teams came from as far west as Bushenyi and as far east as
Torero. Lira could not send a team to compete in any of our tournaments
because of travel costs. This continues to be a problem in getting more
teams to play in the National Tournaments. We will be working on
getting sponsorships to pay for travel costs of some teams in the
future.
Every National
Champion has the opportunity to play in the Little League Regional
Tournaments, but unfortunately, all those tournaments continue to be
held in Europe, which means each team we send would have to come up with
the $40,000 entry fee, (travel costs) that Little League continues to
impose upon African teams by refusing to allow any of these tournaments
to be held in Africa. At this moment, Uganda has built the facility at
our Little League complex to host these tournaments, but as of yet, none
of them will be played in Uganda this year.
Starting on July 4,
2010 Uganda will host an African tournament for boys 11-12. We know
teams from Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan will once again travel to the
complex to play a full 7 days of baseball, just as they did last
August. These three teams thought they might be playing in the Middle
East/Africa tournament this July, but unfortunately, they will not be
able to travel to Poland because they do not have the $40,000 entry fee
Little League International is charging them and no matter who wins this
tournament, only Uganda will be traveling to Poland.
On the evening of
July 16, the Uganda 11-12 boys team will board a SN Brussels Air Plane
to begin their trip to Kutno, Poland. They will fly to Brussels and
land there about 6AM on July 17. They will then fly to Warsaw and
arrive there at 3:10PM on July 17 and board a bus for the two hour ride
to Kutno. SN Brussels Airline has been most helpful in working
with us on getting us the best fare and allowing us to wait until our
tournament was over before submitting the names of the passengers for
the tickets. Not every airline would do this.
The tournament will
begin play on July 20. We believe at this time that South Africa,
Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia will join Uganda in this tournament. The
winner will be going to play in the Little League World Series in mid
August. In order to prepare for the possible trip to the U.S., the
traveling party had to apply for their U.S. visas in mid June, even
though we may never need them. Should we win in Poland, Mr. John Hoover
at the U.S. Embassy, who has been a big help to us, has arranged for the
entire traveling party to go to the Embassy for the visa interview as a
group shortly after they return to Uganda on July 27.
As you may be aware
of, Opposite Field Productions has been filming in Uganda the Little
League program since last June. They will be following the team to
Poland and have informed us that they expect to film each game Uganda
plays in with three cameras. They have also attempted to work out an
arrangement where they will edit the game film of each day and try and
send it back to NTV and UBS, two television stations in Uganda, in time
so that they can show the film on their evening news programs. Both
stations have covered our tournament play and featured the results on
the evening broadcast, including the news programs that they also
broadcast in the native language.
NTV has been broadcasting a Major
League Baseball game every Sunday from 8AM to 11AM. During the two
Sundays that our tournaments were being played on, we had as many as 50
players watching the game on the television set in the Guest House. NTV
is very happy with the ratings, which have gone up since the baseball
programming started back in February with games from last fall. MLB's
London office selects a game played during the week, puts it on a disc
and sends it to Uganda to be shown on the Sunday. People are learning
about baseball as a result. They know it is an American game, but it
has never received any coverage in any media until now, other than cable
television, which is expensive in Uganda and only shows the live ESPN
games that start at 3AM in the morning Uganda time.
During the
tournaments, we once again ran the Pitch, Hit and Run program sponsored
by Major League Baseball and Aquafina. We had winners in the 13-14 and
11-12 age group. Unfortunately, our winners only get the ribbons and do
not get a chance to compete at their local Major League Ball Park, nor
the Major League All Star Game. But they do have a good time cheering
for their teammates, as each team at each tournament selects three
players in each event to represent their team. The winners pictures
will be posted on the web site shortly.
Middle East/Africa Regional Tournament, July 2010
Failure of Little League Officials in Poland and Williamsport to understand
And Communicate Tie Breaker Rule costs Uganda trip to Little League
World Series
All the people involved
in baseball in Kutno Poland recognized that Uganda was the best baseball
team they had seen in years and had the best chance of competing, and
possibly winning the Little League World Series this August. Unfortunately,
they will be home instead of being in Williamsport. The story of how this
happens is as follows.
The Uganda Little
League Team left Entebbe Airport on the evening of Friday, July 16, 2010. It
arrived in Warsaw at 3:30PM on July 17 and proceeded to Kutno, arriving at
about 6:30PM. The team practices on Sunday and Monday and submits the
passports and birth certificates to the Kutno Administration upon its
arrival. On Monday morning, it is discovered that two of the 12 players are
considered 10 year olds and will not be allowed to play. This is an error on
Uganda's part as based upon our 2008 experience when 6 of the 12 players
that came to Poland that year were considered 10 year olds. At that time,
Uganda thought players had to be 12 or under. They were allowed to play in
2008, but not in this year. Unfortunately, when the passports for the
players were obtained in late June, the players were 11 years old, but on
April 30, they were 10. Uganda's mistake. Since they were already in Kutno,
Uganda was told that they could not play. Uganda was down to 10 players and
all the teams in Kutno knew what happened. To keep the players with the
team, the two 10 year olds were used as third base coaches during the games.
This will come into play shortly.
The tournament
begins with a coaches, umpires and league administrators meeting on Tuesday
evening. Schedule, times, rules and administration procedures are discussed
in some detail. Uganda asks that the tie breaker rule be reviewed. The Chief
Umpire and Regional Administrator say it is clearly covered in the rule book
on page T28. This will also come into play shortly.
Uganda plays its first game against South Africa on Wednesday. They give up
a bottom of the first inning home run to fall behind 1-0 and then win the
game 12-4, hitting 5 home runs from 5 different players. Everyone is
surprised at the fielding and throwing ability of the team as all teams are
scouting everyone else. The second game is against Dubai and Uganda wins by
a score of 13-3 on Wednesday morning. That evening, they play the second
game of the day at 6:30PM.
This is necessary
as the schedule calls for everyone to play 4 games in 3 days. This game is
against Saudi Arabia, a team that is arrogant and nasty to everyone and a
team that hasn't lost in Poland in over 25 years. Uganda wins by a score of
9-3 and ends the game with a pitcher to home to first to third triple play,
after they had walked the bases loaded and forced in a run. This shocks
everyone in the skill in which it was done. Everyone is cheering the
victory. People drive out from town upon hearing the results. Hotel people
are happy, and everyone is congratulating the Uganda kids. The nasty part of
this game is that the Saudi Team, in the 6th inning, protests the game
because we had a 10 year old coaching third base. In their opinion, he had
so much skill he influenced the outcome of the came. Because it is Saudi
Arabia, Little League entertains the protest even though its own rules on
page T11, say that the protest must be made to the umpire in chief at once.
Saudi Arabia knew, as did everyone playing in the games, that the 10 year
olds had been coaching 3rd base from our first game on. Therefore, the
protest should have been made as soon as the 10 year old showed up in the
coaching box, at the start of the bottom of the first inning. The result is
the 10 year olds are not allowed anywhere on the field or in the dugout, and
one of our two coaches is suspended for our next and final game, and cannot
even watch the game from the stands.
On Friday, Uganda
plays the very last game of pool play against our last opponent, Kuwait, who
had lost to Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning after holding the lead
throughout the game until very poor play handed the game to Saudi Arabia.
They have saved their best player and pitcher, a young lady, to pitch
against us. She is very good. The 3PM game starts in very cool, about 57
degrees, damp and windy conditions. Our team does not play well and we are
using our number 9 pitcher as most of our normal pitchers are not able to
pitch this game due to the strict pitching rules of Little League. A pitcher
can only pitch in one game per day, and if they throw from 21 to 35 pitches,
they cannot pitch the next day, 36-50, they cannot pitch for 2 days, 51-65
they cannot pitch for 3 days, and no pitcher can pitch more than 85 pitches
on any day. Uganda has used several pitches for 21-35 pitches because they
do not want any pitcher to pitch every day, and thus, have no pitcher
available for this game other than our 9th pitcher.
Uganda is the home
team and falls behind in the 3rd inning by 8-0 due to a grand slam home run
after an error and 3 walks. Lightening halts the game for 30 minutes. The
team is very flat, swinging at bad pitches and letting good pitches go for
called 3rd strikes. We have struck out more times in three innings than in
the prior three games. In the middle of the 4th inning, the game is held up
for another 35 minutes due to a thunder storm. We are now losing 9-0. In the
5th inning, we hit a home run and shortly thereafter, Kuwait's pitcher
reaches the 85 pitch maximum and needs to be replaced.
Several people ask
the head umpire and Administrator about the tie breaker rule. They are told
it is total runs allowed divided by innings played. The two lowest numbers
will go to the championship game. When the game started, Uganda had allowed
10 runs, Kuwait 14 runs, and Saudi Arabia 17 runs in 4 games. As the 6th
inning is being played, Uganda has now given up 9 more runs, or is up to 19
in 4 games, higher than Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. If it wants to make it to
the championship game, it needs to score at least 4 more runs because Kuwait
will have only played 22 innings and Uganda will have played 23 innings due
to having been involved in mercy rule games. With 2 out in the bottom of the
6th inning, Uganda scores 5 runs. Loses the game by 9-6, but is told they
will be playing in the championship game on Saturday. Kuwait is unhappy, but
still congratulates Uganda because Uganda has an excellent chance of winning
as they are the best team and Kuwait has no one to pitch in the championship
game on Saturday.
A barbeque and
singing and dancing contests are held after the game and everyone comes and
has a good time except Saudi Arabia, as they consider this party as beneath
them. Everyone else is anticipating the championship game to be played
between Uganda and Saudi Arabia on Saturday and are wishing Uganda their
best, including the umpires and regional administrators.
At about 9 PM, as
the party is winding down, Uganda is told they have to come to a special
meeting. The Regional Administrator and the Head Umpire notify Uganda and
Kuwait that Williamsport has corrected a mistake that Poland has made.
Poland sends Williamsport the results of every game and also notified them
about Uganda playing Saudi Arabia for the championship on Saturday.
Williamsport says that the tie breaker was misunderstood in Poland and that
because Uganda scored 2 or more runs with two out in the last inning, they
eliminated themselves from the championship game. They say the runs per
inning played number only applies to the first team into the championship
game. The second team will be determined by head to head play. As a result
of the Uganda Kuwait game, Saudi Arabia has the lowest run per inning ratio
and Kuwait beat Uganda. If Uganda had scored no runs in the last inning,
they would be playing Kuwait for the championship, but by scoring two or
more runs, Kuwait will play Saudi Arabia for the championship, and the team
that everyone thought was the best team, will be going home.
In summary, in
doing what they were told to do to get into the championship game (score
runs) by the Kutno Little League Officials, Uganda eliminated themselves
from the championship, and a team that never should have been in the
championship game will represent the Middle East/Africa region in
Williamsport. You cannot make this stuff up.
October 2010 -
Modern Breast Cancer Imaging Clinic to be built at Baseball complex.
 Uganda
Little League has formally partnered with the Uganda Cancer Research
Foundation and the Technicsan Medical group to build the most modern
western breast imaging clinic in the world. This clinic will set the
standard for detecting the early onset of breast cancer world wide. It
will also be part of the future research on combating the development of
breast cancer. The anticipated start up is scheduled for late June 2011
depending upon the availability of the scanning instruments from
Techniscan.
The formal proposal
states that UCRF(USA), UCRF(Uganda), Techniscan Medical, and Uganda
Little League Baseball join together to plan, build and operate a
Medical Clinic for the main purpose of Breast cancer screening and
diagnosis. The Clinic will guarantee the best treatment for women
diagnosed with breast cancer by leading breast cancer surgeons and
medical oncologist in Uganda at a leading hospital. The guarantee will
be established through a memorandum of understanding with the clinicians
and the hospital. The Clinic will be built on Uganda Little League land
about 20 kilometers west of Kampala.
Uganda Little League
has some land that it will not be using. The medical clinic will also
have a first aid function for the local village and for participants in
Little League baseball and softball tournaments. A doctor and nurse
will always be available right on the baseball complex property during
every event that is held at the complex and the eventual school, when
the school is built.
UCRF obtains the
most modern means of detecting early stage breast cancer and will be
participants in finding the cure and prevention of breast cancer based
upon the new technology that Techniscan Medical brings to the complex.
Uganda doctors will be trained upon reading images that will show cancer
developments much sooner than any other method available to most women
in the world in a continent where it has been determined that breast
cancer tends to develop about 10 years before it does in the rest of the
world. By using the Techniscan instruments, doctors will be able to
follow the effects different treatments have on these growths in the
breast. By using modern computer networks, doctors anywhere in the
world could have access to these studies and scans that will be done at
the clinic. Uganda Little League is proud to be a part of this project
that will do so much for combating and possibly eliminating death and
disfigurement by cancer to women in Uganda.
January 2011:
In January, Uganda
Little League will once again be working with Major League Baseball in
running a two week program starting the middle of January 2011 at the
baseball complex.
This will be a unique program. We expect to invite
about 60 of the best baseball playing boys ages 14-15, with some of the
best 13 year olds and also some 16 year olds to the complex starting
about January 14.
We will also invite baseball coaches who currently
are coaching programs in East Africa to also attend since this program
is for their benefit also.
During the first 6
days, the players will be broken up into 4 teams each day and they will
play a game each afternoon. During the morning, they will be going
through different drills. On the evening of the 6th day, a draft will
be held to formally divide the players into 4 teams that will
participate in a tournament during the second week. The people doing
the draft will be the people from Major League Baseball. After the
draft is over, explanations will be held on the reasons why certain
players were taken first, second etc. What talents were they looking
for that they deemed most important and which were deemed less
important.
During the second
week, the teams will practice under the direction of the MLB managers
who will also bring some of the East Africa Coaches into their program.
Here the coaches will learn what kind of drills are to be preformed to
develop the talent. A game will be played each day and here the coaches
will learn how to set a lineup, handle a pitching staff and manage a
game with the idea of winning a tournament title. At the end of the
week, semifinal games and a championship game will be held. We hope
this will be a great learning experience on managing a baseball team to
win in a tournament setting and also give the players a chance to
demonstrate their talent so that word can spread to the baseball world
that there is great baseball talent coming up in Uganda. We would hope
to continue doing this kind of a program every January.
February 2011:
January saw many
things happening in Uganda. During the first half, construction on
fields 3,4 and 5 was taking place. A front end loader, bull dozer and
three trucks were being used to cut deeper into our hillside to expand
the size of fields 3 and 4 to bring them up to 330 feet down each line
and 400 feet to center field. We managed to complete the work in time
for the two week clinic that the MLB Envoys would help us run from
January 14 thru January 28. While fields 3 & 4 were expanded and were
playable for the clinic, field 5 still needs more work done to get it
playable. That will be done in the near future. Field 3 & 4, while
expanded, also had new mounds put in place and, and while relatively
level and playable, they still need top soil placed down and grass
planted, which will happen over the next two months or so. Construction
was also started in late December on a kitchen, storeroom and eating
area to feed and house over 150 diners at a time protected from the sun
and weather. While it was used to cook and feed over 110 people for 15
straight days, it still needs a tile floor installed for easy cleaning
and the storeroom needs shelves and a locked door installed over the
next couple of weeks. While incomplete at the moment, it was a huge
upgrade over prior events at the complex and was well liked by everyone
in attendance.
The clinic was a
very interesting event. It featured over 70 players aged 13 thru 16,
and over 50 other coaches and officials from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and
the U.S. The guest house was home for 5 American visitors and two high
level Kenya government officials. The food they ate was different from
what was being served in the eating area that was feeding over 110
clinic participants. The guest house hostess added some western flavor
to a variety of Uganda items, and some wine and beer was available at
each diner. In addition to the two MLB Envoys who arrived the evening
of January 13, Paul Post, who had written several articles for national
and local newspapers, came with an assistant to see first hand what was
happening in Uganda. They arrived on January 15 and returned to the
U.S. on January 22. The guest house never housed as many foreign
visitors as it did this January.
The players arrived
on January 14 and play began the next day. Our goal was to have the
best 14-15 year olds present, with a few of the best 13 year olds and to
eventually break them up into 4 teams and have them play an 8 day
tournament over the last week of the clinic. The coaches would learn
how to handle a tournament team with the idea of winning and how to
handle a pitching staff where a game had to be played every day, and you
needed to win as many games possible without overworking the pitchers.
While 45 players participated in this tournament on field 3 and 4, the
other 25 or so less advanced, went through their own drills and played
their own games on field one and two under the supervision of one of the
Envoys.
Every day started
with the players, on their own, out at dawn at 6:30AM, running on their
own. Breakfast was at 7:30. A meeting was held at 9AM to discuss the
plans and to view videos on the training topic of the day. By 10AM,
everyone was on the field going thru practice of playing actual games
with no inning starting after 12:15, because lunch was served at 12:30.
Play and drills resumed by 2PM until about 5PM. At 5PM, a spirited
softball game was played by the coaches on field one until 6PM. The
first two games for the coaches, which featured 13 to 14 fielders at
times and a few more batters, were "T" ball games. The subsequent games
were slow pitch games with two swings the limit. We went from 6 inning
games in the hour to 12 to 14 inning games by the second week. A great
way for the coaches to learn first hand how to play the game. We had 6
women coaches who played every game, as they will be coaching girls
softball in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Everyone had a wonderful time
and the players, not being used to playing every day, much less for 8
hours every day, were getting worn down by the end of the second week.
Non the less, that did not stop them from coming to the guest house at
8PM to watch more DVD's on baseball followed by movies.
Based upon our
conversations with the two Envoys, we will be working on installing two
batting tunnels in the courtyard of dorm 2 over the next few months. We
also intend to extend the reach of our coaching abilities into the
north, and the east of Uganda to concentrate on under 12 and the 13-14
year old group. We expect to have at least 6 strong leagues covering
this area where we will have 60 or more excellently coached boys in each
age group playing a game every week of the year. Each league will bring
their best 14 players in May and August, when school is not in session,
to play against the other leagues at the complex in a 2 week tournament,
with a game every day. In addition, the Uganda Commissioner of Sports
is in the process of starting sports schools where a secondary school
will concentrate on one sport. He has asked each federation to supply
coaching to teach the teachers in the school how to coach the sport that
the school will specialize in. The government will supply the teachers
to be trained and will build the sport infrastructure. They are asking
the federations, and baseball and softball, to supply the coaching and
training for teaching the game and maintaining the facility. We have
volunteered to train all the schools. They want to start with 20 and go
to 150 in about 3 or 4 years. How many will be baseball oriented, we
have yet to hear. If this happens and we are given several of these
schools, our pool of players will expand exponentially, which is what we
need to happen to find the truly talented players in the country.
U.S. Embassy and
Peace Corps joins Uganda Commissioner of Sports in Expanding Baseball
and Softball
April 2011
During March, several significant developments took place that may prove
to be major advances in giving thousands of Ugandan children the
opportunity to play baseball and softball. Back in January, Uganda
Little League was asked to attend the roll out of the new schools sports
program of the Commissioner of Sports. The main purpose was to get the
teachers to learn how to be excellent coaches for a specific sport so
that they could teach the children the proper way to play that
particular sport in their school. In his plan, a secondary school in
each of the over 130 districts would be set up to concentrate on a
particular sport. The government would provide the funding for the
facilities needed and also designate the teachers to be trained to coach
that sport. Annual tournaments of the schools designated for a
particular sport would be held to determine National Champions. This
program would start with 20 secondary schools and when proven
successful, would be expanded to each district. The January meeting was
aimed to get the support of the various federations to do the training
of the teachers to become coaches for their sports. Baseball and
softball volunteered to train the teachers in every school that the
Commissioner would assign to us for baseball and softball. Of the 20
federations at the meeting, only two other federations offered to assist
without asking for government money. If the Commissioner gives us 10%
of the schools, baseball would expand by 25,000 players or more.
We would be able to
train the teachers by using our existing coaches in conjunction with the
MLB Envoy program we run every January. On March 22, we met with the
Peace Corps Associate Director - Education and the Programming and
Training Officer. We explained to them about the Sports Commissioner's
ideas. We also suggested that Peace Corp volunteers would be perfect
trainers of these teachers in the various sports the Commissioner would
like the teachers trained in. We found out, that one of the missions of
the Peace Corps in Uganda is to develop sports programs in the schools.
They admitted that they have not had too much success in this mission
over the last two years in motivating the schools to do this. But now
comes the Sports Commissioner's program that address the very problem
the Peace Corps was having a hard time solving. We have now put them
together and we have also offered to assist in the training via our own
programs.
Enter the Embassy.
During the middle of March, a softball tournament was held amongst
several teams, of which one was from the U.S. Embassy. The Deputy Chief
of Mission threw out the first pitch. I had an opportunity, as did
several other people, to talk to her about baseball in Uganda. A
subsequent newspaper article with her picture on it indicated that she
was very happy to see baseball and softball expanding in Uganda. The
Peace Corps supposedly meets with the embassy every week. The Peace
Corps people were going to bring up the topic of them possibly joining
with the Commissioner of Sports to expand sports into the areas of
Uganda where the Peace Corps operates. We would also hope that the
Embassy might aid the Peace Corps in this program by possibly supplying
baseball equipment where needed. If all goes well, Uganda Little
League has the facilities to house and host National tournaments of all
ages in baseball and softball. We can have hundreds of truly trained
coaches supported by the government, the Peace Corps, Major League
Baseball and possibly the U.S. Embassy coaching many thousands of
children in how to play and getting them the chance to play this great
game of baseball and softball on a National Level. If all goes as
planned, the Dominican Republic may no longer be the prime supplier of
baseball talent to the Major Leagues in about 5 to 10 years. The big
advantage Uganda has is all the players speak English.
July 29, 2011 - No Little League World Series for
Ugandan Team - NY Times
Published: July 29,
2011
By LYNN ZINSER
For
nearly two weeks, the players of the Rev. John Foundation Little League
team from Kampala, Uganda, believed they were headed to Williamsport,
Pa., for the Little League World Series. The team of 11 to 13 year olds,
which plays with donated equipment, was the first African team to
advance that far. But their fairy tale story ran smack into United
States immigration red tape. The players and their coaches learned this
week that at least some of the team’s visa applications were denied by
the State Department. The Little League World Series, which begins Aug.
19, will proceed without them. “It is unfortunate, as we were very much
looking forward to welcoming the first African team to the Little League
Baseball World Series,” Stephen Keener, president of Little League
Baseball and Softball, said in a statement.
The Ugandans were tripped up by their country’s inconsistent
infrastructure and the United States’ strict requirements for travel
visas. The State Department did not give specific reasons for the
denial, but it told Little League officials that there were
discrepancies in the players’ documentation. In Uganda, birth
certificates are far from the norm, and establishing someone’s age and
identity is complicated because parents and guardians are often
illiterate. “It is a difficult situation, I won’t deny that,” the State
Department spokesman Mark C. Toner said Friday at a news briefing. “But
you know, these cases are adjudicated by consular officials who look
very closely at all the appropriate data, and they make their decisions
based on that.”
The Ugandan children
play baseball because an American — Richard Stanley, a part owner of the
Trenton Thunder, the Yankees’ Class AA affiliate — introduced the sport
to the country eight years ago. “This would have been huge for kids all
over Africa,” Stanley said Friday. “This is a great opportunity to
expand the sport. All these kids want is an opportunity to go out and
play. They have the talent. They don’t have the facilities.”
Jay Shapiro, who has been following the team for two and a half years
while filming a documentary, “Opposite Field,” said in a telephone
interview from Kampala that the players were crushed when they heard the
news and that the embassy employee who told them on Wednesday was so
upset “she had tears in her eyes.” The team had come agonizingly close
to qualifying a year ago, beating Saudi Arabia in a qualifying
tournament in Kutno, Poland, but Shapiro said they lost the next day to
Kuwait because of a tiebreaker rule. This year, it beat Saudi Arabia on
July 16 and returned to Kampala full of hope about a trip to the United
States.
Shapiro said the State Department was right to question the players’
documentation, which he called incomplete. Documenting birth is not a
simple process in Uganda, Shapiro said. Birth certificates are scarce,
especially in the countryside. Many children are not born in hospitals.
Some of their parents are illiterate, and in many cases the people
raising the children are not their birth parents. A year ago, Little
League officials asked Shapiro to gather the necessary documentation and
oversee the process when the team qualified for the tournament in
Poland. This summer, Shapiro was not in Uganda. He had wrapped up the
film after last season, but he and his crew flew back to Kampala after
the team qualified for the World Series to add to the film. He said
after the visas were denied, he looked at the players’ documentation and
found it incomplete. “Last year’s team, I’m 100 percent convinced of
the legitimacy of that team,” Shapiro said. “This one, I couldn’t say I
was 100 percent convinced. The paperwork was sloppy. In reality, they
shouldn’t have even been allowed to go to Poland in the first place.
This should have been caught earlier.”
Before granting a visa to travel to the United States, the American
Embassy requires interviews with each child and his parents. If any of
their answers differ from what is on the paperwork, it is considered a
discrepancy. “I don’t think any of them were deliberately trying to
give false information,” Shapiro said. “They were just mistakes. But the
result is the same. And I don’t disagree with their decision.” Toner,
the State Department spokesman, said he did not know how many of the
players were denied visas. “It’s unclear to me whether it was a
preponderance of the kids, so that the team was no longer viable, if you
will, or whether every individual on the team was denied,” he said.
Stanley said he hoped Little League officials would appeal to the State
Department, but Pat Wilson, the vice president for operations for the
Little League, said that would not happen. “We are going to respect
their decision,” he said. “We don’t think it would be appropriate for us
to call into question their determination.” Wilson said there was no
precedent for a team’s qualifying for the Little League World Series but
failing to gain entry into the United States. He said a few teams
have had last-minute hitches in the process, but all were worked out.
Stanley said he
considered it a major setback to his efforts in Uganda. He became
involved eight years ago after visiting the country for a United Nations
economic development program and said he had spent more than $1.5
million building facilities and setting up a program. He said he paid
for the team to travel to Poland for the qualifying tournament in 2008,
in 2010 and again this year. He said each trip cost about $35,000. He
said his goal was to build sports schools that emphasize academics and
athletics. “When I talked to the minister of sports, he asked me, ‘Can
we win at this sport?’ ” Stanley said. “That’s what they care about,
because they can’t win at anything. They have great talent there, but I
told them: ‘You have to teach the kids. And those kids will play all day
long if you give them the opportunity.’ ”
Shapiro said Little
League should require teams attempting to qualify for the World Series
to go through a preliminary visa approval process so that there are no
last-minute disappointments.
“It’s a shame,” Shapiro said. “Their country isn’t ready for this. The
schools aren’t ready. The parents aren’t ready. The only thing that’s
ready are the kids and their talent. They will make it one day, and if
there is anything positive out of this, it’s for people to realize what
wonderful things are happening with these kids. They’ve got their own
little world growing here.”
July 7,
2011 Uganda team gets Polish visas
On July 1, we were told by Little League International that visas might be
obtained from the Polish Embassy in Nairobi if only the coaches who were to
travel to Poland would show up at the Polish Embassy at 9AM on Tuesday July
5 with the money, the proof of medical insurance, the notarized parents
consent forms, the photos, the letter from the baseball federation, the
letter from the Sports Commissioner, proof that the airline tickets were
already paid for, and the visa applications for the team and coaches. This
was done, and with the help of the U.S. State Department people, what
normally takes 15 days to process was done in two. As of Thursday morning,
July 7, the coaches were handed the visas that now allows the team to fly to
Poland, leaving Uganda at 2AM on July 10.
The two coaches will now make the 12 to 16 hour bus trip back to the
baseball complex after spending Monday thru Thursday in Kenya. They should
arrive on Friday morning and have about 36 hours to gather the team
together, collect their equipment for the trip to Poland and get to the
airport late Saturday night.
     
Help send
Uganda baseball teams to Poland
Let them show
how good they are
Uganda
will have two excellent baseball teams ready to play in the
Europe/Middle East/Africa Little League Regional Tournaments in
July. The 11-12 year old team is supposed to be even better
than the team the went to Poland last year, and this time should
become the first African team to make it to the Little League
World Series. The 13-14 year old team should have many of the
players that were the best 11-12 team that played in Poland last
July.
The major
problem will once again be money. To send each team to Poland
requires about $35,000. $25,000 is in airfare and the rest is
in visas, transport from Warsaw to Kutno and meals and other
expenses for the 15 travelers. By keeping these tournaments in
Europe, Little League makes it almost impossible for African
teams to participate due to these very high travel costs.
Please help Uganda to show that their children can produce
superior players and coaches to anything Europe and the Middle
East can. They just need a fair chance to get to the Little
League World Series.
UGANDA'S STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME THE
OBSTACLES TO PLAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA REGIONAL TOURNAMENT
** Why African Countries
don't participate in Little League Tournaments **
June 2011
Little League Middle
East/Africa Regional Tournament for boys ages 11-12 will once again be
held in Kutno, Poland from July 13-17, 2011. Why Africa is even
mentioned in the title escapes most people, since it will never be held
in Africa and virtually no African teams participate because of the
obstacles Uganda will attempt to overcome for the third time.
Does Little League
officialdom hinder African participation? You be the judge as Uganda
faces obstacle after obstacle.
The primary problem
for African teams is cost to get to the tournament in Poland. Uganda's
cost is estimated at $35,000US. No other participant in any Little
League Tournament in the world faces such a high entry cost.
The problem that
will stop Uganda's participation is getting the visa that would allow
them to travel to Poland. Since the tournament is held in Poland, that
will require Uganda to apply for the visas at the Polish Embassy. Since
Uganda has no Polish Embassy, it requires travel to Kenya, the nearest
Polish Embassy. This same problem will face most African countries
since most countries in Africa do not have a Polish Embassy. We are
told the normal visa procedure takes two weeks time. That means at
least two trips to Kenya or you stay two weeks in Kenya.
Paper work required
by the embassy: First of all you need to provide proof that you have
paid for the airline ticket as the visa will only be good for the date
you leave until the day you return and this information can only be
provided by the airline that will not give it to you until you have paid
for the tickets in full. If you do not get the visas, most airlines
will return most of the money you paid for the tickets over a period of
time. All the airlines have this policy knowing how hard it is for
Africans to get visas to the EU or to the U.S. A letter of Invitation
from Little League in Poland is required. The Polish embassy now
requires a letter from the Uganda Baseball and Softball Federation
allowing the Little League Team to travel. They also require a similar
letter from the Ugandan Commissioner of Sports. Then we must get
letters from the parents of each player allowing him or her to travel.
This letter has to be notarized, which in Uganda can only be done by a
lawyer at a cost of about $50US per player.
In order to get a
visa, each traveler needs a passport. To get the passports for each
child requires the payment of about $150US per player and to get it
rapidly, 3-5 days, we were told we needed a letter of invitation from
Poland inviting the team. Little League in Poland says they will not
send this letter until we give the names of all the players and their
passport numbers. We can't get passport numbers rapidly without the
letter. Thus we lose two weeks of time waiting for the passports in
order to get the letter of invitation.
Now comes the
question of birth certificates. This is going to always be a problem
since most births have not been registered in Uganda, as in most African
countries. This problem has been brought to Little League Baseball's
attention since at least 2004 and little has been done to address the
problem. We have suggested going to the school where the player first
registered for Primary one, or first grade and use that date for the
date of birth. This year Little League asked for us to go back to the
school the child attends to get the school, with official stamp on
school letter head to state the child's birth. This is all verbal, but
nothing on paper. We have done this.
As we write this, we
have been informed by the Polish Embassy in Kenya that in order to get a
visa, a new requirement is that each child and coach seeking a visa must
apply in person and wait the two weeks to get the visa. This will
require each child to travel to Kenya at a cost of $150US each, stay at
a hotel for two weeks, miss school which is in session from late May
until early August, to get a visa to play in the Little League Regional
Tournament. As it stands now, Uganda will not be going to Poland to
play because they are being denied the visa that would allow them to get
on the plane leaving July 10. We have already spent many thousands of
dollars which have all gone to waste.
Holding this and
other tournaments in Africa eliminates all the visa problems. In
Uganda, the visitor obtains his visa when he arrives at the airport.
All that needs to be done is to pay the $50 as you go through
immigration control upon arrival. Will Little League International ever
hold the tournament in Africa? The answer we keep getting is "No!"
Thus Uganda will forever be prohibited from participating in the Middle
East/Africa Tournament for 11&12 year olds and 13-14 year olds since
they will always be held in Poland.
Can Uganda Little
League get VISAs to play in the Little League Word Series?
October 2011
In early
September, a meeting was held at the U.S. Embassy with Uganda Little League
and the U.S. Ambassador, his first assistant, the head of the visa section
and the Embassy PR man. We informed the ambassador that we do not intend to
stop the program to develop baseball in Uganda. He was very happy to hear
that. Thus the purpose of the meeting was to see how we can bring next
year's World Series Eligible teams to play in the Little League World
Series. We have assured him that Uganda will continue to produce superior
teams that should each year be playing in the Regional Championship games in
our region every year and at every level that we can afford to send them to
play.
The result of the
meeting was that the problem was not age, contrary what an ill informed
State Department Spokesperson in Washington said at a Friday press briefing
in early August. There were two problems. One that can be easily fixed,
and one that may create problems for certain children if we try and fix it
easily.
Problem one was
how authentic were the birth certificates. One has to remember that birth
certificates are not routinely given out in Uganda and most people know what
month and year they were born, but many do not know the day they were born.
In order to play in the Little League Regional Tournaments, the players need
a birth certificate and a passport to get them to another country. To get a
visa to Poland takes about 15 business days. To get a passport takes about
two weeks under normal conditions. In order to save time, I supplied the
money and the coaches got the birth certificates and the passports. That
was mistake number one. There is only one office in Uganda that according
to the U.S. embassy can issue official birth certificates, and since the
parents are asked the date of birth on the birth certificates when they
visit the embassy, and then who got the birth certificates, the coaches
could be in danger of "Child Trafficking", a major crime. To fix this in
the future, the parents of the guardians of each player will now have to
have their parents obtain the birth certificate at the proper ministry.
Easy to fix, but takes time and money, which means now the team has to be
selected in early May in order to get their birth certificates, passports,
visas and tickets to the Regional Tournaments.
Now the problem
that can be fixed easily which will exclude many players, or may not be
fixable under current State Department Rules. According to the embassy,
when the U.S. visa is applied for, the parents named on the birth
certificate need to be present at the embassy to prove they are the parents
or guardians and that they can grant permission for the child to travel.
This does not apply if the person is age 18 or above, only if the person is
a minor, and that is all the embassy is concerned with, not the actual age.
If the two people named on the birth certificate do not come to the embassy,
then the person who does come needs to have a "Court Order" that states they
are the person responsible for the welfare of the child. If a parent is
dead, they must present a "Death Certificate" which almost no one in Uganda
obtains. Many of the children that play baseball in Uganda are taken care
of by one parent, an aunt, grandmother, sister of a relative or other
person. None have "Court Orders". Should the Uganda team apply for visas
to come to the U.S. next July, we have only about 2 weeks to apply for and
get the visas at a cost of $140.00 each. Who is going to get a lawyer and
apply for, pay for, and obtain a Court Order in those two weeks. We could
restrict our players to only those that have both parents on the birth
certificate alive. If that is the case, we will be telling most of the
children in Uganda that you are not allowed to play for the dream of making
it to the Little League World Series, but we will have no problem getting
the visas. I would rather abandon Little League if we had to do that.
We hope that
Little League and the U.S. State Department might take into account the type
of program the Little League World Series has been and will continue to be.
If this cannot be worked out, I am sad to say that Little League Baseball
and Softball in Africa will only be for the wealthy.
Special Christmas
for Uganda Little League
Santa
Claus came in many forms to visit Uganda Little League this December.
Major League
Baseball
came for the ninth consecutive year bearing gloves and baseballs. This
time, something very special was added. The DVD package of discs of the
2011 World Series was added. This valuable present will enable us to
really show the coaches at the January clinic how to really play the
game of baseball. There were so many things that took place in this
World Series that anyone paying the slightest attention can learn so
much in coaching the game. We will be able to use this year after year
as the Ugandan players and coaches become more skilled in playing the
game and thus more competitive in International Competition.
A second Santa Claus
was Ms. Susan Birnbaum of the New York City Police Foundation. Her
daughter at her high school in Westchester County started a drive to
collect slightly used baseball and softball equipment. On December 17,
they became the first individual donors to collect and deliver baseball
equipment to Pitch In For Baseball for the children of Uganda. We have
offers from several other people who wish to do this, but they were the
first. We hope several others will join them in the near future.
Santa Claus number
three has to be Wilson Sporting Goods. At the December Winter Meetings,
we managed to speak to the leadership of Wilson and expressed our need
to obtain many gloves and baseballs for our program in Uganda. They
said they could help, and did they ever. We hope to be part of their
annual program in the future, as we were this December. We were able to
purchase hundreds of gloves and baseballs at amazingly low prices. This
will now allow us to really expand the baseball program in Uganda while
working with the Ugandan Commissioner of Sports and the Peace Corps.
The
one problem we now have is at our biggest Santa Claus of all, Pitch in
For Baseball. Without Pitch in for Baseball, Uganda Little League would
have all kinds of headaches. This Santa Clause packages all the gifts
other people give to us. The Wilson package being as large as it is, is
now squeezing them for room. As the Ugandan presents keep growing, it
enables us to expand baseball into Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and
Rwanda, but Pitch in for Baseball is being choked for space to handle
all this. David Rhodes, Executive Director of Pitch in for Baseball and
I will work on a solution. I am sure we will find one shortly.
November 2011:
Many good things
are beginning to happen in January 2012. The major item that has
made the International Media is the Canadian Little League Team that
the Uganda Little League Team was supposed to play in the opening
round of the Little League World Series this past August is planning
to come to Uganda on January 14 for a one week stay. Under the
guidance of Ms. Ruth Hoffman, money is being raised to send the
team, coaches and parents, and a couple of celebrities, to Uganda.
There is an expectation that the game or games may actually be
televised live back to North America. We do know that this event is
expected to be the concluding chapter in the documentary film that
has been made that followed the 2010 Ugandan team to Poland.
Hopefully, sometime early in 2012, the film will be released and
available for public viewing.
January 2012 will mark the beginning of our annual two week program
of training coaches and players at the complex. This year, there
will be significant improvements from last January. Dorm 1 will
finally be looking like a completed building. We will have the
kitchen and eating area available when it was still under
construction last year. We have finished putting grass down on
field 3 and will now have the first full size baseball field to play
on in Uganda.
Participants for the two week program:
50 to 60 boys ages 11-12
making up four teams for the first 6 days. They will practice and
play at least one game every day.
50 to 60 boys ages 13-15
making up four teams for the last 6 days. They will practice and
play at least one game every day.
Several players from
Kenya may contribute to the teams at each age level.
Active coaches in Uganda
and Kenya are invited to attend and will be participating in a
detailed coaching clinic during the 2 weeks while actually coaching
the teams playing each day.
Teachers from a school in
Soroti and a girls school in Lira who will be trained to become
baseball and softball coaches at their respective schools.
Peace Corp Volunteers who
will assist in administering the programs in the Soroti and Lira
Schools, and others who will help develop programs elsewhere in
Uganda.
Several visitors from the
U.S. who will be working on helping in raising money for equipment
and building the school who want to help the kids in Uganda learn
the great game of baseball and softball.
A major future event in
Uganda is the starting of a baseball program at a Secondary School
in Soroti and a softball program at a Secondary School in Lira. It
is expected that each school will start four teams playing a game
every week at their respective schools when the new school year
starts around Feb. 1, 2012. These first 4 teams will be composed of
Secondary 1 & 2 students. They will be trained and coached by the
teachers who will be coming to the January coaches clinic. The
Peace Corps has recruited volunteers that will oversee and
administer the respective programs to make sure the new coaches are
coaching properly and the leagues are being run properly. If we
have enough interest, the programs will be extended to 4 teams
composed of Secondary 3 and 4 students, and possibly for 4 more
teams of Secondary 5 and 6 students. Uganda Little League will
equip the schools, the government will supplement the
teacher/coaches pay and aid in providing the playing fields. These
two programs will serve as a prototype for what the Ugandan Sports
Commission hopes to accomplish starting in the school year 2013 and
beyond. As part of that program, the Sports Commissioner
anticipates approximately 30 to 35 Secondary Schools playing only
baseball and softball throughout the country. Every May, National
Championships will be held at the Little League Complex. We will
attempt to bring these schools into the Little League program where
the National Winner will then be able to proceed onto the Little
League Regional Tournaments every July. These teams would compete
in the 13-14 age group, the 15-16 and 17-18. We expect in a couple
of years to dominate these tournaments and to be frequent
participants at the respective Little League World Series for boys
and girls. Once these schools are started, the program will expand
down into the primary schools.
As part of the above program, getting baseball equipment into Uganda
is now being worked on. At the request of the Sports Commissioner,
we will set up a shop that will sell baseball equipment. At the
current time, there is no place where a person can purchase baseball
or softball equipment in Uganda, and possibly anywhere in East
Africa. We hope to have this shop stocked with merchandise by the
middle of 2012. At the Trade Show at the December annual Winter
Meetings in Dallas, Texas, we will be in touch with all the
equipment manufacturers and vendors to make arrangements for getting
the equipment into Uganda early in 2012. We will keep you informed
about when this shop is stocked and open for business.
One very good piece of news is that on October 22, 2011, the
Uganda Baseball and Softball Federation
officially came back in existence. The new Chairman of the
Federation is one of our own, Mr. George Makhobe. Congratulations
and we expect to have a very supportive program producing Ugandan
teams to compete at future International World Cups and the Baseball
Classic.
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