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.

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.

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 24^th.

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.

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.

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.

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 24^th.

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.

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.

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.

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. Please examine the pictures which are courtesy of the Trenton Thunder Baseball Team.

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.