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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. 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.
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