Tuesday 13 May 2008

GBA





That stands for Glasgow Baseball Association! Yes, you heard me, baseball! We'd heard about this group in town and finally were able to make it to practice to meet the team. The Glasgow Baseball Association is the only baseball team in Glasgow and they have a 9 and under t-ball team, a 10-14 kid pitch team and an adult team. They practice year round and it is a great group of people. The boys had a good time at practice and it was nice to see them swing a bat and play a that good ole American game! Then Sunday was the start of the season for the teams so we headed back to the park where the GBA was hosting teams from Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The team from Aberdeen was all American boys as Aberdeen has lots of ex-pats in the oil industry. Therefore, they have an international school and all these American boys that want to play baseball. When Scott and I set up our chairs and settled down to watch, we quickly realized that the only voices we heard were American voices. (A first since we've been here) As a matter of fact, the first Americans I've meet since arriving. It was nice to chat with them and hear about where they've lived and their experiences abroad. They were all from Texas and we were the newbies in the group as far as experience with life abroad.




The GBA had a ceremony to mark the start of the season and then a local politician threw the first pitch and the games began. Watching the older boys made us feel right at home. (It was really windy and cold and we were not dressed for the weather so this is when I left to go home for more clothes and blankets) Then I missed the whole game for Christopher and Ethan. Scott said that it was a little bit of a letdown because they shrink the pitch (field) for the little ones to half size and the game was only 3 innings and 30 minutes long. Perfect for Christopher but Ethan was totally bummed! We tried to encourage him that he could be the star of the show but that's no fun when you need real competition! He was finally getting a chance to play a game he knows and loves and then the bubble burst! So of course, when he was disappointed, then Christopher became disappointed!




I'm going to call to enquire about getting him on the older team and then we'll decide what to do from there. It's really a fun group and it would be nice to travel to these other cities to play and to get to know the families on our team. They set up a huge tent with a BBQ and make it a true family affair. Fun but we're feeling a little homesick!