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All Greek to me Greece preparing for venture into international baseball
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Beware of Greeks bearing bats: Greece's national baseball team is entering international competition to get ready for the Olympics. Three years after deciding to field a squad for the 2004 Games in a country with no tradition for the sport, the Greek baseball federation announced Tuesday that it will enter the European pool B championships next year in Athens. "That was a big decision because it is the biggest first, to get Greece good enough to enter international competition. And I think we've crossed that point," said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to Greece who has become a major promoter of the sport. Baseball arrived with American servicemen a few decades ago, but never attracted a following. In the last three years, however, Greece has formed about 20 baseball and 10 softball teams, and the weed-clogged sandlots at a former U.S. military base in Athens have been transformed into perfectly manicured fields. Hundreds of fans filled the bleachers at a game Monday night. "They're basically going from a standstill to 60 miles per hour very fast," said Jim Small, a vice president of Major League Baseball. "There's going to be some growing pains and it's going to take some time to get quality players. But in two years to put together a field like this and players like this is pretty amazing." There is a continuing effort to recruit talent from expatriate Greeks in such baseball-playing countries as the United States, Canada and Australia, with the goal of fielding a quality team at the Athens Olympics. "If this is any indication -- the progress that's been made in a few short years -- we stand a very good chance to possibly get a medal," said Louis Angelos of the Baltimore Orioles, who have supported Greece's baseball effort from the start. "It's difficult. There's very strong competition ... but not impossible." Major League Baseball will ship up to 1,000 pounds of equipment to Greece by September, Small said. It also has a full-time employee in Athens to work with the federation and young people interested in learning the game. "Now that there's a critical mass here, the goal is to let kids know baseball is an opportunity for them ... that there is a line and a future all the way up to a national team," Small said. Burns, who will be departing this summer, said he was confident baseball will have a future in Greece. "The idea is build it and they will come. So we built it," Burns said. "Baseball is definitely going to survive."
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