"If you build it, they will come."

Baseball is one of my favorite sports. I never played organized ball growing up (my town was evenly split between soccer, football and baseball, and I went soccer), but many of my friends did, and it was not uncommon to walk around the green, palm-tree-fringed parks of Port Charlotte tuning in to the characteristic 'twang' of aluminum on horsehide.

I am not ashamed to say that I am a Yankees fan. I was born in New York and grew up in Florida, but my sports-formative years were spent following the mid- to late-90s Yankees of O'Neill, Williams, Jeter, Girardi, Cone and Pettitte. Many a September and October homework assignment was put off to follow these athletic greats, this dynasty of dynasties, so steeped in history. In Tampa, which is two hours' drive from my town, the Yankees spring facility is Legends Field. And legends do roam, just like at Monument Park in New York.

In Ghana, baseball is something many people have not heard of or played. It is a game of anticipation. A thinker's game. A game that can change with the crack of a bat, an outstretched finger gracing home just under a catcher's desperate mitt. A perfect game was just thrown in Chicago. The perfect game--27 up, 27 down--is one of the greatest feats in all of sports. More men have orbited the moon than have thrown a perfect game. But as exciting as that is, in reality a perfect game is really boring, as nothing basically happens--until the 8th or 9th inning, when the anticipation climaxes. If you never see a perfect game in real life, then watch Kevin Costner's For Love of the Game, one of my favorite movies.

Second-hand gloves and balls used in the pickup softball game, shipped in from the US. Shot with D60, 35/1.8 (1/2000). All photos set with aperture priority.

Ghana probably won't see a perfect game for a while. There are few fields, and the equipment is less than perfect. But a colleague and good friend of mine is working to change that. He works with an NGO that's looking to bring baseball to Ghana, particularly for schoolchildren, but also for young adults who might have the talent to play in the US. Yesterday, I was privileged with the rare opportunity to photograph a pickup softball game with the NGO that my friend works with. I consider myself a portrait photographer, which is why I use a 35/1.8, so I knew doing sports photography would be a bit of a challenge without a zoom lens (though I'm now strongly considering adding a 55-200). But there were some great shots, and the lens is incredibly fast. Someone asked at the end of the game if I were an official photographer with the embassy. Maybe if political science doesn't work out.

Warming up with some catch. 35/2.8 (1/800).

For many years in Port Charlotte, we hosted the minor-league affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Many summer days were spent on the bleachers of our 4,000-seat "stadium", eating hot dogs (load on the ketchup, mustard and relish), cracking open peanuts, chasing down foul balls. It was no House that Ruth built (there's a giant Taco Bell sign beyond the outfield wall that, if hit, would garner everyone in the park free taco coupons), but the dirt was well maintained, the uniforms were still crisp, the bat boys/girls ever vigilant.

Perfecting the toss. 35/2.8 (1/1000).

Yesterday we played on a much-weeded-over, half grass, half dirt, soccer pitch. Ground balls took bounces that would defy Newton and the base bags moved within an unspecified margin of error whenever tagged, adding yet another degree of complexity. I wasn't sure what to expect. I know Ghanaians go absolutely crazy for football (soccer), and know everything about strategy, fitness and abilities for all their favorite Ghanaian and Premiership clubs. They also play a lot of it, and tend to be really fit on the pitch. I half-expected these guys, who must have been 18-24, to not be too in to baseball and not really know what they were doing.

Rounding first. 35/2.8 (1/200).

In Port Charlotte, baseball games are like those in the rest of America: fans chant, tease the pitcher, batter, base runners, umpires, maybe the pitcher again, all out have a good time. Players, especially, join in in the heckling and encourage their teammates. It's all in the spirit of the game, a game slowed down by the weight of a pitcher's deliberation, his anticipation, his delivery, a spirit that differs (though it still exists) in faster-paced sports like soccer.

The Catcher. 35/1.8 (1/1600).

These Ghanaians had the spirit of the game down. In Twi and English. I'm not sure what the Twi phrases were, but they sounded suspiciously close to "hey batter, batter", "swing batter, batter" and "we want a pitcher, not a belly itcher". Players on-deck took on the dual roles of first-base- and third-base- coach, waving home runners and whispering "left, left" or "right, right" to batters when defensive gaps opened up. There were cheers. There were fist pumps. There were moments of agony.

The Home Run. 35/1.8 (1/2500).

Even at our Florida State League minor-league games, we had umpires to keep track of the game. Our umpire at this game was a small board sitting behind the plate that recorded a hollow "fwomp-fwomp" when hit by the parabolically tossed, slow-pitch softball. Strike. No radar cameras here. In this game, hits abounded, and given the nature of the soccer field, ground-rule doubles and actual out-of-the-park home runs provided an endless source of excitement. The game was high scoring, something like 24-21, and there were many clutch fielding plays, including a few well turned double plays and snow-cone catches.

The Umpire. 35/1.8 (1/400).

Peter, featured above in "The Home Run", is one of the leaders of the baseball NGO. He is 26, and showed great batting and fielding talent yesterday, including effortlessly hitting home runs (300+ feet lengthwise across the soccer field). He briefly tried out for the Florida Marlins, and currently coaches Ghanaian kids in baseball on Saturday mornings. Working with his contacts in the US, he is able to ship over equipment like bats, gloves, balls and base bags, and it sounds like the kids have an amazing time with it all. In future posts, I plan to photograph and write about the kids' aspect of his NGO and even include an interview with Peter himself. He envisions bringing kids together all over Ghana to play baseball.

David, at the point of impact. 35/1.8 (1/2500).

One of the reasons why I like the Yankees so much is that, more than any other team in baseball, they are the team most strongly intertwined with 20th-century American history and pop culture. They are a team that goes beyond baseball. There is something timeless about those pin stripes. The effortlessness of Joe DiMaggio. The intrigue. Marilyn Monroe. The rivalries: Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris. The heartbreak: Lou Gehrig, the Pride of the Yankees. The humanity: Don Larsen, the imperfect man who threw the only perfect game in the post-season, which just happened to be in the World Series. And, above all, the American-ness of it. The cool, clean-shaven, effortless dynasty. The pressure of New York, the Broadway lights and fickle media and fans, the pressure to succeed. Yes, there is deserved criticism of the Yankees' business and talent-cultivation practices today. That I do not deny, and I agree with some of that criticism. But you can't take away the history.

The girls at catch. 35/1.8 (1/500).

Even with all that history, baseball in the US is tarnished. The drugs, the corporate-ness of it all have really taken away what the game used to be. Soccer, too, is starting to take that turn, something that many Ghanaians seem to be quite concerned about. Stars are now becoming idols of themselves, which may not be the best role models for children. But baseball in Ghana has the chance to start fresh. To give kids something they have never experienced, and to above all just let them have fun.

The Celebration. 35/1.8 (1/100).

This baseball NGO is still in its beginning stages, and there appears to be much government bureaucracy that needs to be navigated. But Peter and David are working tirelessly on this project, and I will follow their progress while I am here in Ghana. So do expect more photos and stories on this blog. If you are interested in helping this NGO out or want to find out more, please let me know in the comments, and I will put you in touch with the relevant people.

The Boys of Summer. 35/1.8 (1/1250).