Baseball4Africa

I am almost ready to head out to Kenya for year 5 of baseball4africa. This is all the equipment that we are attempting to cram into bags and fly with us to outfit the different teams we train in rural Kenya.

Baseball4Africa was the dream of my dad, Jim Tamarack, put into motion over 5 years ago. The two of us, plus another longtime friend "Special" Ed Derst, traveled to Kiongwani Secondary School in Sultun Hamud, Kenya with enough donated baseball equipment to outfit 5 teams. We are talking gloves, baseballs, bases, helmets, catchers gear, uniforms, hats, cleats, and bats. It really takes alot of equipment to play baseball.

I thought carrying all of those bags was going to be the hard part. I didn't count on baseball being such a completely foreign concept to these high school age African kids. I would ask them to throw the ball and they would roll it on the ground. No one had ever heard of the Yankees, or Hank Aaron, or Babe Ruth. Nor had they ever seen or bat, or played stickball. But they did have natural athletic talent and a passion for learning.

I would say we took them from knowing absolutely nothing that year to a young bad news bears style of playing at the final tournament. Jim has continued to go back every Fall and bring more equipment, outfit and train more teams, and bring them together for a final tournament. I have been working in California for the past 4 years so I havn't been back until now. I am really excited to be a part of it again and see how much they have improved.

Alright, back to packing....