So, after the nap, it was time for my first real Finland
adventure—a Finnish baseball game. Those who know me well will not exactly be
stunned that my first event on a trip would be a sporting event, but I swear
this one wasn’t even my idea.
Mary Beth and I met the rest of her UNO team (Phil and
Aaron), and we walked to the baseball stadium on the campus of the University
of Eastern Finland. Yes, that’s the name of the school, and no, they are not on
Nebraska’s non-conference schedule in 2018.
We met Hanu, a Finnish professor who had worked with Phil in
the past and was the organizer of our event. The stadium itself looks to be cut
out of a grove of trees, as you can see from the photo album. It was amazing initially
to see all the bikes parked just outside of the stadium, but less so after
seeing just about everyone biking just about everywhere in Joensuu.
We bought our tickets
for 15 Euros each (a little over $20, which I’m pretty sure was more than I
paid to go see the Royals at Kaufmann Stadium last time I went) and took our
seats. Now, I was told that Finnish baseball (pesäpallon,
and yes I did just go umlaut on you) is a little different from the baseball I
am used to. No kidding.
The first and most obvious difference is that the field isn’t
a diamond, it’s a zig-zag. You run left to first base, then right to second,
then back left to third base, then down the left-hand side of the field and
past first base to get home.
OK, I think, I can wrap my head around that. But pitching is
a little different as well. The pitcher stands basically on home plate, tosses
the ball up in the air, then (hopefully) gets out of the way for the batter to
take a swing. If you can’t grok that, welcome to the club, so here’s a video to help
get the idea.
There’s other differences too, of course. When you hit the
ball or if you are on the bases, you don’t have to run unless you think you can
make it, and you’re only out if you make the attempt. And the pace of play is
borderline frenetic. The ball gets in from the field and back to the pitcher to
pitch eephus-style
as quickly as possible, making the game move along and (once you grasp what the
hell is actually happening) makes it pretty exciting. American baseball could
learn a thing or two from pesäpallon with
regards to pace of play.
And then, there’s the sliding. Oh, the glorious sliding.
These guys slide, headfirst, at about every opportunity they get. And it’s not
some half-hearted slide like you see nowadays. These guys go all-out, legs-in-the-air,
body-at-a-thirty-degree-angle headfirst slide. Pete Rose ain’t got nothing on
these cats.
Sitting next to Hanu after halftime (yes, there’s a
halftime) helped to iron out some of the rules, and between a little extra
understanding and the gorgeous evening Mary Beth and I had a fantastic time. I’m
not sure my experience will make me miss the College World Series any less, but
I am thrilled to have had the opportunity.
We bid Hanu farewell and headed back to the hotel. On the
way back we stopped at Bar Play, a sports bar, for dinner. Please tell me no
one reading this is surprised that I found the sports bar in Joensuu. While I
doubt they’ll be able to pull in College World Series games (although I am
half-tempted to try, just to see the look of bewilderment on the poor bartender’s
face when I ask), there is this little soccer tournament in Brazil going on
that I might want to watch. Good to know there’s options.
After dinner (fish and chips, what else would you have in a
Finnish sports bar?), we headed back to the hotel. After cleaning up, I watched
the opening game of the World Cup, first on television even though the feed
wasn’t in English. I’m not certain what language it was in, definitely neither
Finnish nor Spanish. But it was distracting enough that I sorted out how to
stream ESPN to watch the feed on my computer with Ian Darke (go, go,
USA!) on the call. Much better, and a solid end to the day.
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