IF THE BURMESE COULD HIT CURVEBALLS THEY'D BE FREE BY NOW:

A Diamond in the Rough: Iraqis Taking Up Baseball (Ashraf Khalil, October 23, 2004, LA Times)

Yasser Abdel Hussein tugs his cap and unwinds with the smooth sidearm delivery that's made him the ace of the pitching staff. He looks like a prospect.

At home plate, however, Mohammed Khaled seems like he's still on chilly terms with his bat as he crouches, resplendent in a red (yes, red) New York Yankees hat, FUBU muscle shirt and tight bicycle shorts.

"It's a game of speed and concentration," Khaled says after widely missing most of Abdel Hussein's pitches. He connected just twice, and then only by abandoning all technique and swinging one-handed.

The 20 young men gathered on a patchy grass field behind Baghdad University's College of Sports Education may not look like much now. But organizers of Iraq's fledgling national baseball team have high hopes.

The Looney Left thinks it's all about oil; the paleocons and Europeans think it's all for the Jews; in fact, the President is controlled by Bud Selig.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 23, 2004 10:15 AM