Ukraine's senior baseball players progress to A Pool (11/19/00)

Ukraine's senior baseball players progress to A Pool

by Basil Tarasko

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia - Since 1993 I have coached various national baseball teams of Ukraine in European championship tournaments in Austria, Slovenia, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, France, England and Ukraine. This year I coached the senior national team during the European Championship in Slovakia, in the cities of Bratislava and Trnava.

I stayed the first two nights in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. This beautiful city located along the Danube River is dominated by an enormous castle standing on a plateau 300 feet above the Danube. It was the residence of the Austrian royal family until destroyed by fire in 1811 and has since been largely restored. This enchanting city served as a capital to different rulers through the centuries. What a perfect venue for the European baseball championships on July 31-August 5.

The European Baseball Championships B Pool began in Bratislava. Ukraine had to win this tournament in order to advance to the A Pool classification. The top two finishers in A Pool competition will qualify for the next Olympic games.

Ukraine jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on a triple by Vitalii Maistrenko. Austria battled back and took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning. Twenty-seven-year-old second baseman Vasyl Antoshko slammed a two-out double to push the tying and winning runs to lead Ukraine over Austria 5-4. Roman Yatsuk pitched a complete game, while striking out 11 Austrians. Antoshko lead the attack with three hits, and our oldest player, Alexander Inozemtsev, 34, also contributed with three hits.

One player's story

I had a chance to speak with Ukraine's oldest baseball player in Trnava. When did baseball enter his life? Why did he decide to play baseball?

Inozemstev, born and raised in Symferopol, Crimea, is the last member of the 1994 Ukraine National Senior Team that won the European Senior Championships B Pool in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1994. I was there with "Sashko" as we shocked the European baseball world by winning the title in our first baseball tournament.

Sashko started playing baseball in 1987 at the late age of 21. Twelve years earlier, at the age of 9, he had begun his career in team handball. Handball was a widely played sport both on the amateur and professional levels in Ukraine and throughout the Soviet Union. Sashko was drawn to handball because of excellent coaching and outstanding facilities, plus the fact that handball had a great winning tradition in Crimea.

He played for Foton, a television manufacturing company. Early in 1987 Foton won the amateur handball championship in Ukraine, which qualified the team to compete against Kharkiv, the last-place finisher in Ukraine's Professional Handball League. Foton needed to win in order to advance into the professional First League, but Foton dropped all three games.

The players were devastated. All of them had sacrificed years of training in the hope of advancing to the next level - the professional ranks. This was the end of handball at Foton, as the players realized that there was no future and no chance of reaching the pro level.

What to do now? Here were experienced, dedicated and mature athletes with no sport to play. At this time there was talk of developing baseball in the Soviet Union because baseball was to become an exhibition sport at the next Olympics. Vitalii Suhachov, head of the Sports Committee in the Crimea, approached Roald Sidomonidze, coach of the Crimean Handball Team, and asked whether the Foton handball players would consider learning a new sport - baseball. No one knew anything about this mysterious sport. The goal of the Soviet Union's Sports Committee was to hold a Soviet Union Baseball Championship in 1989 with Foton as a participant.

There were two years to learn the varied complexities of baseball. The challenge was accepted. On August 12, 1987, the first baseball meeting was held in Symferopol with local Cuban university students showing the former handball players baseballs and gloves for the first time. These new players took to the game quickly and learned by imitating every move that the Cubans made.

Who were these former handball players? Sashko was a mathematician; there were also chemists, physicists and physicians on the team. It was a very bright and determined group of experienced athletes.

After a month, more players were attracted to baseball from the ranks of physical education students from the state university. These new players were specialists in track and field, soccer and team handball. All were physically fit and highly motivated; all wanted to compete on a professional level and get paid.

In the spring of 1988 Foton traveled to Kyiv to play its first series of games. It faced Pobutovyk, the first professional baseball club in Ukraine; Pobutovyk easily defeated Foton. Baseball had begun in Kyiv, Moscow and in Tashkent in 1986, and Foton was a year behind in development - but not in determination.

Foton was able to obtain a video cassette from the previous year's World Series. The team members were able to see their first baseball game and the general feeling was: If the Americans and Japanese can play this game, why can't we? Interest in the game grew. The players wanted to know how to play the game better, and the challenge of the game made all the players want to improve their game.

I asked Sashko why he chose baseball as his new sport at the age of 21. He remarked that baseball was a good-looking intellectual game. On one hand it was an individual sport - one player could win a game. But it was also a team sport as all players must play in harmony. You did not have to be a great physical specimen to contribute to success. If you understood the game, you could win. Your head could win the game by knowing when to run, how to hit the ball and where to throw the baseball. "I like to think, and baseball makes me think," Sashko explained. Baseball is like playing chess: you must learn how to attack, yet you must prepare various defenses to hold back the enemy.

Soviet baseball expands

By April of 1988 there were more than 30 baseball teams across the Soviet Union. Regional tournaments were held to qualify the top eight teams that would form the First League in the USSR. One such regional tournament was held in Yevpatoria, Crimea, with the participation of Foton (Symferopol), Doker (Odesa), Iyeria (Merani, Georgia), SKA (Moscow) and Montagnik (Tashkent, Uzbekistan). SKA was victorious. All three Ukrainian teams, Foton, Pobutovyk and Doker qualified for the elite First League - a testament to Ukraine's athletes.

In August of 1989 the first USSR Baseball Championship was held in Moscow. The local entrant, SKA, defeated Pobutovyk of Kyiv three games to two; Doker finished in fourth place and Foton in fifth.

In 1990 the Moscow Red Devils captured the championship with Foton in third, Doker in sixth and Pobutovyk finishing in seventh place.

During those formative baseball years, the teams from Moscow made yearly training trips to the United States. (In June of 1990, in fact, I met the Soviet National Team at St. John's University.) None of the Ukrainian teams were allowed to travel. According to Sashko, the best equipment went to Moscow, which forced some of the Ukrainian baseball players to sew their own baseball gloves. For a time Pobutovyk even had to manufacture its own baseballs. Ukraine's baseball development program was slower because the vast majority of money, training opportunities and equipment fell into the hands of the Moscovites.

In late 1991 came the demise of the Soviet Union, along with the last Soviet baseball championship. The Moscow Red Devils once again finished in first place with Foton in fifth place.

In late June, I arrived at the invitation of the Soviet Union's Committee of Physical Culture and Sports in Ukraine to help develop the sport of baseball in Ukraine. This was the first of my 18 trips (and counting) to Ukraine.

In October of 1992 the first Ukrainian Baseball Championship was held in Kyiv, and Pobutovyk continued its dominance over Foton, earning the first baseball title in independent Ukraine.

Ukraine currently has a First League in baseball with annual championships. This fall Gorn won its third consecutive Ukraine championship. Sashko is now under contract to team Gorn of Kirovograd. (I do not think that Sashko is ready to retire.)

Back to Trnava

At the European Baseball Championships in Trnava, Ukraine faced Slovenia on August 1 and scored in all but one inning, easily winning 12-1. Maistrenko had three singles and Anatolii Korolev of Foton pitched a complete game, striking out eight.

Ukraine then met the host team Slovakia, in front of the largest crowd of the championships - 650. Ukraine raced out to a 17-4 lead. Ukraine brought back Korolev to get the final six outs. Ukraine's youngest player, 18-year-old catcher Serhii Holovko, hit a majestic three-run homer to extend a 5-4 lead to 8-4. He was later voted most valuable player of the game. Twelve walks allowed the Slovaks to close within 17-10 and give them hope. The final score was 18-11, with Ukraine the victor.

Poland faced the powerful Ukrainian team in the semifinal game. Ukraine continued to dominate, quietly beating Poland 11-1. The most valuable player was Inozemstev with two hits, two RBIs and two stolen bases.

The championship game was a rematch with Austria, which had lost to Ukraine by only one run just a few days earlier. Ukraine scored three in the top of the first. Austria responded with two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to close the gap. That would be the last time that an Austrian would cross home plate. Ukraine would score nine more runs and win 11-2. Yatsuk pitched all the way.

Ukraine won this important championship, the winner of which moves on to Bonn, Germany, next summer to compete in the European A Pool Championships. Lithuania captured third place, followed by Poland, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Slovenia and Belarus.

The closing ceremonies were held at Trnava, and we heard the Ukrainian national anthem, reminding all that Ukraine was the champion. Marlene Campbell, president of the Austrian Baseball Federation and an official of the Confederation of European Baseball, presented individual and team awards.

Ukraine was awarded five out of nine individual awards: Roman Yatsuk, best pitcher, based on wins/losses record; Ihor Chornomaz, most valuable player of the tournament; Vasyl Antoshko, most runs batted; Mykola Taran, most home runs; and Konstantyn Tarasenko, most runs scored.

Challenges lie ahead, but Ukraine's athletes have potential. With more equipment and sponsors who knows?

Basil P. Tarasko is the United States representative of Ukraine Baseball, district administrator of the Little Leagues in Ukraine and coach of the national baseball teams of Ukraine. In addition, he is a member of the executive board of the Ukrainian Sports Club of New York, and the baseball and softball director of the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK). He may be contacted via phone, (718) 428-8592 (evenings), or e-mail, BT4UKRAINE@aol.com.

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