Softball is Botswana's second most popular sport behind soccer, according to Coach Themba Johnson, who said the game was introduced to his country by American Peace Corps members in the 1970s
Africans stay upbeat
Jan 31, 2004 - Press
by Tony Smith
A buoyant Botswana softball team danced in the dug-out and sang traditional tunes during its gutsy 2-0 loss to the United States.
The boys from Botswana -- who had to raise around $100,000 to get to Christchurch -- enchanted the crowd at the Smokefree Ball Park yesterday afternoon with support for their hitters as they tried to snatch a safe hit off US pitcher Doug Gillis.
Coach Themba Johnson -- a major and pilot in the air corps of the Botswana army -- said the songs were typical of the team spirit among his players, who have an average age of 24. They have diverse tribal affiliations but all speak the country's two official languages, English and Setswana.
"They are songs we sing when we are working hard and have a huge task at hand," Johnson, a former national team pitcher, said. "That's what the local people sing when they are ploughing fields. We mainly do our ploughing, manually ... it's mind over matter and a very intensive exercise. It's a huge task."
In the softball world assignments do not come much tougher than subduing the big-hitting Americans and Botswana managed that superbly for much of the match. Boosted by some smart drop ball pitching from No. 2 hurler Petrus Friday Sebina the Africans restricted the US to four safe hits, including a seventh innings automatic home run over right field by Californian catcher Todd Garcia.
They caught the eye of neutral ball fans with some athletic outs in the field and their sheer ebullience.
Lead-off hitter Tshidi Office set the scene by shaking US catcher Garcia's hand before his first at-bat. Shortstop Tawina Phibion got a huge ovation when he made a sprawling stop and bounced to his feet to throw an American batter- baserunner out at first base.
Johnson chose not to start top pitcher Tony Moya, who has played overseas in the Dutch leagues, "because Tony's big pitch is the rise ball" and he did not want to run the risk of pitching into the American's power zones.
Softball is Botswana's second most popular sport behind soccer, according to Johnson, who said the code was introduced to his country by American peace corps members in the 1970s.
Johnson took up softball at high school and he and friends graduated to a newly-formed senior league.
The Botswanans have not played the United States since the 1992 world series at Manila when Johnson was on the pitching staff.
They have been steady improvers at international level, with a three- win four-loss record at Manila in their first world tournament.
They finished ninth at the 2000 world series in East London, South Africa, edged out of the play-offs bracket after trailing the host nation by one point.
But Botswana had its revenge by topping the African qualifying group for this world series tournament. Johnson said they were aiming for four wins in group B this time and hoped to qualify for the top eight play-offs.
He was happy with the team's first outing against the US, "especially our fielding. But we didn't do as well with our batting". Phibion, the showboat short stop, picked up the sole safe hit as Gillis racked up 13 strike-outs.
Johnson said financial backing from Botswana's sports council and national airline had helped them raise most of the money needed to get to Christchurch, but softball still only got about one-tenth of the funding of football in Botswana. He saw a promising future for the sport in his country. But cost was a major stumbling block because softball equipment was expensive in comparison to soccer gear. "It's one of the areas the ISF (International Softball Federation) is working at."
The New Zealand team toured Botswana for the first time last year and Johnson said the Black Sox's visit was a huge boost to the sport there.
"It was excellent for our players and our fans to see a world champion team.
"In the six games we had we only managed to score three runs against them, but it was very, very helpful for giving our young players and our fans the exposure."
