Diamond Member Pelican Press 0 Posted August 26, 2024 Diamond Member Share Posted August 26, 2024 This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up An Olympian Challenge: Keeping the “Baseball Dream” Alive in Greece For the love of the game The Greek national baseball and softball teams have both suffered from a lack of players who live in Greece. The 2004 Olympic baseball squad had just one local resident on its roster, and the current team has only one: Loukas Soukeras, a dedicated 23-year-old who lives in Nea Smyrni. Soukeras started playing baseball a decade ago, when a friend who was on a Little League team asked if he wanted to join a practice. “I fell in love with it,” Soukeras said. He joined a team, but his group “had the secret ***** for some time that it will end.” When that happened and the last field was gone, Soukeras kept playing with the support of his parents, who travel with him to games. Soukeras played with a Bulgarian team for over a year and has been a member of the Greek national team for four years. Soukeras is a true baseball fan. The sport is “not boring,” he said. “When I hear that, that baseball is boring, it annoys me because they didn’t spend any time watching it or learning it to see the flow of the game…you need patience to watch a game, but this is the beauty of it.” Soukeras got to experience a major league baseball game in person in June, when he was in the stands to watch the Boston Red Sox play at home in Fenway Park. He was among the honored guests for the team’s annual “Greek Celebration” pregame event, and was introduced on the field with fellow Greek national team player Noah Zavolas, and manager Chris Demetral. Soukeras’ trip, his first to the U.S., was paid for by teammates. A versatile player on the field, off the field he helps lead many of the baseball lessons for Athenian children and is taking classes to be a certified coaching instructor. Despite his drive, Soukeras knows he is “on a completely different skill level” from other players on his team – some of whom nearly made it to the majors. “I am just one guy from Greece. I have one dream to follow, and I keep practicing,” he said. At the ********* championship last year, Greece needed victories to maintain its ranking, and Soukeras only got one at bat. He drew a walk; the team ended up with three wins and three losses, a very respectable result after starting the tournament with two lopsided defeats. Soukeras wasn’t discouraged by the paltry playing time. “I was like, amazed to be part of it,” he said. “Just one at bat. It was pretty amazing for me.” He wants to see more funding and support from Greece for the national teams and for baseball and softball in general. “Greece doesn’t know that I am here, that I’m practicing baseball…I don’t have any feedback from Greece,” Soukeras said. But finances are tight. “The Greek government gives us an amount that is embarrassing, it’s nothing,” Liarommatis said. The money, €12,000 for the baseball and softball national teams combined, mostly covers league affiliation fees, he said. This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up #Olympian #Challenge #Keeping #Baseball #Dream #Alive #Greece This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up This is the hidden content, please Sign In or Sign Up Link to comment https://hopzone.eu/forums/topic/109789-an-olympian-challenge-keeping-the-%E2%80%9Cbaseball-dream%E2%80%9D-alive-in-greece/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
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