Pirates players take the loot at national baseball champs

Two scurvy baseballers have helped their provincial team blast the opposition away at the Inter-Provincial Baseball Tournament.

Neil Smith (67) and Rory Vincent (55) of Pirates Sports Club in Greenside, represented Gauteng in the masters vets (45 years and older) team at the tournament in Valhalla, Centurion.

The team won all eight of their games over four days in October, and for the first time in history, they won the tournament.

While Western Cape usually wins the tournament, the favourites were helpless in the face of Gauteng’s brilliant all-round play this year, and suffered a 14–4 loss in the final.

“Our batting was excellent and we had six or seven good pitchers this year,” Vincent said.

“We had a great team with great unity – that is why we won.”

He said the team was able to bat 800, which means the team’s batters made it to bases eight times out of 10.

Smith, the chairperson of baseball at Pirates, joked that the difference between this victory and the defeat to Western Cape in the final last year, was that this time, Western Cape was also playing away from home and its players could drink late into the night between games.

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These two players have been friends and have played baseball together for 18 years. Their love for the game is in their blood, as both the men’s sons play baseball too.

“I enjoy the speed of the game, and you get to bat a few times each game. I can’t imagine life without it,” said Vincent, the opening batter in the side.

Smith said he loved the adrenaline rush of baseball because in each innings you only have three chances to hit the ball.

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