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Indoor Baseball tournament- Hungarian Style

At the beginning of January, we had the opportunity to drive to Hungary to check out an indoor baseball tournament. This tournament was put on by Terry Lingenhoel, a missionary with OM who has been implementing a baseball ministry model for the last 15 years in Hungary. We hope to be able to do similar things in Kosovo.

The tournament format is a very unique approach to the problem of cold weather and small gyms. Games are 24 minutes long and consist of two innings so each half inning is 6 minutes. Since the focus is on maximizing the amount of swings for the offensive team, the coaches pitch to their teams. Teams are able to score points on offense and defense. Since teams earn offensive points for all hits (singles=1, doubles=2, etc) AND runs, and defensive points for outs (unlimited since innings are timed) the action is fast paced and the games high scoring. It was interesting to watch...and while it worked in a different way, it certainly gave the players a lot of swings and defensive work during a time of year where it is hard to get any game speed action.

Justin was able to join one of the teams...turned out it was all Americans and made up of students from the International Christian School in Budapest. So...turned out that Justin got to play with a bunch of kids that he usually is competing against! He had a great time, but he was exhausted as the indoor format leaves very little time to catch your breath.


Terry is the one with the mic. He's been doing baseball ministry for a long time. I am very grateful that there is such an experienced resource so near by.

It's been awhile since I've driven. I guess it makes me crazy. Or scared, depending on your interpretation of my facial expression

Obviously the drive didn't bother Kailyn

heading in to our hotel for the night

there was a bowling alley at the hotel...Kailyn had a great time even though she isn't quite big enough to play. She definitely wanted to help bro-bro.

Kailyn watching the tournament with a new friend.

Her interest didn't last too long. She decided she'd rather share her books with her new friend. Very crazy assortment of German, English, and Hungarian books...

Justin was able to join a team of mostly American kids...sadly he was forced to wear the Dodgers jersey. Fortunately he remembered to bring his Angels hat.

The tournament allowed for a ton of at bats. This is one of many...I am pretty sure he hit a homerun here ;)

Justin was the lone representative from his team at the medal ceremony. So...the one kid who is not a regular member of the team was able to accept the medals for the entire team. Justin has now had the privilege of playing in tournaments in 3 countries during our time in Austria.

All the participants...representing Hungary, Serbia, US...and Austria (kind of)


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