Building Community Through Baseball and Softball

Youth sports offer hope and opportunity to children around the world, helping them to learn teamwork and other skills essential to achieving their dreams. Many young people have lifted themselves out of poverty through dedication to sport— some by excelling in competition, but many more through the avenues that competive athletics open up to them.

In particlular, baseball and softball offer an ideal mix of opportunity for individual achievement and coopertive team play. Unlike sports whose outcomes are determined almost entirely by athletic prowess, baseball and softball require strategic thinking and mental disciple. Many professional baseball players have pointed out the challenge posed by staying mentally focused in the field while pitch after pitch is thrown— not to mention the patiencce and self-disciple required to step back in the box after striking out in your last at-bat.

The story has been told in country after country. In Venezuela, thousands of teams now compete in hundreds of leagues, including several highly-regarded seasonal leagues that attract talented players from around the world— not to mention considerable foreign investment. Venezuelan baseball has not only offered a postive activity for young people there, it has helped to bring international respect and attention to their country with the help of Venezuelan stars in the Major Leagues, including Louis Aparicio, Miguel Cabrera and Omar Vizquel.

A similar tale can be told in Nicaragua. To get a sense of how much Nicaraguans love their baseball, one only need hear the nickname that they now call their native son, former Major League picher Dennis Martinez, who is know to has countrymen as "El Presidente."

Baseball and softball are already beginning to have similar positive effects in many African nations. Baseball and softball leagues offer hope, jobs, education, and a path out of poverty to young people in countries across the continent. However, limited resources pose a serious obstacle. BASFA is dedicated to the proposition that international assitance can make an enormous difference in helping to build baseball and softball leagues in some of the world's most impoverished nations, thereby helping to build stronger communities, combatting poverty, and helping to combat the spread of disease.

Equipment Donation Program

One of the most basic obstacles to the development of baseball and softball in Africa is a lack of equipment. While children in developed nations take access to sporting equipment for granted, the same cannot be said for the youth of African nations, many of whom live in extreme poverty. Even the price of a baseball -- let alone a glove or bat -- is well beyond the means of many African families.

The good news is that baseball and softball players in wealthier nations regularly replace worn equipment, making it possible to donate their used items. BASFA solicits donations of used baseball and softball equipment -- everything from bats and gloves to bases and catcher's gear -- and ships those used items to teams in Africa. Equipment of all sizes and types is needed.

In addition to standard baseball equipment, the Ghana league is seeking used cell phones, which they can reprogram for league-related communication.

We accept donations from leagues, teams, and individuals. Please call us at (617) 519-9110 or email us at donations@baseballafrica.org.