Russian baseball
Feb. 24th, 2006 11:27 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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learn_russianQuick terminology question.
What do Russians call a "pop-fly?"
And how popular (or un-) is the sport in Russia?
Thank you! :)
What do Russians call a "pop-fly?"
And how popular (or un-) is the sport in Russia?
Thank you! :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2006-02-25 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 05:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 05:24 am (UTC)Anyway, it's general approach to terminology in Russian, not only sport one, when words are simply adopted as is, and used without much afterthought. Only when the trade becomes deeply ingrained, original terminology begin to appear. For example in football (NOT american football, which, BTW isn't a football at all) it took about 30 years to native terminology to be completely developed and accepted, and english one is still used interchangeably with it.
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Date: 2006-02-25 06:54 am (UTC)B. You may find the following article to be of interest. I also seem to remember that last year the Russian little league team went fairly far in the World Series.
http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/5404.html##10
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Date: 2006-02-25 07:01 am (UTC)Chicago Tribune
October 26, 2005
LETTER FROM MOSCOW
Game strikes out in Russia
Baseball is ignored by sports pages and sportscasts enamored with soccer, tennis, basketball and handball
By Alex Rodriguez, the Tribune's Moscow correspondent
MOSCOW -- He makes in a year what his idol, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, earns in a few hours. His team, Tornado, plays on rutted soccer pitches with a right-field fence just a Texas leaguer away from home plate--in front of crowds rarely larger than a dozen or so friends, wives and parents.
And yet, Andrei Bolotin is undeterred. On summer nights, the 34-year-old right-fielder leaves behind a day job helping design airport terminals, shows up for team practice at Moscow's Beisbolny Stadion, and loses himself in a sport his country has barely noticed since a Soviet team first took the field in the late 1980s.
"When you step onto the field after the workday, you immediately get swept away by the game," said Bolotin, a strapping, bearded Russian with a respectable .337 batting average. "I hope to play for many more years."
Nineteen years ago, when baseball became an Olympic sport, Soviet sports authorities had high hopes of laying claim to America's pastime. Japan donated $3.2 million for an artificial turf ballpark in Moscow, Cuba and Nicaragua supplied bats and gloves, and soon a small corps of trailblazing Russians from sports as divergent as javelin throwing and water polo chucked it all for the sake of change-ups and check swings.
Handful of teams
Since then, the game has never really caught fire in Russia. A handful of pro teams in the Moscow region and in the Far East play through Russia's fleeting summer in virtual obscurity, ignored by sports pages and sportscasts preoccupied with soccer, tennis, basketball and team handball.
Russian ballplayers grouse about empty bleachers, weed-choked playing fields, the dearth of equipment, meager pay--but they can't walk away from the game. They use their vacation time to play in tournaments. They fill spare time with fantasy baseball leagues and baseball video games. Bolotin still collects baseball cards; his eyes brighten as he boasts of having five Roberto Clementes in his collection.
This week, a handful of Russian players are gathering at Metelitsa, a 24-hour casino bar on Moscow's Novy Arbat Street, to watch 4 a.m. broadcasts of Sox-Astros World Series games.
"I fell in love with this game because it was exotic, unusual," Bolotin said. "The emotions of the players on the field felt real for me. The game itself was simply spectacular."
Though most Russians couldn't tell a double play from a double steal, it's not uncommon to find people who insist baseball has its roots in a Russian folk game called lapta that dates back to the reign of Peter the Great.
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Date: 2006-02-25 07:02 am (UTC)When baseball was added to the Olympic program in 1986, the Soviet Union rushed to assemble a program from scratch.
Because authorities wanted results fast, "competition was strong and there was great incentive for development of the game," said Vladimir Stepanov, an outfielder for the Soviet-era Red Devils team, based in Moscow. "Many athletes eagerly took up baseball."
With the Soviet collapse in 1991, interest withered. A few players have caught the eye of major-league scouts and played for American minor-league teams, but those experiments have been brief. Oleg Korneyev, 23, signed with the Seattle Mariners and pitched for their minor-league team in Peoria, Ariz., until elbow surgery ended his stint.
"They kicked me out after the injury," said Korneyev, who now supplements his $200 monthly Tornado salary with modeling work. "To go back, I'd have to throw 95 m.p.h., and I simply cannot."
Artur Donetsky has dreamed of playing professional baseball since he was 8, when he saw other children playing the game in his native city of Nahodka in Russia's Far East. Now 21 and pitching for Moscow's CSKA team, he says he'll quit in a year if a Japanese team doesn't sign him, and pursue his other dream instead--a career as an economist.
Youth lift sport
"You can't earn money playing baseball in this country," Donetsky said. "I've got to make a living for myself and my family."
Russia's youth baseball community has helped buoy the sport. In 2003, a Russian team made it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. Stepanov, who also coaches a youth team, says about 2,000 Russian children play on baseball teams in Moscow.
Many more would join if sports authorities financed advertising campaigns and pushed for the broadcast of Russian league play, Stepanov said. Also a problem is the lack of baseball programs at major Russian universities.
Stepanov says he still believes baseball could thrive in Russia with government backing. Others aren't as optimistic.
Pavel Mazanov, director of Moscow's Tornado team, said it's no longer a matter of when baseball will take off in Russia: "The question now is, how long will it take before baseball dies in this country."
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Date: 2006-02-25 10:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 07:04 am (UTC)B. Duh. Some people always have some strange hobbies. ^_^ Actually, my mother's classmate, a former handball player and trainer, is the one of that rare baseball fans who I mentioned above. For some time in early 90'es he was even a manager for Vladivostok baseball team, however I don't know how is it doing now.
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Date: 2006-02-25 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 07:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 08:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 04:36 pm (UTC)True. Moreover, Russians DO NOT UNDERSTAND - how to play baseball, how anyone sane could love this game and be entertained by such a boring show.
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Date: 2006-02-25 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 02:42 am (UTC)I talked about the common reaction of us Russians regarding the game of baseball, not about my personal feelings.
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Date: 2006-02-25 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 07:40 am (UTC)Most of baseball terms are not translated. Bat is бита, though, and batter is бьющий, but can be just batter. Pitcher is pitcher, pitch is подача. Pither's mound is горка. Umpire is судья.
Аn example (names and game results are fictitious, teams are real):
Итак, вторая половина девятого иннинга, счет 7:5 в пользу Торнадо, но МГУ в нападении, и у них есть последний шанс отыграться. На питчерскую горку выходит закрывающий питчер Торнадо Кононов: обычно его подачи не отличаются скоростью, но его крученые очень неплохи. На бите у МГУ Силантьев, он еще ни разу в сезоне не делал хоумрана, но это от него и не требуется, его задача сейчас -- занять базу и по возможности утомить при этом питчера. Итак, кэтчер подает сигнал -- крученый мяч прошел явно мимо зоны, Силантьев не шевельнулся. Да, судья, конечно, показывает болл. Вторая подача -- судья показывает страйк! Давайте посмотрим повтор -- да, мяч вошел в зону. Подача, удар -- кажется, очень высокий ближний флай, его еще называют поп-флай, правый базовый Торнадо устремился к нему, нет -- мяч ушел в зону фола. Питчерский счет -- один болл, два страйка.
Generally, Russian and English words are used ad hoc, depending on which is more convenient. English nouns are used more widely than verbs. Mostly those terms that make sense in translating, are translated: "Украсть базу" is much more convenient than "стилить базу", but "хоумран" is shorter and more flexible than "пробег домой", so it's just хоумран.
As of popularity of ball game in Russia: just as in the rest of Europe, very low. There are some leagues, but only Minors and Juniors are decent. The Japanese, who started Russian baseball in early 90s, put their university teams versus Russian 'professional' ones. Mostly it's due to lack of public interest. Some players are good, but their best aspirations are in getting a contract in one of the American teams.
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Date: 2006-02-25 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 11:54 am (UTC)Sport as a show is pretty popular.
Soccer (we call it football ;-)) is the most popular, I believe.
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Date: 2006-02-25 10:53 pm (UTC)Certainly soccer is the most popular. I couldn't play it, and I don't know all the rules. But it looks like it would be fun to play, and therefore watch. Thank you! :)
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Date: 2006-02-26 12:27 am (UTC)well, you know, LJ can't give you the whole picture :-) I see streets, I know people.
I don't watch sport (except last Olympics ;-))
But alot of people does.
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Date: 2006-02-26 02:48 am (UTC)>
> well, you know, LJ can't give you the whole picture :-) I see streets, I
> know people.
Don't try to look smarter than you are, especially at other people's expense.
Those who have opinion different to yours also "see streets" and "know people", mind you.
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Date: 2006-02-26 07:04 am (UTC)Have you ever seen number of people on soccer stadiums? Thousands, and it's hard to get tickets.
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Date: 2006-02-26 04:09 am (UTC)> these comments.
Don't take his account seriously. The guy is just delusional.
(NOM to dair_spb)
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Date: 2006-02-26 07:13 am (UTC)Yes, with soccer football, ice hockey, figure skating, gymnastics, tennis and boxing, it is safe to say that Russians like watching sports. Naturally, most of the sports that Russians like watching are those where Russian athletes have at least a fair chance, or, better, are sure medalists. Ice hockey even got to be pretty profitable, Russian pro league is probably the second-most earning league in the world after NHL. In addition, since so many Russians play in NHL teams, many Russians follow NHL championship, too.
Basketball and volleyball also have their fans, although less than soccer and ice hockey. Basketball and volleyball are like ice hockey and soccer in the USA -- some people watch them, there are fans, tickets sell well, but it's nothing compared to major sports.
Few watch grass hockey, waterpolo, rugby football, handball or motoball (sort of soccer on motobikes), but, since we already have strong teams that compete in Olympics and World Championship levels, companies and municipalities help their local teams.
Making a sport an Olympic event means a lot for it. That's why Russian baseball team managers are in such gloom and doom -- no baseball in Olympics means no sponsor and municipal support. Of course, there are Russian American football teams that play without any support, but American football can be played on general purpose fields, while baseball require dedicated diamonds to play properly.
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Date: 2006-02-26 03:34 pm (UTC)I'd like to see this sport called "motoball." I'm not that experienced as a rider, so I could definitely appreciate the skill it would take to not drop the bike.
Thanks again! :)
MSU/Baseball
Date: 2006-02-25 11:58 am (UTC)I was in Moscow for this, kind of cool. Don't know what the state of the American National Pastime is in Russia now.
:)
Date: 2006-02-25 10:54 pm (UTC)