Göteborg Baseboll

A combination of complete darkness outside (due to the middle-of-the-night schedule) and Red Bull energy drink or Coca-Cola to keep us awake made the whole scene surreal. Not sure whether in a dream or a nightmare, at times it felt as though we were penned up in a bomb shelter. While the rest of Scandinavia slept, five ball-clubs teams played baseball in Norway…in March.

Four games later our Gothenburg Sharks had three wins and a loss under their belts, a second place trophy, a slight case of sleep deprivation, and a nice start to the 2003 season.

“We Sharks hit like the Bronx Bombers this weekend…we saw the baseball like it was a beach-ball! There’s no stopping us this year”, were comments bouncing off the walls of Fredrikstad’s indoor soccer arena. And so it was. Andreas Fredriksson, started off Gothenburg’s slugging barrage by blasting his #1 lifetime dinger deep over the left-centerfield fence on a 1-1 pitch off Balkam’s starting pitcher Gotacasuh Whiplash*. The Sharks never looked back after Andreas’ tater and soared to a 12-4 victory.

In game 2, Gothenburg’s new recruit Berzad Imagonabloitbiyu was next to un-hittable as he faced Swedish elite-series team Karlskoga in his first start as a Shark. His 8 strikeouts 5 innings pitched were necessary invaluable, as both teams would squeeze out a total of just one run (a perfectly executed hit-and-run double by Tore Hansson scoring Andy “speedy Gonzales” Vanecek all the way from first). Daniel Ibarra got the save by tossing a scoreless sixth and Gothenburg’s defense played well throwing out two out at home plate.

After a couple of hours daytime sleep on the floor of a classroom in a Norwegian middle school, the Sharks were ready to go again. Swedish elite-series team Oskarshamn would be Gothenburg’s next opponent and American right-hander Andy “he’s so crafty” Vanecek would get the nod for his first start all-time in Scandinavia. It was the 28 year olds first trip to the mound in over 6 years and Oskarshamn made good use of a few mistake (sweet, juicy, Swedish MEATBALL type) pitches, hitting a pair of three-run homeruns in the late innings. Gothenburg too showed streaks of power in the form of solo homeruns by both Andy “bazooka biceps” Vanecek and second baseman Lennart “all-I-do-is-turn-two” Karlsson. Unfortunately for Shark fans, the bases were empty for their deep bombs. The game ended at midnight with tournament champs Oskarshamn leading 11-4.

At 2:30 in the morning Norwegian squad Bekkestua waited to meet the Sharks. With a win Gothenburg would secure second place in the tourney. Bekkestua had not played particularly well in the three previous matches, but they were not going to just roll over and die. Actually, they put up quite a fight with a nice pitching performance and good defence. Fortunately, Daniel Ibarra planned on pitching a great game for Gothenburg as well. The match was dead-locked at one each all the way until the bottom of the fourth. By this time, player/coach Johan Weidolf had enough. With two runner in scoring position, Johan stroked an rbi single to give the Sharks the lead. Bekkestua threatened in the fifth, but good defense and some nifty pitches by Ibarra held the Norwegians at just one run. The only thing that was left was a bit of icing on the cake in the form of a towering three-run round-tripper by, you guessed it, Weidolf. What a way to end the tourney!

So it turned out that the trip was more of a fantasy than a nightmare; a second place trophy and a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Be sure to catch the Sharks this summer in a patch of grass near you!

*Some names and/or quotes may be changed or exaggerated due to lack of official records*
Pictures will be added shortly

Written by A-Bomb