Baseball in Vietnam—Now & Then
The Mariners have started their season as usual, blowing games in late innings and leaving men in scoring position without ever getting a hit. At least things are normal for the Mariner fan. Several weeks ago, I was talking to a client who was taking his 12 year old son’s team to Vietnam to teach the local kids baseball. It brought back a memory I hadn’t thought about for years.
In 1968, we were laagered in a jungle clearing somewhere in III Corp, exactly where I don’t recall. Somehow a baseball appeared and those of us who could slip away quickly started a game with a couple of different tracks participating. As I recall, my track was used as the backstop and the bat was a tent pole or a piece of an aluminum antenna staff. I remember getting a hit and going to first base which was the rim of a bomb crater. I recall thinking this is the only base in history where overrunning it could get you injured by falling into a 15′ or 20’ deep bomb crater left from a B-52 strike. I don’t remember much else other than 2nd and 3rd were somewhat safer. You had to be 19 or 20, love baseball, and be totally crazy to play in that environment. We didn’t play long (I suspect our First Sergeant probably came along and put us to work), but it was fun while it lasted.
I never played baseball again in Nam other than that one afternoon in that jungle clearing. But I do know that if the Mariners played with as much enthusiasm as we did that day, they’d be leading their Division.
