Language difficulties and baseball

I was so surprised to see that someone (J95) commented on my post about the fires in Greece. I looked at his blog, but it is in Greek. I am embarrassed, once again, that I do not speak a second language fluently. Everywhere I have traveled outside of the U.S. the people speak English (and usually at least one other language besides their own). How many Americans speak anything other than English? My Italian is fine for travel, as is my French, but that's it. It is my greatest wish to actually be fluent in Italian, but I think I am probably too old to achieve true fluency, especially without living in Italy.

In my family my grandparents only spoke Italian when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about. How great it would have been if they had taught us the language instead. My grandfather emigrated here in 1909 from the village of Norma, Italy. Unlike many other Italian emigrants in my hometown of Pittsburg, California, he didn't long to go back to "the old country." He became an American and that meant speaking English. He did live by "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," which meant when in America, do as the Americans do: speak English. I admire this and think it is best. I mean, when I am in another country, I do not expect everyone to speak English. However, I do wish I could sit with my grandfather today and learn Italian from him. What I can do is get started by using the Rosetta Stone language program available FREE through the Chelmsford Public Library. (How great is that? You just enter your library card number and you can access the language programs for several languages from your computer at home!)

Thinking about my Italian grandfather and his love of America, it still makes me laugh that an Italian born immigrant who never played sports and worked in the open hearth at U.S. Steel all his adult life, would sit and watch baseball, the most American sport, on television from his chair in the living room in a cloud of Italian cigar smoke. I was in high school when I discovered that he knew all the names of the San Francisco Giants and actually watched the games.

This stream of conciousness leads me back to Greece. How? Because J95's profile said he isn't interested in "softball." This isn't surprising for a Greek. Baseball (and softball) are virtually unknown in Greece. I was working on a project in Greece for the Olympics and had the opportunity to speak with many Greeks about baseball. I asked everyone I came into contact with what they knew about the game. No one could tell me anything about it. I shared a cab with a Greek translator and an official from MLB. The translator was a woman. When I asked her what she knew about the game, she said, "I know what volley ball is." The MLB guy and I knew it was downhill from there, but I then explained the basics of the game to her, much to the amusement of Mr. MLB. To his credit, he did say he was surprised I did such a good job of getting the basic game across.

There is an amateur baseball league in Greece, but I don't think any of the players were placed on the Greek Olympic team. Instead Americans of Greek descent were recruited to play on the Olympic team. Valerie Kontakos, an American film maker, made a documentary about the Greek Olympic team which I haven't seen yet. It is called WHO'S ON FIRST: "What happens when Greece, a country with no background in baseball, is suddenly required to field a team to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics?" I thought it was a crime that the Greeks who actually play the game for their country weren't allowed to be on the team. The only way baseball will become a sport in Greece (along with softball) will be if children play the game. Hmmm...who will be the Johnny Appleseed of baseball in Greece, bringing bats and balls and gloves to kids and teaching them the game? If anyone has any idea, let me know...