This article was published in the local Palm Springs paper, called the Desert Sun.
In baseball, the batter’s objective is to make it home safely. California Winter League infielder Drew Taddia decided to collect a few stamps on his passport before coming home.
He first played for the Palm Springs Chill in 2008 and is back as a member of the Canada A’s this winter. In between, though, Taddia has traveled the globe.
After his first stint in the CWL, he went on to play for the Bay Area Toros of the now-defunct Continental League in Texas. While surfing the Internet he learned about the Sunburst League in Canada and soon found himself as a member of the Red Deer Stags in Alberta.
Taddia, who is Canadian, enjoyed playing ball in his native country.
“It was good competition. The league had games during the week and tournaments on the weekends,” he said. “The attendance was strong for those weekend games.”
One of Taddia’s teammates in Canada spoke about a baseball league that played during the winter and encouraged him to go along for the adventure. He accepted the invitation, and his bags were packed for the next stop in his global baseball journey: Australia.
After adjusting to the local slang, accents and large-sized currency, he found driving on the opposite side of the road to be the only challenge.
“There’s not a big difference in the game down there, except that the infields are completely grass. Just a little bit of dirt right around the bases,” Taddia said.
Another difference was the limited amount of instruction.
“The players in Australia have lots of raw talent, but they don’t have the opportunity to learn from managers and coaches with a higher level of professional experience like most do in the United States,” he said.
The biggest culture shock for Taddia, however, was still to come.
A player in Australia had shared stories about playing baseball in Germany, so Taddia made the Hamburg Knights his next team.
“Where I was playing in Australia it was very laid back,” he said. “Guys were walking around the mall or grocery store wearing no shirt and no shoes — just shorts. But in Germany, it is very materialistic. People like to get dressed up, even to go to the ballpark. It’s all about the designer labels.”
Taddia said it was obvious by looking at the stadiums that some sports clubs in Germany were better funded than others. The Hamburg Knights, which he played for, were part of a larger club that included a soccer team.
“Soccer is big in Germany,” Taddia said. “It’s like hockey in Canada.”
Taddia planned a return to Australia this winter but instead, he returned to Palm Springs to enjoy the competition and instruction of the California Winter League.
A number of players in the CWL are here from Japan and Taddia had fun introducing them to pine tar, which is used to achieve a better grip on the bat (a spray substance is widely used in Japan).
“You can learn a lot from other players,” Taddia said. “Players connect by watching TV together or telling jokes in the clubhouse. When you don’t speak the same language, it can be tough. Sometimes you take little things for granted.”
Could Japan be Taddia’s next stop?
“I’d be all for it,” he said. “But I love playing in the United States. There’s nothing like it.”
Drew Taddia of the Canada A’s has played baseball in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Germany. / Special to The Desert Sun
Written by
Darrell Linderman, Special to the Desert Sun
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110212/SPORTS01/102120302/1028/sports01/Globe-trotters-play-baseball-too