After exhaustive internet research and many discussions with several Parisian baseball players, Matthew and I found a baseball "club" on which to play. There is no little league here in France as there is in the US, but there are various clubs all around France, numbering about 40. A "club," such as the Paris University Club (the PUCs), or the Montigny Cougars, will field teams for all ages and at all levels of competition. The PUCs, for example, have teams for kids in the U9, U12, U15 and U18 divisions for kids, and four levels for adults, ranging from national competition to guys who have never played before.
Matthew and I both chose PUC because of location (it's the only club actually IN Paris) and because it's quite competitive by French standards with a high level of instruction. See http://www.pucbaseball.com/. They also have a pretty reasonable practice facility at Stade Pershing, which was built by the US military at the end of WW I in the Bois du Vincennes.
The field is regulation, but unlike the picture, it's now all skin. So long as it's dragged, it's fine. I practiced at another field with the Bandits de Nogent and was amazed at what they are willing to play on. Picture Strawberry at it's worst with all GRASS. Now picture line drives coming at you in the infield. It's like having a skilz ball shot at you from a cannon. No fun, but they play and they love it. Those who play here are VERY passionate about baseball. This passion extends to the kids as well. Matthew remarked after his first practice that, "all of the kids really want to be here."
Mathew is on the PUC U15 team. The cutoff date is simply the calendar (i.e., January 1), so he's a 13, which puts him at the young end of the "Cadet" range, which is 13-15. Some of the kids that he plays with look like they smoke and drink, but he's definitely holding his own on the field. He also gets instant respect because he's from the United States and his play shows that he knows what he's doing. About half the kids speak some English, a few fluently. He's already made several friends, and has started to use a few words with them during practices and games. Baseball, the international language.
We had our first game yesterday, and what a game it was. It was the finals of the championship for all the teams in the Paris area. It turns out that the regular season is similar to ours, starting approximately in March and ending in June. But, their playoffs don't start until September, because everyone is gone for the summer. so you play the regular season, go on vacation, and then come back for the playoffs. We played PUC's arch rival's, the Montigny Cougars. They were playing two 6 inning games at Montigny. 
The facility is fantastic. All turf field with a stadium-style stands and concessions. Much nicer than Albert Park.Matthew had to borrow the coach's jersey, which was a bit large for him, but he filled it out better than you might expect. Must be all the steak and frites he's been eating.
The Cougars' best player is a girl. Really. And she is really good. Hits for power, pitches, plays short and apparently hates softball. She want to someday play on the French national men's team, and I would not count her out. She's apparently in the top 10 of players in the greater Paris area.
The PUC Cadets's (name of the U15 division) coach is named Fred, and it became apparent that there was some "history" between him and one of the Cougars's coaches. There was certainly a sense that the home team was getting more of the calls. My french, while adequate, could not keep up with exactly what was going on. I did hear a lot of cheering from the stands. Our fans would yell, "Allez PUC" or Go PUC. Unfortunately, when pronounced with a French accent, it sounds more like PUKE. Allez PUKE, which to me translates into "Go vomit."
There were a lot of balks called against our pitchers and the French balk rule is different than the rest of the world's. If a balk is called and the pitcher throws the ball, the batter can still hit it. Then the offensive manager can chose between accepting the balk or accepting the result of the play. We got nailed on that when the umpire shouted BALK (which is, like many words, the same in both French and English) and the batter ripped a double through the infield because our guys all thought it was a dead ball. We lost that one 11-1.
In the second inning of the second game, with the score tied 1-1 (Matthew worked a 0-2 count into a walk with several foul balls, made his way to third on a ground ball and a single and scored on a passed ball), we had another balk called on us. Fred said a bunch of things in French and the next thing I knew, he was ejected. There was another American named Brian who coached the U12 team to the championship last year who, along with me, was helping out. He was going to coach, but the umpires would not let him coach because ... are you ready for this? He was not wearing the proper pants! Read it again. he was wearing jeans and in order to coach, you have to be wearing "pantalons de sport" or athletic pants. Seriously. I was, of course, wearing my signature black sweats, guess what. I started my first coaching experience in France!
Now this was quite a challenge. Some kids were fluent in English and some did not speak a word. I tried to talk to them in French, but I'm sure I sounded like a cross between Latka Gravas from Taxi and Jacques Cousteau. Something like, "We must ensure that the round thing which we took to make a punch when the enemy was on the other side will be going fast when accurate!" Lots of stares. "We must make a war since we are going to say good-bye to Fred when we could make him happier if he was with us!" More stares. As a last resort I shout, "ALLEZ PUKE!" There, I said it. They all cheer. I feel a bit nauseous
Matthew started at shortstop and played every inning of both games there. He responded by making 4 putouts, looking very strong at that position. At the plate he was 0-2 with two walks and as usual chewed up about 20 pitches.
We went on to lose that one 7-2, in spite of my multilingual inspirational speeches. But as is typical and thankfully universal, the day ended with lots of smiles. In fact, Matthew got a medal for being part of the runner up in the championship. I think he was a bit surprised about that.
The PUC Cadets's (name of the U15 division) coach is named Fred, and it became apparent that there was some "history" between him and one of the Cougars's coaches. There was certainly a sense that the home team was getting more of the calls. My french, while adequate, could not keep up with exactly what was going on. I did hear a lot of cheering from the stands. Our fans would yell, "Allez PUC" or Go PUC. Unfortunately, when pronounced with a French accent, it sounds more like PUKE. Allez PUKE, which to me translates into "Go vomit."
There were a lot of balks called against our pitchers and the French balk rule is different than the rest of the world's. If a balk is called and the pitcher throws the ball, the batter can still hit it. Then the offensive manager can chose between accepting the balk or accepting the result of the play. We got nailed on that when the umpire shouted BALK (which is, like many words, the same in both French and English) and the batter ripped a double through the infield because our guys all thought it was a dead ball. We lost that one 11-1.
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| The jeans worn by Brian in the background c'est interdit! |
Now this was quite a challenge. Some kids were fluent in English and some did not speak a word. I tried to talk to them in French, but I'm sure I sounded like a cross between Latka Gravas from Taxi and Jacques Cousteau. Something like, "We must ensure that the round thing which we took to make a punch when the enemy was on the other side will be going fast when accurate!" Lots of stares. "We must make a war since we are going to say good-bye to Fred when we could make him happier if he was with us!" More stares. As a last resort I shout, "ALLEZ PUKE!" There, I said it. They all cheer. I feel a bit nauseous Matthew started at shortstop and played every inning of both games there. He responded by making 4 putouts, looking very strong at that position. At the plate he was 0-2 with two walks and as usual chewed up about 20 pitches.We went on to lose that one 7-2, in spite of my multilingual inspirational speeches. But as is typical and thankfully universal, the day ended with lots of smiles. In fact, Matthew got a medal for being part of the runner up in the championship. I think he was a bit surprised about that.
