asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

“Their games are about
getting together on
Sundays, a bat in one hand
and a beer in another.”
on their side—an athlete with
a line of bats named after him.
Still, the Sundays—as
they named themselves to
pay homage to their weekly
matches—made it right up until
the end. Coincidentally, the
last day, and the tournament’s
decider, was a Sunday. As
Rob Flynn, the Lipton Spirits’
captain says with a laugh, “we
would’ve had to change our
name to the Saigon Saturdays
if we didn’t make it through”.
Luckily, they did; quite an
achievement considering 16
teams were vying to fill the six
available slots.
Not expecting to get so far,
most players only packed two
uniforms, Tiger Jeff Thrash
included. After winning three
games on the second day
and with a pass to the third,
he says sniff tests had to be
employed all round. “It was
a matter of, which one smells
better” he says.
Now that the league knows
they have what it takes to
compete on an international
stage, they’re looking forward
to participating in other tournaments.
Next on the agenda
is a tour to Jakarta in May.
The real dream, though,
according to both Flynn and
Asian Tigers’ captain Matt
King, is to play host. A lack
of facilities, however, and
difficulties in obtaining visas
for visitors, means that for
the moment, at least, that goal
will remain just out of reach. A
somewhat more attainable ambition,
they say, is to encourage
Vietnamese to embrace the
game. Already, they’ve trained
one team of RMIT students
named the Royals. Currently,
they’re working towards representing
the nation by playing
baseball and even have
Olympic ambitions, but King
says when they first started
playing “they were terrible”.
By the end of their first season,
though, they had beaten every
single team on the squad at
least once.
The Royals are a shining
example of softball’s reach and
the relative ease in which newcomers
can grasp the game.
King warns that while it’s easier
to pick up than hard-hitting
baseball, for example, practice
is needed to master crucial
techniques. “You can’t expect
to walk in and be a star.”
Certainly, there is a degree
of competitiveness in the
league, but more than anything
their games are about
getting together on Sundays,
a bat in one hand and a beer
in another. Thrash sums up
the sport’s appeal best: “It’s
something to look forward to
at the end of the week. It’s a
release.”
For further details or information
on how to join the league,
visit saigonsoftball.info.
asialife HCMC 39