From the Toronto Star’s Chris Young, via Irish Eagle, comes the story of an unlikely film about an even unlikelier team.
The Emerald Diamond is a documentary by Irish-American John Fitzgerald about the Irish national baseball team. After trying out for the team, and failing to qualify for Irish citizenship, Fitzgerald decided instead to chronicle the team’s and the sport’s history in Ireland. It wasn’t too hard to track down people, since baseball was introduced to the country barely 15 years ago.
This reminds me a little of Dave Bidini’s book Baseballissimo, about baseball in Italy, which has a proud tradition going back about 60 years now. That’s when American GIs introduced the game to the war-weary Italians.
Perhaps they should arrange a game or seven between the two countries? A sort of Old-World Series.