TicketsSept. 9, 2009
This is the fourth in a series of installments from UC head baseball coach Brian Cleary as he travels overseas to coach the British National Baseball Team at the 2009 Baseball World Cup.
It is Wednesday night (September 9) in Zagreb as I write this. Since last emailing, I have seen some of the city (yesterday afternoon). My initial impression of the city was what I thought it would look like after so many years of communism. But after being able to head into the center of the city, I discovered it to be a much more beautiful place than I thought it would be. I was again able to tour the city this afternoon after practice and have just returned to the hotel for a team dinner.
In walking through the city, you can feel the buzz surrounding a soccer match that is being played tonight between England and Croatia as part of the World Cup qualifier in England. I am not an expert on soccer, but being with this group you learn of the importance of soccer in Europe. The citizens here are excited about the match and I am told the entire city will watch on TV. Our players have been advised not to wear their England jerseys out tonight to avoid any chance of an altercation with Croatian fans. That being said, the Croatians have been very warm and welcoming.
We had a great practice this morning and the prep work is done. The field is also taking shape considering the amount of work there has been to prepare it for the players and fans (although I am not sure that there will be a great crowd). We throw the first pitch tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM (4:30 EDT) against Japan.