Major League Baseball for SA's Gift Ngoepe
Youngster makes pitch for fellow South Africans at elite level
PLAYING his first game in Major League Baseball in the US was a bit like wearing the super-swift shoes of sprinting legend Usain Bolt, according to South Africa’s Gift Ngoepe.
Ngoepe, from Polokwane, played his first game in the Major League on Wednesday night, becoming the first African player to campaign at this level of one of the biggest professional sports in the world.
Ngoepe, 27, was brought into the game in the fourth inning by his team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in a game against last year’s winners of the World Series, the Chicago Cubs.
The South African, known more as a superb infielder than a specialist batter, recorded a hit in his first “at-bat” to reach first base safely.
Since then, he admitted from Pittsburgh yesterday, the world had whizzed by at breakneck pace.
“It’s been crazy. I’ve been doing interviews… I’ve been on my bed all day,” Ngoepe said. “I’ve been getting messages from the entire world, calls from American people, and doing interviews with TV stations here and back home. I’ve done six interviews since I’ve been up. I’m trying to take baby steps, but it’s been a bit like Usain Bolt” he said mid-morning yesterday.
“Specially getting a hit in my first at-bat… it was the most memorable day. It was so amazing that it happened like that.
“I’m glad to be able to show what a South African can do.”
Ngoepe has been with the Pittsburgh organisation for almost nine years, playing in lower-tier teams for the club.
Wednesday marked the first time he had got the nod for 25-man match squad for the Pirates main team.
“I’m glad to be opening doors for and making opportunities for South African guys,” the player added. “If this is what you want and you worked hard. It doesn’t matter where you come from, (success) like this can happen.”
Ngoepe, who was a talented soccer-player and cricketer as a youth, would like to be an inspiration to young sportsmen and women.
“In the late 1990s, I watched (South African) players like Brett Willemburg, Paul Bell and Ian Holness, and I thought ‘if these guys can make it into the professional game, I can make it too.”
The players mentioned played for American clubs at the lower tiers.
Ngoepe had a good word for Cape baseball, just weeks after the Western Province side won the inter-provincial title for the 17th consecutive year.
“Cape Town has the strongest league in South Africa. It’s very competitive… they take things to a whole different level there. It’s like a brotherhood.”
Ngoepe’s late mother Maureen was at one stage the caretaker at the Randburg Baseball Club, where he spent a lot of time when growing up.
Edwin Bennett, former executive officer of SA Baseball and now a consultant for MLB working at development level locally, said he hoped this week’s call-up for Ngoepe and the exposure he had received would be of benefit to baseball in South Africa.
“Gift has exceptionally fast hands. You could say it’s one of his gifts, and he reads the game well,” Bennett added. “We are very thankful to the Pirates club for sticking in there with Gift. Him getting into the Pirates team is just fantastic.
“There should be more MLB scouts here (now) and more children will be interested in baseball,” said Bennett.
Because baseball is not a mainstream sport in South Africa, players and other participants have to pay their own way to get to tournaments and events.
Said Bennett: “We always encouraged Gift. We always made a way for disadvantaged kids and he was one of them.
“It’s a feather in the cap of South Africa (that he has reached this level). He is showcasing the name of South Africa and Africa and showing that talent can be found here and in Africa.”
Cape Town has the strongest league in South Africa. It’s very competitive… they take things to a whole different level there. It’s like a brotherhood.”