Baseball is a different ball game in Manipur

Imphal: It's a home run that's crossing continents like never before. In Imphal more people are now beginning to believe that baseball is the best game that one can play with a bat and a ball.

Imphal has over 20 baseball clubs, and could soon have the country's first baseball stadium, courtesy First Pitch – the US-Manipur Baseball project set up in Imphal five years ago.

“The number of baseball players has grown in such a short period. It should be somewhere around 500-600. Not just Imphal but across Manipur,” says Geet Singh from the US-Manipur Baseball Project.

The project started off with 8 torn gloves and a couple of used bats and balls. But now First Pitch gets top American baseball coaches and major league players to pass on tips to young players.

“We are getting help from the US. Their coaches came in November. They will be coming again. When they come here next time they will watch the game not coach,” says Singh.

And for these men and women, practicing hard on a muddy field, the dream right now is to make it to the home of baseball.

"My dream is to take Manipuri players to play in Major League Baseball in New York. I will go all out for that,” says coach of First Pitch, Bhanu Devi.

So, as America's baseball theme ‘take me out to the ballgame’ finds a new voice in one of the most unlikeliest of places in Manipur, the 20 baseball teams in the state are slowly but surely building bridges between the two nations.

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