Summer 2007: Opening Day

The fourth season of Amman Softball League got underway on Friday, June 15 at the Amman Little League Association complex in Amman (where else?), Jordan.

As with previous ASL seasons, we’re doing this for charity, with half the proceeds going to ALLA and half to Gift of Life Amman (GOLA). The League has grown quite a bit in popularity over the last few years, as evidenced by the record eight teams participating in the Summer 2007 season.

On & Off the Field Volunteers: Bob Conover and Marikay Satryano were honored by throwing out the ceremonial first pitches. Bob took charge of getting the field ready for ALLA, and Marikay helped save lives through GOLA.

After the ceremonial first pitches were thrown by Marikay Satryano and Bob Conover, the opening game, featuring the two US Embassy teams, the Beats and Sluggos, started off with a bang. A ten-run bang, that is, by last season’s runners-up, the mighty Sluggos. The Beats could not recover as their embassy rivals kept pouring it on, but the losing side showed spirit and grit, pressing on despite having several first-time softball players in their lineup. Sluggos win in their Long Division debut, but this is not the last we'll hear from the Beats.

The second game of Opening Day was between two evenly matched teams from the Division of Labor, the Stars and (gasp) Bling Bling. In a contest that was tight until late in the game, Bling Bling took a 7-6 lead in the fourth inning, but then the Stars put their hitting foot down and scored 13 unanswered runs to end the game. Stars 19, Bling Bling 6.

Two of the more polished teams met in the third game, with the Nomads facing the Eagles in a thrilling, back-and-forth affair which featured clutch hitting and solid defense by both sides. The Eagles’ youngsters, kids from the ALLA baseball Seniors division, held their own and impressed with their skills, making plays with their bats and gloves. But the In the end, the Nomads held on for a 10-7 win against their Labor rivals.

The final game of Opening Day had enough plotlines to make for a really bad soap opera. Last season’s champs, the undefeated Green Monsters, seemed to vanish into thin air like Keyser Soze…but elements remain. The handful of Monsters still in Jordan regrouped with a few veterans of other teams and renamed themselves, appropriately, the Traitors. Ash Samawi, chief among the defectors, left his old team, the Slackers, and led off the game against them with a three-bagger. Having refused to join in their former captain’s defection, the Slackers replied with cold stares and one hell of a game, keeping it tight and tense until a late push gave the Traitors a 16-9 win in a game that was closer than the score would indicate. The two Long Division foes won’t meet again until the final week of the regular season, August 10.

Games are played at the ALLA Complex, every Friday, from June 15 through August 17, beginning at 9:00 AM. Please come out and enjoy Softball in Amman!