Baseball at the equator

What is small, Creole and chants, "Yes, we can"? No, it's not Obama's team of multi-ethnic minions. They are none other then Curacao's little leaguers.

Little League is an organization that sponsors and organizes baseball and softball leagues for children aged 11 to 13. Curacao, meanwhile, is a liqueur made from the peel of bitter oranges. However, I can tell you with some certainty that Curacao is also a charming Dutch island tucked away in the Caribbean, hugging the Venezuelan coastline.

Put island and league together and you get a rather potent mix. Throw a talented documentary film maker by the name of Keith Goldberg, into this already steaming hot melting pot, and you have your self a winning recipe. Or at least, the making of "an almost winning" recipe.

With a little over 140,000 inhabitants, Curacao is the equivalent of a town. Still, this town manages to spawn ridiculously successful baseball players. Home-grown examples are Andruw Jones, Hensley Meulens and Randall Simon, just to name a few. In case none of these ring a bell; each was or still is a major league player in the US for top teams.

You can well imagine that with such role models, every little boy on the island dreams of making it big in baseball. About 1,100 kids sign up for the minor and little league teams each year. So, even though it's a small place, there is an ambitious and expansive pool to pick from.

Mr Meulens, pro player and director of Baseball Academy DABA, adds that these kids are gifted. "The talent is very raw at the little league age here on the island and I think they just outplay everybody because of that."

Team Pabou [Papiamentu for down-under] represented Curacao at the 2008 Little League Baseball World Series past August in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Pabou not only had to kick some Pariba butt [Papiamentu for uptown], they also had to beat the hard-hitters such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic for the Caribbean Region title.

It marked the eighth consecutive year that Curacao managed to bat their way into the States.

With eight American teams and eight international teams competing for the sixty-second instalment of the Little League World Series, Curacao was and always seems to be an unlikely candidate.

The little contenders didn't make it past the semi-finals though, not able to surpass Waipahu Little League, Hawaii, who went on to win the series beating Matamoros Little League of Mexico to the cup.

However, the Curacao kids are not always just proverbial bridesmaids. A Curacao team has won the World Series once before. The 2004 Pabou little league team defeated Thousand Oaks, California with a 5-2 winning score at the world championships, only to lose the title to Ewa Beach, Hawaii the following year, suffering a devastatingly close 7-6 score.

Of course, for the 2008 team, getting there was half the fun. As the boys from Pabou battled it out over the summer, qualifying for selections, winning the island games and then really bringing it home in the Bonaire tournament, Keith's team of documentary film makers capturing their every move.

The documentary, called Boys Of Summer, will be submitted to the Tribeca film festival, held in New York early this spring. If it is selected to show, Curacao will feature prominently, putting a proud island and these talented kids on display.

"These kids don not get rattled easily. They play a very calm "trankilo" style of baseball. Not to say they are quick or aggressive, which they are, but the Curacao little league player is a very smooth one who can handle pressure well," Keith said.

When asked about the decision to make this film, Keith says: "I've always wanted to do a project on Curacao, ever since I first visited with my wife in 2001. She grew up on the island, so each time I visited I felt more like a local than a tourist. Last December, while in Curacao, we drove by a rough looking baseball field. Jennifer told me that where her brothers used to play when they were in little league. The light bulb went off...baseball! I've watched and rooted for Curacao in the Little League World Series for years, so naturally it was the perfect subject for me to make a film about."

All of this might seem like a perfect set up for a feel good film. And, essentially it is just that. But before getting to the good stuff and sliding into home base, you need to take a dive and get dirty.

Most of these boys grew up in less than stellar circumstances. They borrow bats, gloves and trousers from older brothers or cousins who have grown out of them. They walk to far-off, rough-looking fields in scorching heat (the island is only 12 degrees north of the equator) just to get to practice.

"The biggest struggle to me is good facilities to play on and at times the lack of equipment," said Hensley Meulens.

They take verbal beatings from coaches for being lazy, disrespectful and unmotivated. And to top if off they need to deal with ridiculous pressure from their parents, who expect them to become the next big baseball poster boy.

"Little league should not be about winning, but you have to win to get to the World Series. Some parents really want their kids to make it to the major league, and so they expect a lot of the children and their coaches," states Jeffrey Martina, editor in chief of Revista Deportivo Korsou, Curacao's leading sports publication.

However, Keith says: "these coaches treat the children like professionals, and they approach the games with the same attitude. I'm not saying they are too firm or cold with the children, but they don't coddle them. They build up the children's abilities and in turn their confidence in a very straight forward manner. That's why you get the sense that you are watching 'little-big leaguers' rather than just little league players."

With the somewhat unrealistic expectations as possibly the only negative aspect of the game, baseball offers these kids a way out; a way to get off the island and into the world. The baseball diamonds they sweat to get to keep them out of trouble and surrounded by people who believe in them.

"I had a blast my whole childhood and forming part of little league was no different, I had a great time," said Mr Meulens of his youthful games on Curacao soil.

For an island with many faults, corruption, crime and incompetence in government to name a few, it has managed to achieve one commendable thing and that is the organization of its national sport.

Such an exceptional story is sure to yield a remarkable film. Keep your eyes peeled for a pitch-perfect Boys Of Summer. And don't forget to check the scores of the Little League World Series come august 2009. A small island called Curacao might just be competing.