Baseball Equipment

Who would have thought that baseball equipment would be shipped to an infantry battalion that was located on a remote firebase in the Vietnam jungle.  No one.  Yet there it was and this snapshot is proof.

I don't remember how or why we ended up with the equipment. I'm sure it was a shipment gone bad.  Someone at Bien Hoa Air Force Base must have received the box of two-quart canteens that our supply sergeant was expecting and we received their baseball equipment.

As you can see, we took advantage.  That's my friend Rob pitching the ball.  Jerry, our machine gunner, is getting ready to  swing.  Not sure who that is playing catcher.  It was rainy season but the rain was holding off for us.  The ump said play ball, so we did.  Batting practice lasted about about twenty minutes then we put the equipment away.  Rain forced us off the field.  After that day, I never saw the equipment again.

While we were taking a break and playing a little baseball, serious business was going on around us.  The firebase was a few days old so there was lots of work to do filling sandbags and building bunkers.  A small bulldozer was still there clearing back vegetation and pushing up a dirt berm.    Other guys were on guard watching for enemy soldiers.  If Jerry had lofted one into the trees, I don't know who would have gone after it unless someone went with him with an M16 in hand.

Sometimes we had to let off a little steam by doing something irrational.  On that day, baseball was it.