by John Baum

Take the field...or at least try to here in Switzerland. The game having improved leaps and bounds, still is looked at as a secondary sport that people just play for fun. One of the problems that we have here is our field situations. In particular, fields that don't exactly meet international standards. Most of the fields we use here are built on what used to be a soccer field, so one, if not both of the corner fences, are ground rule doubles. Or, like our situation here in Bern, we have to put up our fence for every home game...a small price to pay to have a real sized field. But, still a pain in the butt. This weekend the Ruessbuhl Eagles were supposed to host us, the Bern Cardinals in a double header. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they had to change the game to Bern, due to unavailability of the ball field. Bringing up a point that we here in Bern are dealing with, we must reschedule a game due to the national archery competition being hosted where our field is! I've been here in Europe long enough to know that even though that's the craziest reason we've had to change dates of a game, just wait a little and something stranger will come along!

Now we have to talk a little about the European soccer championships coming to Switzerland. I myself am looking forward to having a few beers, and watching what unfolds. My interest in soccer is seeing the Swiss guys happy when their teams play well, and enjoying the atmosphere. But for the guys in Zurich, they lose their field for the season during the competition. Fact is that in Zurich there will be a field built at the Heerenschurli specifically for baseball. That's great news; the not so great news is construction doesn't begin in June...that's when they lose their field! They lose it so soccer fans can make it their campgrounds for the Euro Championships!!

Our field here in Bern is on the Grosse Allmend, free and open to the public to do what they'd like. It's a beautiful place to go and kick the ball around, throw Frisbee, or have your dog take a dump on second base, and have the owner of the dog just leave it there! It comes complete with two hitting cages that kids treat like a jungle gym, and dirt cut out bases that kids use like a sandbox! I wonder if that dog's owner knows that the dog just crapped on a baseball field, or I the kids parents thought that home plate was where you should build a sandcastle. I don't think there is an answer to that question, but the truth is that people for the most part just don't care about the game that so many of us are so passionate about. I hope one day those people that take where we play baseball for granted, at least know that that's where they play baseball in Bern, and the name of the team is the Cardinals. When they have that knowledge, maybe we find less doggy-do at practice!!

After a three-week break we take the field again against the Eagles. We have had the last two weekends off and are looking forward to get out there and play. The Eagles are the only team to beat us in our last 31 games, so we have revenge on our minds. Even though winning streaks don't really mean anything, it would be great to keep the streak alive. Not to mention we are down to five games before we leave for the Euro qualifier, and are looking to hit our stride before we get there.