From Russia with glove to take a U.S. swing

The coach of an amateur Philadelphia baseball all-star team rushed anxiously to the dugout of the Russian National Team, which had just defeated his squad 6-0, with an urgent question.

"How do you say 'suicide squeeze' in Russian?" asked Brett Mandel of Center City yesterday.

One of the Team Russia players translated the question for his teammates. The group responded with shrugs and quizzical expressions.

There are a lot of American baseball terms that the Russian language cannot yet accommodate. Russian baseball is only 20 years old - just younger than most of Team Russia's players.

Yesterday, the Greater Philadelphia Men's Adult Baseball League all-star team hosted the Russian team at La Salle University as part of the latter's tour to warm up for the European Championships in Barcelona, Spain, next month. A handful of spectators attended the event.

"This is a great opportunity for us," said second baseman Matt Gionta of Roxborough.

Mandel added: "They executed a suicide squeeze, which was impressive. They showed strategy. I mostly expected them to just hit the ball and run."

Philadelphia was the 17th stop on a nearly month-long barnstorming tour of the United States that began in mid-July in New York.

Said Team Russia pitcher Dmitri Seredenko: "We're only going to improve by playing stronger competition, and that's what America has to offer."

One of the highlights of the trip was a face-off with Team USA in Cary, N.C., on July 30. The Americans - who captured the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics - shut out the Russians by 6-0. That week, the Russians also had a run at the 2008 Olympic hosts, Team China, and lost, 6-1. The Russians also attended several major-league baseball games as spectators, including the Phillies-Marlins game Wednesday.

Team Russia head coach Dmitry Shlyapnikov, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian air force, said he has enjoyed the tour. "This is a nice country with many beautiful women. But there is just one problem. It is too hot," he said, tugging at his jersey.

Team Russia wore the throwback gray-and-red flannel jerseys the national team wore on its first tour here in 1987. Many players complained that although they looked sharp, the jerseys were itchy and hot.

Russia has traditionally focused on winter sports like ice hockey for international competition. It wasn't until 1987 that the U.S.S.R. Olympic Committee formed a national baseball team, with the stated purpose of Soviet glory through Olympic gold medals. Yet, in a country with more than 100 official-size ice hockey rinks and only one, 5,000-seat minor league baseball stadium, it is not surprising that an Olympic baseball bid still eludes the Russians. (And perhaps it always will; the International Olympic Committee has dropped baseball as an Olympic sport after 2008.)

Andrew Bolotin, Team Russia third baseman, said, "Baseball is a lost sport in our country. The conditions are not very good. We only get four baseballs for each game and only have four teams in our whole country."

Growing interest in the sport has revived national hope for a 2008 Olympic berth in Beijing, however. In 1992, the Russian Premier League formed and in 2003, Russian television broadcast the World Series for the first time.

Since 1992, 11 players from the former Soviet Union have signed minor league contracts in the United States. On July 24, Team Russia second baseman Alexander Nizov, a former player in the Los Angeles Angels system, donated his No. 12 Team Russia jersey to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"I am very proud of my jersey," said Nizov yesterday, adding that he is the first Russian player to be so honored.

In a show of good will, the Golden Gates Restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia - a section of the city that has more than 100,000 Russian-speaking residents - hosted a celebratory dinner for both teams.

"It was a blast. When you're playing for your country, it's a really special thing," said Mandel.