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He once pitched for a team that played every game on the road. He once found
out he had been released by walking into the clubhouse and seeing another
player wearing his number. He once played for a team that arranged for him
to spend the season living in a trailer park with someone nicknamed "Cat
Woman," because she kept so many pets. (Annie Savoy, she wasn't.)
Brack was a Bluesman, a Pioneer, a Jackal, a Canary and a Road Warrior
during his minor-league career. Now, he'll be a Greek. This Sunday he will
board a plane for Athens to play in a pre-Olympic test tournament. And this
summer the New Jersey resident will pitch for the Greek Olympic baseball
team.
That's right. The Greek Olympic baseball team. The U.S. won't have a
baseball team in Athens, but by God, the Greeks will. And they just might be
good enough to win a medal.
The Greeks may not know hard cheese from feta but as host country for the
Olympics, they get an automatic berth in every sport they choose. Taking advantage of a
little-known codicil in the Olympic constitution, they are stocking their
baseball roster with the American and Canadian children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren of Greek emigrants. Among those on the current roster
are former big leaguers Eric Pappas and Clint Zavaras, plus World Series vet
Clay Bellinger and top prospects Pete Sikaris and Aaron Miles (who is good
enough that he may have to pass up the Olympics if he's in the majors with the Rockies).
The uniforms may read "Hellas" (the Greek word for Greece) but the labels
ought to read "Made in America."
You can compete in the Olympics for a country other than your own as long as
you can trace a recent ancestry (generally a grandparent but in some cases a
great-grandparent) to it, which is easier said than done. Particularly when
you're talking about a great-grandparent who emigrated to the U.S. more than
a century ago from a town in Greece that no longer exists. Pascual Perez
thought it was difficult getting his Visa in order each spring? Brack has
spent the past year compiling documentation tracing his ancestry back to his
great-grandfather and he still doesn't have all the documentation he needs.
"Every time you think you finally have everything you need, there are two
more things they want," Brack says. "I was almost like, 'Do you want my
great-grandfather's finger as proof?' The first couple times I wanted to
strangle someone."
This baptismal certificate is completely inadequate. The village priest
forgot to sign his middle name. You'll have to come back next week. And
bring your great-grandfather's umbilical cord with you.
"I had to do a lot of research," Brack said. "Everywhere you go, they say,
'No, you need to go there instead.' 'Go there,' 'Go there,' 'Go there.' I
went to Ellis Island a lot. I started looking through old yellow pages to
find old addresses. It wasn't easy. They would change names like they were
sneezing. When my mother's grandparents got here, their name was
Venechianokus, then Venechianos, then Venech."
At least the Greek consulates generally know about the team now. "Our names
are in a matrix," Brack says, "so when we call up they don't say, 'The
Greek Olympic baseball team? Don't blow smoke up my ass.'"
The Greek tryouts were held last November, though manager Rob Derksen is
still looking for players to add to the roster. The players will play with
their regular organizations this season and those who aren't on a 25-man major-league roster in August will play a couple exhibition games in Toronto and Baltimore. Then they'll fly to Athens and try to win a medal for Greece.
With the U.S. and Korea out, they just might.
If it seems a little strange that players who may never even have stepped
foot in Greece will represent that country in the Olympics, well, you don't
understand how important Greek-Americans take their heritage. "My Big Fat
Greek Wedding" isn't that much of an exaggeration.
Over the past century or so, many thousands of Greeks emigrated from their
home to seek their fortune in a foreign land where they couldn't even speak
the language. One of those was John Angelos, who came to America with $5 in
his pocket. He labored in the mills of western Pennsylvania, opened a Greek
diner in Baltimore and saved enough money to send his son, Peter, to law
school. And now Peter not only is one of the most powerful lawyers in the
country and the owner of the Baltimore Orioles, he is the man who has almost
single-handedly funded the Greek baseball venture.
Angelos says this team is his way of giving a little something back to the
country of his ancestry and he is so proud of the Greek-American connection
that he wants the team to wear the U.S. flag on their shoulder patches.
So while the U.S. officially won't have a baseball team in the Olympics, we
will have one to cheer anyway. As Brack says, "I feel like I'll be
representing the country I was born in, as well as Greece."
Box score line of the week| The Greek Olympic team | |
|---|---|
| Player | The Skinny |
| Clay Bellinger | Former Yankee played in 2000 World Series |
| A.J. Brack | Did hard time in the independent leagues |
| Alex Cremidan | Arizona prospect threw no-hitter at European games |
| Chris Demetral | Played seven seasons at AAA |
| John Gall | Has been in St. Louis system since 2000 |
| Cory Harris | Signed by Orioles off last year's Greek team |
| Tom Lyons | With Detroit this spring |
| Aaron Miles | May be starting 2B for Rockies |
| Derek Nicholson | With Detroit this spring |
| Erik Pappas | Played three years in the majors |
| Kevin Pickford | Minor-league vet is in Giants system |
| Pete Sikaras | Arizona prospect reminds some of Eck |
| Sean Spencer | With Orioles after two cups of coffee in majors |
| Pete Soteropoulos | Cardinals 2003 draftee |
| Tony Stavros | In Brewers system since 2001 |
| Nick Theodorou | Past six years in Dodgers system |
| Clint Zavaras | Big-league debut against Nolan Ryan, last game 1994 |
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