national pastime in afghanistan
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24 New eNglaND BaSeBall JOURNal November-December 2011
What are you thankful for this holiday season?”
It’s a question asked quite often this time of year. Of course, we’re all thankful for friends and family. But this year especially, I’m appreciative for what our troops continue to do overseas as they fight for our freedom back home. Perhaps that is be-cause one guy I’ve played base-
ball with for seven years was noticeably m i s s i n g this past season.
K e v i n Bell, affec-t ionate ly known as “K-Bel l ,” has played
in the Boston Men’s Adult Baseball League since 2004. He began his amateur career with the Quincy Grays, swapped to the Boston Orioles in 2006, and found a home with the Boston Blue Jays in 2009. This past sea-son, even though he was still
listed on the Jays’ roster, K-Bell missed the entire baseball sea-son to serve as a specialist in the U.S. Army, a firefighter with the 530th Engineer Detachment stationed at Forward Operat-ing Base Sakari Karez, outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army always has been a part of K-Bell’s life. At the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Kevin’s father, Tim, al-ready had served 20 years in the Army. Bell was a freshman at Brockton High School, where he tossed three no-hitters for the Boxers and was heavily re-cruited to play baseball for Bos-ton College. He turned down this collegiate baseball oppor-tunity and others to start a fam-ily and stay with them at home. Today, K-Bell is 6,579 miles
from home, and a world away from his wife, Abby; his 6-year-old daughter, Kaylee; and his 2-year-old son, Zack. His father also is home, having just retired from the service one month be-fore his deployment.
It is only fitting that if Kevin isn’t throwing smoke in the MABL, he’s putting out fires in Afghanistan. Kevin explained via Facebook Chat:
“Other than playing for the Red Sox, becoming a fireman was just one of those childhood dream jobs that I’ve always had my heart set on doing,” he wrote. “The Army was an easy decision with my Dad having served for 27 years.”
In the desert, Kevin and his seven-man unit are first re-sponders in charge of reacting
to whatever happens on the air-field, ranging from containing chemical spills to putting out fuel fires to medical emergencies. Through it all, Kevin is thankful for his family and baseball.
“I follow Jays games and headlines on the website, and I still keep in touch with all the guys on Facebook and through email,” he wrote. “I do still feel
like part of the team. The guys all keep in touch and send me random messages just to see how I am doing out here.”
K-Bell added: “Baseball and family gets our minds off the obvious. Going out and throw-ing the ball around is a real good stress reliever. That and keeping in touch with my fam-ily since we’re not with them to help out with anything that goes on back home.”
K-Bell even brought the na-tional pastime with him to re-mind him of home.
“In coming out here, there was only so much room for per-sonal items to bring,” he wrote. “My glove and a bunch of base-balls made the trip with me. We don’t have any baseball bats, but we did manage to make our own using broomsticks.”
Kevin and the guys in his unit play baseball whenever they can. While Kevin is the only member of his unit playing ball competitively back home, he was able to recruit Joey Blais (Campton, N.H.), Rusty Che-sanek (Acworth, N.H.), Chris El-liott (Wilmington, Mass.), Mike Bellizzi (Candia, N.H.) and Ar-ron Rochette of (Ashland, N.H.) to join him for a Kandahar-take on sandlot ball.
aMaTeUR BaSeBall
BrettRudy
National pastime in AfghanistanAmateur playerkeeps game alive while serving asArmy specialistin Afghanistan
Kevin Bell (center) recruited fellow New Englanders and members of his 530th Engineer Detachment, including (from left) Joey Blais, Rusty Chesanek, Chris Elliott and Mike Bellizzi to play ball.
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Care packagesThose wishing to send care packages to Spc. Kevin Bell may ship to:SPC Kevin Bell530th EN DET (firefighters)FOB Sarkari KarezAPO AE 09313
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November-December 2011 baseballjournal.com 25
MASSACHUSETTSLEAgUE TEAM
BAmBUU New Hampshire 603’s
Baseball Clubs of Cape Cod (35+) Dugout Dawgs
Boston Amateur Baseball League (38+) Norwood Red Sox
Boston Amateur Baseball League (48+) Waltham Braves
Boston Korean Adult Baseball League Cambridge Bananas
Boston Men’s Baseball League (18+) Boston Cutters
Boston Men’s Baseball League (AL 30+) Milton Breakers
Boston Men’s Baseball League (NL 30+) Scituate Tides
Boston Men’s Baseball League (Masters) Acton Orioles
Central Mass Adult Baseball League Worcester Vipers
Central Mass Over 40 Baseball Richardson & Son Dodgers
Central New England Baseball Association Chelmsford Merchants
Cranberry League Braintree White Sox
Diamond Baseball League Brockton Reds
East Cost Amateur Baseball League Needham Phillies
Fall River Independent Baseball League Fall River Royals
Intercity League Lexington Blue Sox
Intertown Twilight League Baseball Rowley Rams
Men’s Night Baseball League Shamrocks
MetroWest ABL Triboro Cubs
North Shore Baseball League Peabody Champions
Over Thirty Baseball Red Sox
Over Thirty Baseball, Night Diamondbacks
Park League Carlson Club
Pioneer Valley Over-Thirty Baseball Dirt Dogs
Quabbin Valley Over 30 Athletics
Royal Rooters Boston Knights
South Coast Baseball League White Sox
Tri-County Baseball of Western Mass DiFranco Realty
Valley Wheel Orioles
Veteran’s League Orleans Pirates
Wakefield Twi League Baseball Loafers
Western Mass Wood Baseball League Southwick Dirt Dogs
Yawkey League Somerville Alibrandis
NEW HAMPSHIRELEAgUE TEAM
Coastal New England Baseball League Northeast Electrical A’s
Concord Sunset League Glove Works
Granite State Baseball League Lawrence Pirates
New England Legends Baseball League NH Mets
New Hampshire Baseball League Bow Falcons
Seacoast New Hampshire MSBL Cubs
Southern New Hampshire MABL Raphael Club Black Sox
CONNECTICUTLEAgUE TEAM
Bridgeport Senior City Fedell’s Mechanics
Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League Southington Shock
Connecticut North MSBL (A) Marlborough A’s
Connecticut North MSBL (B) Colchester Thunder
Fairfield County MSBL Monroe Top Hats
Greater Hartford IBL Rockville Royals
Greater Hartford Twilight League Ferguson
Housatonic Valley Baseball League Western CT Outlaws
Mohegan Sun ECML Goldy’s Restaurant
Northeast Baseball Association (38+) Thomaston Opticare Spartans
Southern CT Bridgeport NABA Bridgeport All-Stars
Tri-State Baseball League Litchfield Cowboys
Wallingford Twilight League Total Renovations
West Haven Twilight League American Steakhouse
MAINELEAgUE TEAM
Pine Tree Baseball League West Paris Westies
Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (AL 25+) Braves
Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (NL 25+) Orioles
Southern Maine Men’s Baseball League (35+) Diamondbacks
RHODE ISLANDLEAgUE TEAM
George Donnelly Sunset League Brother’s Oven
Island Baseball League Sakonnet River Royals
Rhode Island Charity Baseball DeadCat Gallery
Rhode Island Independent ABL Premium Tile
Rhode Island MSBL (22+) RI Mariners
Rhode Island MSBL (32+) RI Riptide
Rhode Island MSBL (42+) RI Salty Dogs
Rhode Island MSBL (50+) RI Red Sox
VERMONTLEAgUE TEAM
Connecticut River Valley Baseball League Saxtons River Pirates
Green Mountain League South Burlington Expos
Green Mountain MSBL Colchester Lakers
Vermont Senior Baseball League Burlington Cardinals
— COMPILED BY BRETT RUDY, BOSTON AMATEUR BASEBALL NETWORK
New England’s amateur baseball championsThere are more than 80 amateur adult baseball leagues with more than 700 teams scattered across New England. Leagues offer a broad range of competitiveness, from weekend warrior to aspiring professional. Some leagues have short and condensed schedules over the summer, while others are spread from spring to fall. Some consist of young men just starting out life on their own, while others cater to the seasoned gentleman with families of their own. The one thing they all have in common is that they are filled with athletes continuing to live the dream of playing baseball as long as they can. Provided are your 2011 league champions:
“Some nights we pull the fire truck out and put the scene lights on so we can play catch,” he wrote. “We have good games of Wiffle Ball and stickball a few nights a week. During the day, it usually doesn’t go much further than a game of catch, or throw-ing groundballs and stuff like that to each other.”
Kevin even kept up with the Boston Red Sox’ collapse.
“Unfortunately, we were able to keep up with the Sox in September. The fire inspec-tor here is from New York and a Yankees fan, so he helped us keep up with it,” Kevin joked.
Of course, the Sox and Yan-kees are both home now with their families for the holidays, as are the rest of us local ballplay-ers. I’m thankful for guys like Kevin for allowing that freedom.
Friends and family are able to send care packages to the sol-diers. It takes only about a week for packages to be delivered.
At least one company, Axis Sports, recently sent real base-ball bats to support the 530th once they heard Kevin’s story. Lou Ledoux, the founder of Axis Sports, often helps raise funds for troops and other worthy causes.
“After hearing about local guys playing baseball with broomsticks because they didn’t have baseball bats, I im-mediately cut bats for them and put their bats ahead of every order on our production schedule,” Ledoux said.
Axis Sports provided each soldier in Kevin’s unit a camou-flaged bat. On top of that, Axis is supporting the USA Military All-Star Baseball Team, and also is working on a specific type of bat that will be used by Wounded Warriors, a nonprofit that provides support to the families of those who have been wounded, injured or killed dur-ing combat operations.
Meanwhile, K-Bell expects to return home next spring.
“Neither Kaylee or Zack have made their way to Fen-way Park,” he wrote, “so hopefully next season when I’m home for good, that will be their first time. As for the Jays, I plan on being there Opening Day, ready to pitch.”
Brett Rudy is the founder of the Boston Amateur Baseball Network. He can be reached at bostonbb@bostonbaseball.com
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