Hitting a small ball with a thin round plank of wood, at a distance of just over 18 metres and a reaction time of around half a second, is hard enough at the best of times.
Then factor in everything else the batters on the main diamond at the Dubai Little League have to deal with.
The city’s baseball community have their home down an unmade road, between the junction of Al Khail Road and Meydan Street, and Al Quoz Pond Park. That might not sound especially salubrious, but few sports venues anywhere can match these views.
As the sun sets on their evening matches, the lights of Business Bay and Downtown Dubai take hold behind the pitcher’s arm. The Burj Khalifa pierces the sky above the mesh of the batter’s eye screen. Such a striking backdrop must be distracting.
And on Friday evening, the players in the blue Dodgers shirts – the Los Angeles MLB franchise of the same name sponsor this league 13,000kms away, and provide playing kit – had one more factor to contend with.
Some of the batters might have been forgiven for being a little misty eyed. The times are running out that they will get to play with their sons, before packing them off for further studies Stateside during the next academic year.
The regular season ended a couple of weeks ago, but matches will continue through the summer, no matter the rising temperatures.
This match pitted the Senior Boys All-Stars – so some of the top age-group players from the 400 or so youth members of in the league – and their equivalents drawn for the 47 players involved in men’s competition.
In some cases, it amounted to Lads v Dads. And the Dads never stood a chance.
The teenagers beat their seniors 10-5. The dominance of the youngsters was perhaps understandable given that three of them are bound for college baseball scholarships in North America later this year.
Each are left-handed pitchers. They only required one of them to see off the Men’s All-Stars.
By the time Ollie Duthie took a break from pitching, the Boys team had built up a 10-1 lead. It meant Jack Chapleski and Mattia Sparacino could rest their shoulders for the bigger tests to follow, and focus on batting instead.
“The men are better hitters, but they still kill us,” Roger Duthie, the DLL president and second baseman for the Men’s All-Stars, said of the duel between youth and experience.
Duthie himself failed to score off his son. Not for the first time, he says.
“I can’t hit Ollie anymore,” Duthie Sr said. “Probably in the past two years he has started getting a little too fast, a little too good, and puffing his chest out a little bit. Now, there is no chance for me.
“He is getting better, but I’m getting older and slower. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He has done incredibly.”
The fathers of the other two pitchers had a watching brief, with Mark Chapleski coaching the boys’ side, and Gianluca Sparacino helping out, too.
While Duthie Jr is bound for college in Canada, Jack will be heading to Massachusetts, and Mattia to California.
“It is weird for me because I have already lived in four countries, but this is going to be a lot different to the last times [he moved],” Mattia said.
“This time has been for seven years, which is a lot longer. Each time I leave, even if it is just for summer, I can’t get over Dubai as a place.
“You never really understand that till you have lived here. I am a bit worried about that, but I am also looking forward to a new journey.”
Graduating from a baseball backwater to playing college baseball in the most competitive country is going to be quite a leap for the trio.
According to James Collette, the catcher for the Men’s All-Star side who has helped develop their game in Dubai, they have the raw talent to do well.
“What’s interesting about these guys is they are quite unpolished,” Collette said.
“At the level they are at now, they will be able to go off with an intensive programme that will soften off the edges.
“These guys have been picked up somewhat unrefined. They still have work to do, but they also won’t have as much wear and tear on their bodies.
“They have managed to get themselves to a level where they have been recruited, and they are getting looks from Stateside which, being in this part of the world, is already hard enough as it is.
“They are at a level where people see potential and promise in them, even though they are really just getting started in their development.
“Their potential to go on to even better things is quite high, and it’s an interesting situation.”
