Brakpan’s baseball boykie
The experienced player encouraged local baseball fans to come down to Boksburg and catch a glimpse of South Africa’s top players in action.
Brenthurst baseball player Hein Robb is an experienced man on the baseball diamond.
In fact, he was signed by the Minnesota Twins organisation in the United States of America as a teenager in 2008 and played baseball professionally around that country for seven years in minor league teams.
The now 27-year-old, who was a learner at the Afrikaanse Hoërskool Germiston, put pen to paper at the age of 16 and enjoyed an eventful time in the States, where he was a revered left-handed pitcher.
Now, due to a torn shoulder from the countless hours of pitching over the years, the Brakpan baseball player can be found at first base rather than on the pitching mound.
“I tore my shoulder there in the States and had to become a first baseman,” he told the Herald.
“It has been a bit of an adjustment for me as I am not in control of the game anymore, but I am enjoying it.”
Even though he is no longer a professional, his enjoyment of the sport is still evident.
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Robb will soon don national colours again when South Africa hosts the African Baseball Olympic Pre-Qualifiers Zone South regional tournament from April 27 to 29 at the Boksburg Stadium, where the heavily favoured hosts will face the national teams of Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
The best two from Zone South will move on to play the Africa Cup from May 1 to 5 (also in Boksburg) against the top two from zones West and East.
There are a total of three regional tournaments across Africa with nine participating teams.
Six of those teams will qualify for the Africa Cup and the winner of the Africa Cup will become the first-ever African baseball champions and will advance to the Europe-Africa Olympic Qualifier, to be staged in Parma and Bologna, Italy, from September 18 to 22.
This final tournament will qualify the winner for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, while the runner-up will advance to the final qualifier to be played in Chinese Taipei in early 2020.
Although the South Africans are obvious favourites to topple Lesotho and Zimbabwe, Robb is unsure what to expect from their southern African neighbours.
“We don’t know what we are coming up against as we haven’t seen them play before,” said Robb. “It will be interesting to see what they bring.
“We have to win the Olympic qualifiers.
“It would be a massive achievement for South African baseball to get to the Olympics and for us to play against the best of the best,” he added.
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