If the Greek baseball team shines Sunday in its Olympic opener against the Netherlands, fans of the home team will owe a debt of gratitude to Chicago.
In its first Olympic appearance, Greece is depending on the infield play of a Kane County Cougar, the coaching of a White Sox scout, the relief pitching of a minor-leaguer from Niles and the veteran leadership of a former Cub who owns batting cages on the Southwest Side.
On its face, Greek baseball makes about as much sense as Jamaican bobsled. Indeed, the only baseball diamond in the country just a few years ago was on the U.S. military base in the coastal suburbs of Athens.
But don’t expect the Greek team to crash like Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards at the bottom of an Olympic ski-jump hill. Thanks to contributions from Americans of Greek descent, most of whom speak practically no Greek and had not been to Greece before wearing the country’s uniform, the team may contend for a medal.
The host country of each Olympics is entitled to field a representative in every sport, even if the hosts hardly play the game. After Greece was awarded the 2004 Games, Orioles owner Peter Angelos, a Greek-American, began talks with Nicholas Burns, then the U.S. ambassador to Greece and a rabid Red Sox fan. That led to the creation of a Greek team with a decidedly American flavor.
“We want to make Greece the capital of baseball in Europe,” said Angelos’ son, Louis.
Rob Derksen, who died unexpectedly in June of a heart attack at 44, was recruited as the coach. He scoured rosters of big and small teams across North America for players with jawbreaker Greek surnames. Ads went out calling for Greek-Americans and Greek-Canadians with gloves to contact the Orioles if they wanted to become Olympians.
Vasili Spanos, a 23-year-old third baseman from River Forest, and Peter Rasmusen, who grew up in McHenry County, were impressive during a workout at Oak Park High School.
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Now Spanos is taking a break from his regular job with the Kane County Cougars to play for his parents’ native land.
Rasmusen, 23, is a utility player on loan from a minor-league club in the Brewers’ system.
For the Greek team’s coaches and players, representing their ancestral homeland has been about cultural enrichment as well as athletic competition.
“I really wasn’t a practicing Greek” before joining the country’s baseball program, said Erik Pappas, who owns Baseball Alley in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood.
Growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood of Chicago, Pappas considered himself more American than Greek. His Greek experience was limited to Orthodox Easter and his temperamental, cheek-grabbing immigrant aunts and uncles.
Pappas played 104 games in the majors–seven with the Cubs in 1991 and the rest with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1993 and ’94. He had been retired for five years when Derksen contacted him three years ago.
Greek baseball at the time was only slightly more competitive than Pony League ball, but Pappas hopes to increase the sport’s popularity.
“They had just started,” said Pappas, 38. “That’s why we’re here, to show them how we do it and hope that the 5-year-old Greek kids embrace baseball.”
The Olympic ballfield looks like a very nice minor-league stadium. With arid hills visible over the outfield fence and the southern European sun beating down, life at the Helliniko Olympic Complex can pass for spring training in Arizona.
The team does not expect to be an also-ran. Greece finished second in last year’s European championship tournament, as Pappas hit .490. Teams with native-born players had struggled.
The Greek Olympic team will rely heavily on Pappas’ veteran leadership and strong play at first base, said John Kazanas, the team’s Greek-American pitching coach and a White Sox scout based in Phoenix.
The team’s closer will be Pete Sikaras, 25, of Niles. He played at St. Francis and is in the Diamondbacks’ organization.
Although Kazanas does not speak Greek, he said he knows the culture thanks to his experience as an altar boy at a Greek Orthodox parish in St. Louis.”I can do the `Pater Imon’ (Lord’s Prayer) with the best of them here,” he said, cracking a smile.
A cousin who recognized his surname in a Greek newspaper and knew him to be a relative introduced himself to Kazanas at a Greek practice recently.
It remains to be seen whether the Greek-American Olympians also can bring an appreciation for baseball to their long-lost cousins and their other soccer-mad compatriots.