LAPTA, KNOWN AS BASEBALL, IS PLAYED ROUND THE WORLD

If one is to believe written sources dating from Old Rus’, both the nobility and common folk favored a ball game called lapta (rounders in England, also known as the Russian ball game). The years passed and everything foreign became fashionable. Just as we were successfully forgetting our national cultural heritage a sports game emerged in the United States which strikingly resembled lapta (maybe brought by emigres). The first baseball match was played in New York in 1820. Before long the sport spread to other continents.

Baseball came to Ukraine eleven years ago. Among its pioneers was former hockey player Mykola Hrebenshchykov who put together a baseball team in Kyiv which would become quite successful, winning four gold, two silver, and one bronze medals in the national championships, three times vying in the Ukrainian Cup finals, and getting the Cup in 1994. Added to the team’s kudos are a number of international trophies, among them the 1993 European Baseball Association Cup.