>>34116602Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国 ワシミミズク
Baseball in the Republic
A sport brought from the nation of hawks, baseball became popular in the Republic to the papers a hooman reporter did on the results of the game during his breaks, generating enough interest in the Republic for him to go back and decide to become a teacher for the sport in various cities of the Republic.
Soon enough a variety of university and amateur baseball clubs formed in various places, these teams would then have games played with each other and attract audiences if it was considered a game between good teams.
The game is popular with the army and the navy too, the 2 branches will organize their own leagues and then will have their winning team face off against the other branch.
Currently there is only a single organization attempting to standarize the sport across the Republic, the "Republican Baseball Federation", their main apports have been the standarization of the ball shape and bats used, and the standarization of a good playing field. Wooden bats are in use and the current ball has 108 stitches on the cowhide leather, used to cover the core made of cork and made to weight about 150 grams.
Thanks to the efforts of the RBF a few factories have popped up that do game materials to the standards established, cheapening their price heavily, as before the factories it was quite expensive.
Game reports get checked into the library by a few aficionados of the sport working under the RBF.
The game gets played by children and adults everywhere in the Republic, tipically with handmade balls and wooden bats. Access to regulation balls is still too expensive to spread to the common population. But the wooden bats can be well carved by local lumberjacks.
Due to the grassroots nature of the RBF they often enlist the aid of local aficionados that enjoy the sport to have everything marked down, and invite clubs to help discuss official rules and techniques. This has made some in the RBF dream of a future where everybody can enjoy the sport at a truly professional level, such dreams are still far away thought.
