If you run a basic internet search for the history of baseball in South Africa, you'll find a few articles that start with the game's appearance in 1895 and then quickly jump ahead to the 2000 Olympics. To discover what happened during the century in between requires some digging. You must dig past the greater popularity of "the big three" (soccer, cricket and rugby); past the absence of head-line grabbing superstars in the likeness of Babe Ruth or Willie Mays; and down deep through the decades of segregation and discrimination that conceal a large part of the story. If you dig deep enough, you'll eventually unearth a treasure chest full of the surprising and curious events that led to the unlikely rise of baseball far away from its native land.
