Ryan's Blog: First Baseball Game Abroad

Panama is a country that embraces baseball. When I walk down my road into town in the late afternoons, I see several neighborhood games being played. I've always been a fan of baseball, so it seemed natural to adopt a new favorite team, The Chiriqui Toros!

On Friday, Jason, Cesar, Ana, and I took the chicken bus down and met up with Rob at the game in David against Panama Centro. We arrived without tickets and bought 1st baseline seats for $3 each. I was hungry, so I bought a hamburger for $1. The game was scheduled to begin at 7:30pm, so we arrived early to get good seats. Arriving early was entirely unnecessary seeing as they introduced the Little League team, then the top-ranked female Panamanian boxer, then had a seemingly lengthy National Anthem, and at the end of all of that, there was still plenty of available seating (concrete benches arranged coliseum style).

Unlike games in the US, the beverage handlers are lined up along the inside of the field line fence. When you are ready for a beer for example, you simply show in fingers how many you would like, and they bring them to you...$1 each.

I was hungry again so I ordered what looked like a shish kabob for $2. The two Panamanians I was with laughed when I came back with it and thought it was disgusting claiming I was eating dog or cat. I called BS and enjoyed my meal...but all the chewing in the world was not going to get the meat portion of the kabob down. I swallowed a piece a little too big and almost choked...J helped smack it out of me.

Unfortunately, we had to leave at the bottom of the 4th to catch the bus back to Boquete. Our team was down 4 to 1. Two hours later, I received a call from Rob informing me our team rallied in the 7th and won the game. I plan on attending many more of the games this year! If you've ever watched the series "Eastbound and Down" it's not far off, except the Toros are much better of a team.

On the bus.