Lithuanian Youth Baseball Team Headed to South Florida To Play Ball For the first time ever, Lithuania, the country known for its basketball stars, will send U15-17 Boys and U18 Youth Baseball teams to the “WORLD COMES to the Palm Beaches” International Baseball Tournament. The Lithuania Community of South Florida and Sauletas Krantas Lithuanian School will host a welcome reception for the team on Sunday, November 4 at 5 PM at Sauletas Krantas Lithuanian School, 2929 S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach, Florida. The public is invited. To attend
[email protected] Photo Courtesy Pittsburgh Pirates/MLB MLB Pitcher Dovydas Neverauskas to celebrate with team Joining the event will be Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, Dovydas Neverauskas, the first MLB player to be born and raised in Lithuania. More than 700,000 Lithuanian-Americans live in the United States, many in South Florida who will be waiving the Lithuanian flag and welcoming their team and first MLB player at the reception on November 4th. Some History The relationship between the United States and Lithuania is one of friendship, open communication and support. A country in Europe roughly the size of West Virginia with a population of 3 million people, Lithuania was introduced to basketball and baseball in the late 1920s. Perhaps because winters in Lithuania are cold and snowy, it was basketball, a sport played mostly indoors, which initially captured the country’s imagination and brought Olympic and NBA fame to the country. Years later, in 1987 Virmidas Neverauskas, considered a pioneer of baseball in Lithuania, learned that Cuban students were studying and playing baseball in Leningrad, now St.