The Emerald Diamond
The story of Ireland’s National Baseball Team
Thanks to IrishCentral.com
“The Emerald Diamond” is a 90-minute documentary about the Irish National Baseball Team. The film’s budget of $70,000 was financed on credit cards by first-time filmmaker John Fitzgerald.
Baseball has been played in Ireland since the early 1990s. The Irish National Team made its debut in the 1996 European Championships in England. Today, baseball is played throughout the country – the National Team is based in Dublin and youth baseball is played in Cork, Kerry, Port Stewart and Greystones.
The film debuted to a sold out crowd in New York on February 25, 2006 and has been seen in over 20 theaters across the country since then. It has been featured by The New York Times, New York Post, FoxNews, USA Today, Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio. The Emerald Diamond is now available on DVD.
Peanuts GM Keith Michlig explains the recent history of pro baseball in Albany, GA. Some notable MLB players have called Albany home in recent years, including Cliff Floyd and Vladimir Guerrero:
According to Wikipedia: “It was the former home of the Albany Polecats, the Albany Alligators and the South Georgia Waves before the team moved to Columbus, Georgia to become the Columbus Catfish. The complex was known as ‘Polecat Park’ when the Polecats team played there.
The Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-female professional baseball team, played a number of games at the complex as a “home team” in the 1995 and 1996 seasons.”
“The Emerald Diamond” is a 90-minute documentary about the Irish National Baseball Team. The film was produced and directed by John Fitzgerald (Playing for Peanuts).
Baseball has been played in Ireland since the early 1990s. The Irish National Team made its debut in the 1996 European Championships in England. Today, baseball is played throughout the country – the National Team is based in Dublin and youth baseball is played in Cork, Kerry, Port Stewart and Greystones.
“The Emerald Diamond” debuted to a sold out crowd in New York on February 25, 2006 and has been seen in over 20 theaters across the country since then. It has been featured by The New York Times, New York Post, FoxNews, USA Today, Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio. The Emerald Diamond is now available on DVD.
Important Timecodes in this video:
0:00 – American Mike Kindle sees an Irish Softball Association bumpersticker while walking through Dublin in the early 1990s. The seeds for the Irish National Team is planted.
1:00 – Kindle assembles a ragtag group of Irish natives and American expatriates with little or no baseball experience. They teach themselves the rules and play on rugby and soccer fields in the rain. They have no uniforms and very little equipment.
4:00 – Ireland competes in the 1996 European Championships where they will be destroyed by teams with sketchy baseball pedigrees, including the Czech Republic,Norway, Poland and Lithuania.
6:00 – The first hit in Irish National Team history was by Gus Hernandez – a Mexican who gained Irish citizenship by marrying an Irish woman. Hernandez is immediately picked off first base and the Irish lose their first game by a score of 23-2.
11:30 – Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the first real baseball fields in Ireland.
18:00 – The Irish head to the European Championships with a new player from New York. The team loses all of its luggage during a connecting flight. They appear at the Opening Ceremonies in T-shirts and shorts.
24:30 – After losing their first 3 games at the 2000 Euros, the Irish get drunk at the field the night before a game. They somehow win the next morning’s game, their only victory of the tournament.
30:15 – The Irish National Team visits Fenway Park for an exhibition game against a local amateur team.
31:40 – A group of Cubans defects to Ireland and finds their way to the baseball fields that were built by Peter O’Malley.
35:35 – A look at baseball in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including a story about how Kindle and his Irish teammates accidentally drove into a Protestant parade and were interrogated by the police for being in the wrong place in uniforms with weapons (baseball bats).
41:00 – A group of Americans try to teach baseball to Irish kids in County Cork and Dublin.
This batch of clips focuses on the first week of the season.
Getaway Rooms in Anderson, SC
Following their 3-game series against the Anderson Joes, the Peanuts returned to their hotel in uniform to shower and change for the bus trip back to Albany, GA. The entire team had four “Getaway Rooms” to shower and change:
This batch of clips focuses on the Peanuts first series of the season.
The team faced the Charlotte County Redfish in Port Charlotte, Florida. The first game was marred by several problems – beginning with a skydiver crashing beyond the outfield fence while attempting to deliver the game ball:
The problems didn’t end there. During the game, the light stanchion in left field lost power:
After the game, a few guys from the team went out to a local bar and played a bizarre game called The Lobster Claw:
Later on, infielder Steve Butler and pitcher Mike Colacchio sang karaoke:
And here is Playing for Peanuts 4.2, sponsored by HittersInc. Visit HittersInc.com and use coupon code “PEANUTS” at checkout for a 10% discount on your order.
Playing for Peanuts is sponsored in part by Most Valuable Network – a leading website for sports blogs and discussion for all major pro teams. Check them out at MVN.com. Thanks again for your interest and support.
