Pure Ecuadoriana

It has been 11 years since I played a game of organized baseball. For me, spring doesn’t even start until the red, white, and blue blunting has been draped over the dugout fences of Kaline Field in Franklin, Michigan, signifying Opening Day for Franklin Baseball Little League.

You have the village green, the gazebo, the church, the ground-rule-home-run-hill in the background.

That is what I like to call “pure Americana.”

Sunday morning, I got to experience the Ecuadorian equivalent — the opening day of the local soccer league.

It was a lazy little Sunday. I woke up without an alarm clock at 8:00 a.m. and went into the living room/dining room/family room (it’s all the same room in my house) to see what was going on. Breakfast was being made (and my assistance wasn’t required), so I sat down at the table and started reading this week’s New York Times Magazine articles about Allonzo Trier and the Sandanistas (I copied and paste them onto my flash drive on Saturday).

At about 9:00, the music started pumping from the soccer field. Festivities were supposed to begin at 9:00 but things down here operate on the Hora Ecuatoriana, so we figured it wouldn’t start until about 9:30, which is when we walked down to the pitch.

On the road in my town—I would call it the main road but there really aren’t any other roads, so the road is enough to distinguish it from everything that is not a road), all 21 of the teams in the local soccer league lined up for the opening-day parade.

At the front of each team was a girl/woman dressed in either very traditional clothing or modern—but very modest—apparel. These are the madrinas and they lead the team through the parade. The madrinas wear a sash with the name of the team they represent. There is a beauty pageant involving the madrinas that occurs during the parade. I don’t really know how it’s judged (more on this later).

We walked down to the field and took a seat near midfield, but not at midfield (this area is reserved for the president of the community and other local politicians). The entire community turns out for this event so my sister and brother dressed up for the occasion. I, on the other hand, didn’t. But it was fun to see everybody come together for this. I guess the main difference between this league and opening day of little league in the states is that people of all ages play in this league.