Philly To Welcome Russians With, Uh, Vodka

Hey, guess who’s in town later this week! The Russian national baseball team! And guess who they’re playing! An adult men’s softball baseball team from Philly! And… oh, just read the item from Inqlings.

Russia’s national baseball team, on a U.S. tour as it preps for the Beijing Olympics, will visit Friday to play a 1 p.m. game against the Greater Philadelphia Men’s Adult Baseball League Stars at La Salle University. Two players are from Philly’s sister city of Nizhny Novgorod, so the International Visitors Council of Philadelphia will extend an official welcome. Golden Gate restaurant in the Northeast will host a postgame dinner, and the IVC seeks a “vodka sponsor” to donate 45 bottles. Tax-deductible, says the IVC’s Nancy Gilboy.

Need I remind you that we, America, inventors of base ball, did not qualify for the most recent Olympics, though we’ve apparently qualified for 2008 in Beijing. The team attributed its success to having the right whiskey sponsor.

Also, forty-five bottles? Each player in this game is going to get his own bottle.

Update, 1:07 p.m.: From the Craigslist casual encounters post titled “some cock from the soviet block”: “We are a group of russian guys on a mission to convert as many women as possible to the red side. If interested, send a pic!!! The rockets are up and ready for lift off.” One can only assume these are the same people.

Talking sports [Inquirer, down the page]