RANDBURG, South Africa -- On May Day, the Monday after Mpho' Gift Ngoepe had become the first African-born player in Major League Baseball history, the clubhouse of the amateur Randburg Mets was full of chatter. Players, coaches and parents from the team, which he called and still calls home, lolled about on the deck in postplay relief. An older lady power-walked laps around the 10 floodlight pylons. A long-eared spaniel, looking guilty and lost, watched her. Two kids kicked a rugby ball to each other on the outfield. It was a bright, sunny, autumn Johannesburg day.
For history-making Pirates rookie Gift Ngoepe, clubhouse is home
