The clubhouse was Gift Ngoepe’s home, an equipment storeroom his bedroom. The field, where the beginnings of his road to baseball history started, was his backyard.
Never mind that Ngoepe’s field of dreams was a bit patchy. Never mind that there was no home run fence. And never mind that the Randburg Mets’ park is hidden away on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, where baseball is as obscure a sport as you could imagine.
”I rolled out of bed and was on first base,” said Ngoepe, now an infielder with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ngoepe made history last month when he ran out for Pittsburgh against the Chicago Cubs, the first African to play Major League Baseball.