In the rugged terrain of the eastern Himalayas lies the small, landlocked nation of Bhutan. It is one of the most remote countries in the world. The country exports very little, and it imports very little as well. Most of Bhutan’s citizens live in small villages scattered throughout the rugged region. When you envision the Great American Pastime, it’s unlikely that Bhutan’s landscape and isolation come to mind. (The generation before you probably just thought of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and maybe even Chevrolet.)
Despite having little opportunity to watch live sports, Bhutan’s residents have fallen in love with the game of baseball. They’ve made it the nation’s fastest-growing sport. Only about 770,000 people live in Bhutan, but already thousands of kids want to pitch, swing, and run the bases.
Major League Baseball interviewed the man who initially brought baseball to Bhutan. Matthew DeSantis is co-founder and chairman of the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association. He moved to Bhutan after a three-week visit. Shortly after settling there, he met Karma Dorji, who is now the president of the Bhutan Baseball Association. Both men had a mutual desire to make sports accessible to the children of Bhutan. Both also love baseball.
One big challenge was finding space for a baseball diamond in the highest mountains on the planet. Bhutan doesn’t have the seemingly endless open fields of the American continent for kids to gather on. But DeSantis and Dorji came up with a plan to make the area they had work for the sport: They would use a large concrete slab.
The men invited any youth who wanted to play to weekend clinics. The kids didn’t care that they were playing on concrete. It didn’t even matter that many had never seen a live game. They just wanted to play the beloved game. What started with about 50 kids quickly grew to a few hundred. Soon the new baseball lovers were creating their own teams.
Major League Baseball reported that DeSantis has constant requests from kids across Bhutan seeking to join in on the fun. Currently, the Bhutan Baseball and Softball Association has reached six of Bhutan’s 20 districts. The president of the baseball association, Ramon Riesgo, is working to expand that and reach all districts.
While Riesgo continues to work on the logistics of growing the sport, DeSantis and Dorji say they’ll keep showing up for kids—as long as they want to play.
Why? God created us to move and play and enjoy community with others. Sharing sports with others is just one way we do that.
For more about baseball, see Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki in our Recommended Reading.
