photography and words: joseph swide

On a gray, oppressively muggy Saturday afternoon in a far corner of FDR Park in South Philadelphia, fourteen teenagers from the Allen V.R. Stanley School, a boarding school in Kampala, Uganda, stand in the right field grass of a pristine baseball field. A coach in the infield hits a mix of fly balls and bouncing line drives for each player to field in quick succession. Behind a chain link fence along the right field line that separates the field from the elevated Delaware Expressway, a scout for another Major League team, dressed like an undercover cop in baseball turf shoes, records the drills on his iPhone.

Various photographers and an independent filmmaker document the moment, and a small Phillies TV crew waits to conduct interviews after the drills conclude. The occasion is the first ever visit to America by a Ugandan high school baseball team comprised mostly of 15-16 year olds, a team that essentially doubles as the Ugandan national baseball team. They’re also very possibly the best baseball team in Africa.

This afternoon, they’re taking on one of the Phillies U16 RBI Baseball teams. Uganda puts up six runs in the top of the first, batting all the way through their lineup and back again. After quickly retiring the Phillies’ side in the bottom half, they add two more runs in the top of the second. The game has clearly become a rout.

Pitcher Joshua Muwanguzi enters at the bottom of the second. He’s a baby-faced fourteen-year-old who can’t be much taller than 5’5”. Muwanguzi is both the smallest and youngest player on the Ugandan roster. He spends most of the games sitting quietly in the corner of the dugout, carefully managing the scorebook. He works his inning at the mound efficiently, relying more on guile than velocity, and returns to the dugout with another scoreless frame on the scoreboard. As he reclaims his seat and scorebook, his analysis is cold and plain.

“I think those guys are just scared,” says Muwanguzi. “Just because of the confidence we have. I think they heard about us.”

Uganda would go on to win by a score of 16-2.