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Pesäpallo, the Finnish baseball, arrives at Futbol Salou
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Pesäpallo, the Finnish baseball, arrives at Futbol Salou
13.04.2022

How did pesäpallo come about?

Lauri Pihkala (1888 – 1981) was a Finnish Olympic athlete who traveled to the United States, where he was introduced to baseball and its great popularity. In the 1920s, inspired by the American baseball, the Finnish version was invented. How? He adapted a traditional Finnish game played with a ball called a kingball, whose practice seemed to be going backwards. From the desire to preserve the traditional, but modernizing it at the same time, the pesäpallo was born.

How is pesäpallo played?

There are several differences between American baseball and pesäpallo:

  • To begin with, the ball is thrown vertically, not horizontally as in baseball.
  • The field of play is slightly different, there is more distance between the bases and they are covered in a zig-zag.
  • When the batter hits the ball, it must first bounce inside the playing area, so the famous home-runs of American baseball, in the pesäpallo, would be a foul.
  • To score a run, after hitting the ball inside the area, you have to run through all three bases and return to the starting point.

How many official teams play pesäpallo?

The Finnish pesäpallo league is called 'Superpesis' and consists of 12 women's and 13 men's teams. Despite being a minority sport, pesäpallo has a large following in Finland.

Logically, the vast majority of the existing teams play within the country, but there are also some in Sweden, Australia and India, where some tournaments and championships have been held.

pesapallo

Preparing the new season of pesäpallo  in Futbol Salou SC

At Futbol Salou Sports Center we have hosted, for the first time, a stage of this sport. We have been visited by the women's team, Jyväskylän Kirittäret, and the men's team, Kempele Kiri, both with the aim of preparing for the new season of the Superpesis league, which is played in the summer.

Sussane Ojaniemi, captain of the Jyväskylän Kirittäret team, emphasizes that pesäpallo is special because it requires mastering many skills at the same time:

There are many things that we have to master at the same time: running, batting, throwing the ball and understanding the whole game.

Last season her team finished second, so the only goal is to win the league this year. Aware that it is a minority sport, Sussane Ojaniemi believes that pesäpallo has a lot of room for growth: “I think it could be much more popular. It is trying to be promoted, but I don't understand why it is still not as famous as other sports."

On the other hand, the experience of the team in our facilities could not be more positive:

The stage has been great. I have been to Spain eight times to train pesäpallo, but these are the best facilities we have visited because everything works perfectly; the accommodations at Cambrils Park Sport Village are very nice, the food is good, and the whole organization has been easy for us.

We hope to receive the pesäpallo again in Futbol Salou very soon!