and JORDAN GILL Yogi Berra famously said of baseball, "It ain't over `til it's over." Well, I can now report, with somewhat mixed feelings, that the inaugural season of the Bulgarian American Little League (BALL) is officially over. In the week starting August 2, the BALL all-star team, made up of three Americans and nine Bulgarians aged 11 to12, represented Bulgaria in the European Little League Championship Tournament in Kutno, Poland, competing for the right to represent Europe in the world championship tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The mixed feelings mentioned above include the following; relief to be back in Sofia after 72 gruelling hours on the road in a VW van during our trip to and from Poland, satisfaction at watching the boys exceed all expectations by qualifying for the quarterfinals, and an overall feeling of contentment at being part of an unexpectedly enjoyable experience not quite like any I have had before. The tournament is much more than a baseball competition. While we all loved the baseball, many of my memories centre around friends made from the other 10 competing countries, from Scotland to Romania to Kazakhstan. In between games, the kids spent much of their time trading pins, playing ping pong or soccer, and getting to know other kids their ages from countries most had never been to, and perhaps hadn't even heard of. In fact, the majority of our team had never been out of Bulgaria before. Following are some impressions my 12-year old-son Jordan recorded during our two week adventure. Day 1. We left Sofia this morning at 5.30am. Most of the Bulgarians had never been out of the country before. One kid, Evgeni, was really excited to see the first stamp in his passport. In Serbia there is a lot of traffic and many detours - it is only 3pm in the afternoon and it already feels like a long trip. Day 2. Our 24-hour trip turned into 48. My dad's van had problems with the transmission in Serbia, and we had to stay up all night getting it fixed. We finally got to Kutno at 4am. The place is great. We have one big room with 14 bunks for the team, and the coaches have their own room right next to ours. Downstairs are the Scottish team and the team from Moldova. Day 3. We beat Scotland tonight, 18-1. Part of Little League is being good sports, so after we were ahead 12-1 the coaches told us to just swing at everything, so we wouldn't score so many runs. We didn't want to make the Scottish team feel too bad. It was great winning our first game. Day 4. Today we played France. Before the game, we all felt like we would win. They beat us however, 13-2. They were all nice kids though, and we all had fun. Later, as we walked through the town centre, eating ice cream and looking at our pictures from the game the day before, I thought how I could live this way for years. Playing my favorite sport every day, meeting other 12-year-olds from all these different countries, talking with and getting to know them, and enjoying every minute of it. One thing that has been hard for me is being in one room with so many other kids. Some of them are really wild and loud, and won't go to sleep at night even after the coaches turn the lights out. I have four brothers and a sister at home, but that's nothing compared to this. Day 6. We beat Slovenia yesterday. My brother Jeremi hit a home run out of the park, and got to keep the ball. Today we had our most important game - against Moldova. We had to beat them to make the quarterfinals. By the final inning we were ahead 9-8, but they loaded the bases with no outs. It didn't look good. But we got two strikeouts, and then a pop fly out to Jeremi, and the game was over. We are now 3-1 and headed to the playoffs! Day 7. The team from Holland is amazing. They have one boy, Quentin, who is over six feet tall (1.8 m) and weighs about 240 pounds (109 kg). And he is only 11! He throws the ball so hard I could barely see it. I had to start swinging right when he let go of the ball. But I still struck out. Even though we lost to Holland, I had a good day trading pins with other players. All the umpires and lots of the teams come with pins and other stuff to trade. After games, all the players get together and try to trade for interesting stuff from other countries. One kid from our team, Eric, is the trading champion. He has got tons of pins and coins and even a T-Shirt. Day 8. Our playoff game with Lithuania was today. I had a really good game finally - a triple, double and a single - but we lost 14-9. Lithuania goes on to the semifinals, while we now will play "friendlies" with other teams. Day 9. Disco night tonight! Everybody is really excited. Slavi spent almost an hour gelling and spiking his hair so it looked like a porcupine. In spite of all that time getting ready, at the disco all he did was sit and watch all the Polish girls dance. The only ones who got out and danced were the French boys. I got bored and went up stairs to drink a Coke with my dad. Day 10. I forgot to write about the umpires. They all pay their own way over here and come just because they love to do it. My favorite was an umpire named Jonathan Michael Sucher, from California. We became friends and had a lot of good talks. Everybody liked it when the umpires would lead the crowd in the YMCA dance after each game. They made things a lot of fun. Day 11. We packed up and got in the car today to head back to Sofia. It seems like we just got here yesterday. The best part was making some new friends from Scotland, Austria, Holland and Kazakhstan - and of course getting to play so much baseball. I'll never forget these two weeks. I hope I get to come back with the Bulgarian team again next year! So, the first season of the Bulgarian American Little League is over. I don't know who had more fun; the 150 kids who played this year, or the coaches and parents and everyone else who made it such a great time. But even though the season is over, things are just beginning. BALL will be back again next year.