Baseball Bats Draw Sell-out Crowds in Turkey

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sabah Newspaper, 6 December 2019)



Louisville Slugger and Rawlings have an eye on the Turkish
market.

Baseball bats are used, other than intended on the field, as weapons on
the street.  The merciless beating of a taxi driver with a bat in Bolu the
day before yesterday has sparked a discussion.  So a Sabah reporter
went to places that sell baseball bats and looked into the matter.

It turns out that the demand for KOMA (Kişisel Olaylara Müdahale
Aracı/Means for Intervening in Personal Incidents), the euphemistic
name among the populace for 'self-defense' weapons like this, is quite
high.  The bats are sold with names like 'agrı kesici' (pain killer), 'sela
okutur' (funeral eulogy), 'kas gevşeteci' (muscle relaxer), 'ateş
düşürücü (fever-reducer), 'cennetlik' (heaven-deserving) and 'kemik
kırıcı' (bone breaker).  (!)


                               KOMA among friends.

When the baseball bat sellers are asked "is baseball so popular in
Turkey?" they answer with a grin, saying "some guys play baseball
with them differently."  In Istanbul, over the course of a year, 8 percent
of beating incidents involved baseball bats, which are sold at street
markets and over the internet with no supervision.  The prices for the
bats, which are either made of wood or aluminum, range from 20 to
100 TL ($3 to $18). 

One internet sales pitch for baseball bats reads as follows: "Don't think
of it as an ordinary bat, think of it as a multi-purpose instrument." (!)
Nevertheless, despite the popularity of baseball bats throughout Turkey,
the Turkey Rugby Federation has been unable to find enough baseball
players for its baseball league.


                  ...only the rules are a bit different.