Major league baseball scout Jim Pransky has spent the past 15 years searching the United States for baseball talent, finding it in places such as California, Texas, Illinois and Florida.

Now, his search has gone overseas.

“A few years ago I was surfing the Web looking for information on Lithuania,” the 50-year-old Davenport resident with Lithuanian roots said.

“I found a Web site on Lithuanian baseball (www.beisbolas.lt) that had an e-mail address and sent a note introducing myself. Literally in                       5 minutes, it was responded to and a correspondence began with officials of the Lithuanian Baseball Federation. Next thing I know, my wife (Grace) and I were planning a trip to the country.”

Pransky, whose Lithuanian name of Pranskunas was changed by his grandfather upon arriving in the United States after World War II, traveled to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in the winter of 2004. There he was welcomed as a returning son, meeting family members and members of the fledgling baseball federation. He soon had set up several indoor baseball clinics in Kaunas, Vilnius and Utena for players of all age groups. He also invited players to visit him at his indoor training center, Sandlot Baseball Center in Moline, that he owns and operates to help train young players during the offseason.

“This has really been a way to get back in touch with my roots,” he said. “I can remember going to my grandmother’s house and not understanding the language. Ironically, we found a cousin over there that we got to meet on our visit.”

Pransky said the baseball federation was also just as excited to discover he had Lithuanian roots.

“It’s been wonderful,” he said. “They treated both my wife and I like royalty. It was nice representing America, but it was more meaningful to them knowing I was Lithuanian.”

Games’ popularity grows

His American baseball roots were also an interest to many of the young Lithuanian ballplayers looking to expand their knowledge, training and experience in the game. Although baseball had been played in Lithuania before the breakup of the Soviet Union, it’s officially been Lithuania’s game only since 1991. However, baseball has been played in one form or another in Lithuania since 1926. Since 1991, the game steadily has grown in popularity.

“This is a very good game, and the training here has been good for all our players in Lithuania,” said Virmidas Neverauskas, the coach and chaperone of the group of three players that were in the Quad-Cities for the past two weeks training at Sandlot Baseball Center.

“The techniques learned here will be shared back in Lithuania and will go far to help baseball become more popular back home,” Neverauskas said.

Neverauskas has played baseball in Lithuania for 18 years, and he also coaches seven youth teams in Vilnius. He escorted three teenagers from those teams to Pransky’s center to train. Dovydas Neverauskas, his 13-year-old son, Edvardas Matusevicius, 14, and Azuolas Jasinskas, 15, were handpicked to attend this year’s training sessions.

They stayed with Pransky and his wife, saw the Quad-Cities and trained approximately four hours a day.

It is the second year that Pransky has hosted the training. He said it has been a huge success in Lithuania and has become the big ticket for aspiring ball players there to obtain.

Big-league dreams, too

Like many American teenagers, each of the Lithuanians has a dream to play in the Major Leagues. And like most American teenagers they each have a favorite ballplayer.

Neverauskas and Jasinskas like Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. Matusevicius said his favorite player was the now-retired John Olerud. And like most American boys, their interests off the field are the similar — video games, movies and hanging out in the malls of the Quad-Cities.

“Many of the kids that play there now want to come here and participate in our program. It’s quite a big deal to be selected by the federation and the selection process is very involved,” said Pransky, a Midwest regional scout for the Cincinnati Reds organization.

Aided by local standouts

This year, Pransky has expanded his training with the help of several coaches in various skill sets.

Former North Scott standout and now professional pitcher, Mitch Wylie, is one of the coaches. The recent Rule 5 draft acquisition of the New York Mets said it was great to be part of the program, and he was proud to be able to expand the game he loves to players from other countries.

“I always want to give back what I know of the game and the moderate successes I’ve had playing it,” Wylie, 28, said. “Hopefully, they can take back what I’ve been able to teach and share, with the kids over there, what they’ve learned to help the sport grow in their country.”

Wylie said the Lithuanian talent he’s seen so far is raw, but good.

“The language barrier is tough,” he said. “But the thing is with baseball you can teach it by showing and they retain the information very well.”

Pransky said the number of  baseball players in Lithuania is only in the hundreds.

“I hope, in a small measure, what we’ve started here at the center will help the sport grow there,” he said.

The country is still a basketball nation as evidenced by the the Olympic medal-winning team and all the Lithuanian NBA players.

“But who knows, someday there may be Major League Baseball Lithuanian players, and I’ll be very happy if I can be part of making that happen.”

Contact the sports desk at (563) 383-2285 or sports@qctimes.com

What do you play?

“The Way We Play,” which runs in Tuesday’s editions of the Quad-City Times, profiles Quad-Citians of all ages and the various participation and recreation sports they play.

If you have a story idea for “The Way We Play,” submit it to sports@qctimes.com or call (563) 383-2285.