WE GO AGAIN
KEVIN MCCALLUM: Baseball’s Mpho Ngoepe: a gift to SA at a time we really need one
Ngoepe’s story is a modern sporting fairytale
On January 18, 1990, less than a month before Nelson Mandela walked out of the Victor Verster prison near Paarl, Maureen Ngoepe gave birth to a boy in Limpopo.She called him Mpho – "Gift". To make sure everyone knew who he was, she called him Gift twice.On Wednesday, on the eve of Freedom Day, a celebration of the day when Nelson Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison, voted for the first time in 1994, the 27-year-old Mpho Gift Ngoepe became the first African-born player in Major League Baseball.The stars aligned. A gift to SA at a time it needs one.Ngoepe struggled to keep the tears back on Wednesday. His debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Chicago Cubs came after eight-and-a-half years and 704 games playing in the minor leagues, of being told he would never make it.Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said: "I would love for him to have $1 for everybody who has looked at him and said he’ll never make it."Gift ran on to the field in the fourth innings to play second base, jogg...
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