And to the credit of Panama, few to none were injured: can you imagine what would happen in the U.S.or the U.K. if 100,000 people went wild in the streets. Colin Powell made a brief visit, but left quickly – all the top American brass fly into Panama and then get out quickly. In the old days many American politicians, especially in the Carter Administration, would fly into the Canal Zone to go……..forget it. 

We started to celebrate the 100-year anniversary on Friday, but by Saturday I was feeling the wear and tear of a sport’s injury. My back had ripped and I was in great pain. So throughout the whole centennial celebrations I was confined to a bed, listening to Graham Bond and Alexis Korner. As recuperation, I watched a Latin American T.V. channel called Casa Club T.V., which shows Canadian T.V. programs about home improvement, interior designing and cooking; Canadian people jumped up and down in the air celebrating the redesigning of their attic, work space or city loft. Everything in these programs was directed towards “the space”, what should we do with "the space”. To fight the pain, I took some painkillers that put me in a neither nor world of lightness and shadows; everything had black lines around it. But I knew I needed to be on my feet by Wednesday as I was supposed to attend the U.S-Panamanian baseball game with writer and good friend R.M. Koster.

The Baseball Game

We arrived to R.M. Koster’s house at 7:00, the game was supposed to start at 8:00. Gabi, R.M. and I drank some Glenmorange scotch, talked about dogs and cats and whether or not we were going to be able to see Frank Robinson, the coach of the American team. R.M. Koster had met Frank Robinson in 1979 when Robinson had coached a team in Puerto Rico. Robinson had been difficult to talk to, but had told Koster that the main thing to winning a game was making these idiots think they could. I had met Robinson before Koster: it was 1977 in a Pennsylvania highway hotel basement where Robinson was signing autographs and promoting season tickets for the Baltimore Orioles and having dinner with fans. The hotel restaurant where the fans’ dinner took place had dark brick, dark raw iron, dark wood, yellow glass, spigots on the walls coming out of phantom beer kegs and spot-lighting high above Robinson’s head – in other words, great. I was 10 at the time and a little league baseball player. At that time Robinson was a coach for the Baltimore Orioles team and had just resigned from the head-coaching job at Cleveland. In 1975 Robinson was named the first black head coach in baseball and after a year and a half he had quit as head coach of the Cleveland Indians. Rico Carty and Buddy Bell had been on Robinson's team in 1975, but Robinson had deep problems from some other players: the biggest problem, for Robinson, came from a player by the name of Gaylord Perry, Gaylord Perry was white and from North Carolina; Frank Robinson was black and from Texas.

In his first game of the season as head coach of the Cleveland Indians in 1975, Robinson had put himself in the game and at his first at bat had hit a home run, which helped Perry, a pitcher, win the game. But Perry questioned Robinson’s abilities as did Perry’s brother Jim, who was also a pitcher on the Cleveland team. Robinson survived the Perry brothers, both were forced out of Cleveland, and when my mother asked Robinson in the hotel basement in the Fall of 1977 or Spring of 1978 what he thought of Cleveland, he said, “don’t even talk to me about the place, I am glad to be out of there.” I liked his direct use of English. When I heard what Robinson had said to my mother, it stuck in my mind, even after all these years, though I could never figure out who had said it, but with the 100-year celebrations in Panama and the baseball game as part of the celebrations and Robinson as head coach of the American Olympic team, I remembered that it was Robinson who had said it. R.M. Koster had sent a fax to the airport hotel where Robinson was staying with the team, but had heard no response from Robinson.

The baseball stadium in Panama seats 25,000; it has parking for 500. We had to walk. The large stadium sits in a little hole surrounded by small hills in what I think was part of the former Canal Zone, though I may be wrong about that. We entered the stadium, presented our tickets and as we entered the inner-realm of the stadium and began looking for our seats, there was an explosion and then light and screaming. I looked to my right and a young kid of say thirteen stood up and the back of his shirt had been burnt off and the skin shown through black and red. When the explosion had gone off the people nearest to it had smiled and laughed and now they were screaming. R.M Koster and I thought that they had been playing with some firecrackers and some had gone off by mistake; later we would learn that the rocket explosion and been fired from far off in a field outside the stadium and it had mistakenly landed in the stands. After the explosion some people screamed and we found out that boxing legend Roberto Duran had entered the stadium. The police reacted quickly and after sometime a ambulance came through the center field fence and then the strangest thing happened: the ambulance started to drive toward the opposite side of the field from where the injured were located and the whole crowd of, say, 10,000 people stood up and told the ambulance driver he was going in the wrong direction.

The driver made a hard right as the crowd demanded, almost hit the American team and stopped to pick up the injured. As the injured were taken from the field, the American team clapped and Frank Robinson looked on with concern.

A rain started after the rocket landed and then stopped. The game started; it wasn’t very good and the Americans won. We left the stadium and started the long walk back through the night. The next day there were reports in the newspaper about how one of the injured from explosion at the baseball stadium was in a deep coma. And later the Americans lost to the Mexicans who hadn’t won a game.

If you plan to visit Panama and want to have a personal guide show you around Panama City, then I recommend Panama Tropical Tourguides. The owner is a good friend and Cambridge-educated sociologist that can take you beyond the tourist traps straight to the unknown parts of Panama. To set up tours of Panama with Panama Tropical Tourguidess contact: cefvm@yahoo.com