In the second installment of our series on international baseball, D3baseball.com catches up with John Hopkins' Todd Emr and Rodger William's Brian Hurld. Grinnell's Gary Kahn was featured last week.

by Travis Cross

The menu might as well be a pictograph. Brian Hurld and Todd Emr are in a restaurant in Belgium and staring at the menu. They look up at each other then back at the menu, uncertainty their next step. One thing is clear: reading a Belgian menu when you don't know French can be bit difficult.

"I do a lot of pointing at menus and saying merci", says Emr. "It's working pretty well."

Hurld and Emr are roommates playing for the Namur Angels in Belgium. The Angels are part of Ligue Francophone Belge de Baseball, which also has seven levels in all including a "Cadet" level for 12-15 year olds. They are both rookies to the league and to Belgium. Hurld, who attended Roger Williams, has been in Belgium for four weeks while the Johns Hopkins graduate Emr has three weeks under his belt.

As part of playing for the Angels, both players are responsible for coaching the Cadet team for two practices and one game per week. The pictograph analogy now switches to the dubbed audio track seen in the cartoon exchanges between a pet and human.

"I do a lot of demonstrations showing how it should be done but it's still hard not being able to explain what they are doing wrong," says Emr.

"I've definitely been able to laugh at myself a lot," Hurld says. "My French is terrible."

Hurld and Emr represent the two allowable players per team with non-European passports. Foreign policy allows them to stay in Europe for a three-month stay before having to return to the US. Both came over in late June to replace two Americans who had played the first half of the season.

Most of their teammates speak English well but it's not easy getting through the language barrier. That doesn't stop the players from trying.

"Guys on the team invite us to hang out all the time because they know we do not know the area that well," says Emr.

As much as their teammates help them get to know the area, as the saying goes, there's no substitute for an American cheeseburger. Or in this case, other Americans.

"Games are very social," adds Emr. "We hang out after the games for an hour or two talking to the Americans on the other teams."

The influence of American players in the Belgium leagues has made its mark both through the players and the coaches. The Angels' coach has attended coaching conventions in the US and brought back a popular fast, small-ball style of play. Many teams employ hit-and-runs regularly and bunt with no outs and a runner on base regardless of the score.

"We have [bunted] down six runs with the bottom of the lineup," says Emr.

"Attempt to bunt," corrects Hurld.

The competition is on par with typical Division III games but there is a marked difference between the top and bottom teams. Hurld says that the league is very top heavy in terms of talent, which explains the necessity to manufacture offense.

"If the first couple pitchers get in trouble there are not many guys left to throw," adds Emr.

Belgium baseball draws about 50 fans to each game held at fields with clubhouses for each team. The fields are comparable to most Division III playing surfaces with some that are better than others. The dimensions of the outfield wall are the only significant difference from DIII.

"It is common to find a field where the dimensions are 280, 330, 390 from left to right," says Hurld. "We have played at one field [in six games] that had normal dimensions."

"This is a great opportunity and I'm having a blast but I do have college loans to start paying back," he adds.

The paycheck isn't enough to start a 401k, but it covers living expenses and a little extra. Players are paid about $740 Euros, roughly $520 US, combined per month.

That's not much to live on much less enjoy a Saturday night at the local drinking establishment having a nice soda pop. That's where the Angels come through again.

"Living expenses are basically non-existent," says Hurld

The Angels, who do not sign their players to contracts opting instead for a verbal agreement, also pay for housing and a round trip plane ticket. The players buy groceries out of their paychecks every two weeks leaving over $400 for the rest of the month to spend on whatever they please.

"We spend our money traveling and on treats in Namur", says Emr.

Playing internationally hasn't convinced Hurld or Emr to move for good; both are planning on coming back to the United States and starting their careers after the summer.

"It was a little nerve-racking in the beginning," says Emr, "but once I got used to it it's been a ton of fun."

Hurld agrees.

"Soak it all in, enjoy every moment because these are the stories you'll tell your kids someday."

With a month and a half left in Belgium, who knows, maybe he'll be able to tell them in French.

More information on the Namur Angels can be found here: http://www.namur-angels.be/HTML/competition.php?div=1BB

Beware, it's in French.