SOME WAYS THAT BASEBALL IN PALAU IS DIFFERENT. David Walter gives a number of differences in the way baseball is played in Palau.
Kids learn to play with bamboo bats and coconut-leaf balls. Pitchers chew betel nut…. Monsoons rain out…. entire seasons of league play.”
There are special rules written in the 90’s to ban the use of black magic.
“Palau’s system of communal men’s houses, or bai was revived. Bai were used to sequester players in the days before big baseball games. During these lockups the old bai rules for warding off dark magic were followed closely. ‘You don’t sleep on your back, because the village god could step on your chest and you would have problems sleeping….'”