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Oina – Romanian baseball
A fun event involved one of the most famous Romanian writers, Ion Creanga who was late at the inauguration of the school in Targu Neamt, done by Grigore Ghica, as the boy played oina on the local field. This game was known under very many names, depending on the Romanian region where it was played. For example, in Blaj oina was played under the name of "lapta-lunga" or "de-a lunga", while in Moldavia it was known as "hoina" or even "oina", as it was in Muntenia. In Suceava and Botosani, oina was played as "apuca" or "ogoiul", while there's also mention of "fuga" in Brasov, "halca" and "hopciu" in Dej, "ojerul" or "oirul" in Maramures and "ciocota" in Baia Mare, as names for the sport.
You may be wondering what oina is really about… Well, as folclorist A. Lambrior described it in 1875 "it's a game played between many boys. First, you'll pick two of them, who are better players and will be called "baci". Then the other boys choose one of the two teams, as they please led by the “baci”. Two signs are placed on the field, about 10 metres away and one of the teams gets to start the game as the "batting team" (they hit the ball with bats) and the other is the "receiving team". Each team mate must hit the ball thrown by the other team’s leader only once and then run to the previously mentioned sign. Afterwards the players run again, once the ball hast been hit one more time. In order for a team not to lose points, they'll have to run the other's team sign and run back to their own, without any team member getting hit by the opponent's ball.
The team has to wait for the team leader's three throws. After the first one they run towards the sign, at the second they come back and at the third (the strongest) the leader runs and returns. This goes on an on till the defending team either catch the ball or hit one of the runners with the ball".
So you can imagine this game like it’s some sort of combination between baseball and dodgeball, a sport that involves speed, accuracy, team work and the basic will to have fun.
Author: Alex Stanescu
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vessix says:
This game is very fun, i think. In Finland we have pesäpallo, but when I was young (1970’s) we still played the old finnish game – kuningaspallo (kingball) – it’s very similar as Oina… 1920 professor Pihkala maked pesäpallo, fixed by kuningaspallo and american baseball.
I wrote much finnish baseball history to my homepage: vessix.kotisivukone.com
It’s in finnish ofcourse. There’s lot of results and stories from history 1922-93…Today’s pesäpallo is not so good as it was, because 1994 the game (9 innings) deviced periods 4+4+1 and winner is team that win most of periods.
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