Take a Strike and Have a Ball, Ivan

American amateur baseball and softball officials have reached an agreement with Soviet sports authorities on a $150,000 program to introduce baseball and women’s softball into the Soviet Union in coming months, it was disclosed Friday.

Donald Porter, secretary general of the International Confederation of Amateur Baseball/Softball, based in Oklahoma City, said Russian-language translations of the rules of the sports are being prepared and six coaches will be sent to Moscow next spring to train Soviet athletes to play the games.

Porter, who recently returned from Moscow where the agreement was negotiated, said that part of it also calls for the Americans to help construct a baseball field--the first in the Soviet Union--on the grounds of the Sports Institute in Moscow. He said several American major league teams are expected to make financial contributions to this project.

In addition, he said, his confederation will send equipment and videotapes of games to the Soviet capital for training purposes. He said that a four-to-five-week training program in Moscow may be followed by training programs in certain other Soviet cities.

Still being negotiated is a proposal for American and Cuban baseball and softball teams to demonstrate the sport at next summer’s planned Goodwill Games in Moscow, Porter said.

Amateur baseball and softball officials have been anxious to introduce their sports into the Soviet Union as a means of encouraging their eventual acceptance into the Olympic Games. Eastern Bloc representatives have a say in such decisions to expand the Olympic program.