COMMUNITY

Alamogordo brays for Donkey Baseball

Tara Melton
Alamogordo Daily News
A member of Holloman Air Force Base's firefighter team makes it to third base with his donkey. In the third annual donkey baseball game, the Otero County Sheriff's Office took on the Holloman Air Force Base firefighters on Friday evening.

ALAMOGORDO — An estimated 285 people watched the Holloman Air Force Base firefighters take on the Otero County Sheriff's Office in a game of Donkey Baseball on Friday night.

The Optimist Club of Alamogordo hosted Friday's event, which was the third time they've brought Dairyland Donkey Ball to Alamogordo. This year the Optimist Club of Alamogordo raised about $1,600 from their ticket sales.

A member of the Otero County Sheriff's Office team watches her teammate struggle to get his donkey back to third base.

Donkey baseball follows the traditional rules of baseball but is played on the backs of donkeys, with the exception of the pitcher and catcher. After the batter hits the ball, they must mount a donkey and ride to first base. If the base runner falls off the donkey, the runner is out. The base runner who manages to stay on their donkey, ride around the bases and reaches home plate scores a run.

"It's funny because the donkeys will not cooperate," said Optimist Club Communications Chair John Cowart. "That's really the fun of it."

During the 2016 game, the firefighters from Holloman Air Force Base defeated the Otero County Sheriff's Office in a walk-off grand slam. While the Otero County Sheriff's Office was seeking revenge this year, both teams tied the game 1-1. As a tiebreaker, they held a dance-off, which the Otero County Sheriff's Office won.

A Holloman team member struggles to keep his donkey on the correct trajectory during the game.

Profits from the game go toward the Optimist Club of Alamogordo's youth programs, such as the JOOI club (Junior Optimist Octagon International) at Academy Del Sol. The funds also help the Optimist Club annually send one high school student to the HOBY (Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership) seminar at the University of New Mexico, which is an intense weekend of leadership training, and helps them maintain a scholarship to send one kid to space camp at the New Mexico Museum of Space History each year.

"Our primary goal is to spread optimism, which right now in our country we certainly need," Cowart said. "The country is so frustrated right now and divided. We need a voice to kind of calm the waters. We hope we can be that voice."

Of all the youth projects the Optimist Club of Alamogordo supports, Cowart said his personal favorite is the JOOI club at Academy Del Sol.

"I personally believe it's our best project," Cowart said. "I've seen how it can turn a kid's life around."

For more information about the Optimist Club of Alamogordo, email Cowart at bent.tree@yahoo.com.