[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Times

Monday, October 13, 2002

Around the Town In the IPA

VALKA BLACKHAWKS

Owner: Cybertel

Andrus Valk, President

GM/Manager: Jaan Kurus

Valka is found on the southeastern coast of Ruthlandia near Crystal Lake, just 20 miles from the Valerian Ocean. It is a modern town of 82,000 inhabitants, settled by Estonian emigres in the 1890s, who wanted to escape Russian domination of their country. A wealthy landowner, Olev Valk, purchased the land near
the lake and set up a community. When a town grew up around the Valk estate, the citizens began to call the town, Valka, in honor of the Valk family. There were three other waves of emigration from Estonia, in 1918 after WWI ended, in the late 1930s, just prior to WWII, and in 1991, at the end of Soviet rule. Today about half of the residents are of Estonian descent.

Originally Valka was an agrarian economy, based on vegetable farming, poultry and pork. It remained that way until the 1940's, when the Ruthlandian Institute of Technology was created under the leadership of Hendrik Valk. In the 1950s he started a small company, Cybertel, that blossomed in the 80s into a
high-tech electronics and communications conglomerate.

Baseball was slow in coming to Valka and wasn't played until about 1920. It was an alien game to the Valkans. But as time went by, more and more of their kids began to play the game. By the 1940s the town had an amateur league, which was expanded to an industrial league. Cybertel and the Institute were both active participants in company league baseball. When the Islandian Pro Alliance was created, the Valk family made sure they had a team. They also made sure they had a stadium, too. Cybertel spared no expense in creating a state-of-the-art baseball Taj Mahal, Cybertel Park, the home of the Valka Blackhawks.The team name was
chosen by Hendrik's son, Andrus, the current Cybertel board president. As a kid in the 40's and 50s, he idolized the comic book heroes, the Blackhawks, a multi-national air squadron, who fought the evil Axis Powers in WWII and the Communists in the Cold War. The team colors are blue and black, the colors of the Estonia flag and also the color of the flying Blackhawks uniform.

Cybertel Park is in the centerpiece of a beautiful downtown landscaped park area. A trip to the ballpark is something to behold with its massive centerfield fountains just beyond the outfield fences and huge electronic scoreboard. No ballpark in the Islands has the high-tech electronic pyrotechnic capabilities like the Blackhawks. A special treat for the kids is when the team mascot, Blackie, a trained hawk, delivers baseballs to the homeplate umpire. Concessions at Cybertel Park are traditional with hot dogs, hamburgers, cokes, peanuts and crackerjacks. However, to the delight of many fans, Valka's two favorite beers, Saku and A. Le Coq, are served during the games. Both brands are imported from the old home country.

Jaan Kurus, who headed the Cybertel company leagues for many years, is the GM and Manager of the Blackhawks.

Cybertel Park (2000)

Capacity: 9,503

Dimensions:
Left Field Line - 340
Left Field - 355
Left Center - 375
Center Field - 405
Right Center - 375
Right Field - 355
Right Field Line - 340