ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Although it’s considered America’s pastime, baseball is very much an international sport. Rochester’s minor league ballclub recently took in a guest whose job is to grow baseball in his homeland. 

Baseball, like life, doesn’t always go as planned. Take a recent day at Frontier Field, where there was no way they’d play ball in the downpour which just wouldn’t let up.

“We do get our fair share of rainouts,” said Jukka Ropponen, the president of the Finland Baseball Federation. “But our players really have to get used to playing in bad conditions.”

A Rochester Red Wings rainout didn’t get in the way of why Ropponen was at the stadium. He was there to learn more about the game, from the field to the front office.

“Rochester, we really liked it here,” he said. “This has become really a second home for us.”

Ropponen’s office was once literally right next door to the ballpark. The former Kodak digital executive is now the president of the Finnish Baseball and Softball Federation. His trip to Rochester was part of an effort to grow a game that’s only been played in Finland for about 40 years. 

Player registration, he says, has doubled in a year and a half. But he says the fans there hardly notice.

“Not nearly enough right now, because there’s a lot of work,” he said. “We need to get people to know the sport better.”

Ropponen met Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason while playing in a local men’s hockey league during his time in Rochester. Europe has over 50 baseball federations. 

But hockey?

“Hockey is a religion,” said Ropponen. “Everybody and their uncle plays hockey there.”

That’s one big challenge in growing the game of baseball in his homeland. Mason says he is glad to help.

“I think that’s one of our responsibilities as a Minor League Baseball team, any baseball team, is to help grow the game,” said Mason.

But it’s a game that doesn’t always go on as planned.

“Finland is nine months of winter and three months of bad skiing,” joked Ropponen.

It’s a game that Ropponen believes has a big future in a land of untapped talent.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us to really make it a popular sport there,” he said.