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Gift Ngoepe becomes the first African player to appear in a major league baseball game

The second baseman for the Pirates got a hit off Chicago's Jon Lester in his first MLB at-bat.

OFFICIALLY, THE NBA career of Juan "Pepe" Sanchez included him playing in 38 games. The reality is that he played only 187 minutes — less than four full games and only 4.9 minutes per game — during his time with the Sixers, Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons.

The Temple graduate and Big 5 Hall of Fame member had 20 points, 21 rebounds, 49 assists, 16 steals and 24 fouls as a NBA player.

Sanchez's NBA career was as unremarkable as they come, but it is highlighted by something extremely rare for NBA players.

On Oct.31, 2000, Sixers coach Larry Brown put Sanchez in for the final three minutes of a 101-72 victory over the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden.

That short run, during which he did not take a shot but had two assists, made Sanchez the first native of Argentina to play in an NBA regular-season game.

"When (Brown) called me with three minutes to play, it was unbelievable," Sanchez, who made the Sixers as a rookie free agent, said at the time. "I wasn't nervous about playing because I got a lot of playing time in preseason games that helped me out a lot.

"But at the same time, I knew my family and friends were watching the whole game in Argentina and expected the moment. I was pretty excited about it."

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie infielder Gift Ngoepe understands what Sanchez felt.

On Wednesday, the Pirates called up the 27-year-old from Triple A Indianapolis to make him the first player from Africa to join a Major League Baseball roster.

In the top bottom of the fourth inning of the game against the Chicago Cubs, Ngoepe became the first person from an African nation to play in a major league game, going in at second base.

Then, in the bottom of the inning, Ngoepe — who grew up in Randburg, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa — came to the plate and singled in his first MLB at-bat.

Plenty of players have gotten a hit in their first major league at-bat and 117 have hit home runs in their first at-bat.

Still, being the first from a continent to get a hit in the majors puts one in a very small group.

"The whole thing was just awesome. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. It was awesome."

Africa has 54 countries and about 1.2 billion people. After Asia, it is the second largest and second most populated continent.

"Baseball is not a popular sport (in Africa)," said Ngoepe, who also had a walk and helped turn a game-ending doubleplay. "But if you work hard enough and dream a little bit, anything is possible."

Considering that he is a 27-year-old rookie, the odds are that Ngoepe's major league career might end up being as statistically insignificant as Sanchez's. However, only one person gets to be the first person to accomplish something.

Although playing different sports and being from different nations, Sanchez and Ngoepe will always share the common bond of being the first athlete from their country to do something that billions of dreamers could not accomplish.

They'll carry that honor with them for all of history, and as Ngoepe repeated that "is just awesome."