It's a Long, Cold Summer for Baseball Fans in Antarctica

Ben Bonnet rediscovered his love for baseball in the oddest of places: Antarctica.

As he spent his first winter working at McMurdo Station, in Antarctica, he watched baseball on television.

"I'm watching a baseball game and they have grass and sun and T-shirts and beautiful beer and great hot dogs," said Bonnet, who was in a place with none of those things. "That's where I discovered a new found love for baseball. What an amazing sport."

Today, Bonnet is back for another tour at, "the Ice," as they say. He's at McMurdo, where he, John Miller and Joel Gilchrest are perhaps the most remote avid baseball fans on the planet.

The three of them recently talked by phone to FanHouse about how they get together regularly to talk baseball, razz each other about their fantasy teams and watch whatever televised games the satellites bring.

They are like any other die-hard baseball fans, except for the fact that they live in a place where the average high temperature in July is -16 F.

A place where sunrise and sunset are recorded not in times on a clock, but dates on a calendar.

A place where the months of darkness can cause short-term memory loss and attention issues, leaving people sometimes unable to complete a sentence or remember what they had for lunch.

A place that is so inaccessible in the winter that the only way to get in or out is via a medical emergency flight that takes a couple weeks to arrange.

But there they are -- voluntarily. Each has worked multiple tours in Antarctica.

"You come the first time for the adventure, the second time for the money and the third time because you can't find a job in the States anymore," Bonnet said, repeating maxim among "ice people."

Bonnet, a 30-year-old Mets fan from Denver, works in the supply department at McMurdo. Miller, a 49-year-old Red Sox fan from Reno, is an electrician. Gilchrest, a 33-year-old Phillies fan from Maryland, is a computer technician.

They are among fewer than 1,000 people spending the winter on a continent that is nearly twice the size of the 48 states.

At McMurdo Station, located about 2,200 miles south of New Zealand, there are 153 support personnel currently keeping things running smoothly until the scientists and researchers return when the sun comes back -- late August.

They have been shrouded in almost total darkness since April.

"It's just like working at night," Bonnet said. "Except it's night all the time. You get used to it."

Bonnet said a psychological test is required of workers before they spend a winter at "the Ice," to make sure they can handle it. The other problem is a physical one, a deficiency of the hormone T3 because of lack of sunlight. It is an extreme version of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

"It affects your short term memory, makes you slower," Bonnet said. "You have a harder time finding words to describe things. It's tougher to communicate, to express yourself."

Living in such a world, you can understand why Bonnet, Miller and Gilchrest cling to one of the ultimate symbols of sunny, warm summer days in the States: baseball.

"We follow it religiously," Miller said.

They do that mostly with the help of the Internet. When they can sneak away from work or on their lunch hour -- a 7 PM ET game starts at 11 AM, the next day, at McMurdo -- they can follow games on one of the sites that runs play-by-play accounts of the games.

They can't watch the games on MLB.TV because it requires too much bandwidth.

At McMurdo, they can watch whatever games are televised by the Armed Forces Network. Normally, it picks up ESPN games or other nationally-broadcast games. (In that sense, the guys are lucky that they all root for big-market teams who tend to get on ESPN more frequently. A Royals fan at McMurdo would be out of luck.)

Miller said he has a tough time watching his Red Sox "because I tend to get a little upset if things aren't going their way."

To Miller, though, working at McMurdo is like being in Boston, compared with the time he spent at the South Pole Station. Because it is even more remote than McMurdo, located 900 miles inland at bottom of the Earth, there is no television at the South Pole. Internet is only available for certain hours of the day, because of the position of the satellites.

Miller said when he was following the Red Sox last fall in the ALCS, the satellite window closed with the Sox down 7-1 to the Rays in Game 5.

"I had just kind of given up," said Miller, who found out later that the Red Sox came back to win that game and extend the series. "When you get to that type of thing, it can be a little aggravating."

Miller saw the Red Sox win the World Series in 2007 just before leaving for a tour at the South Pole.

Gilchrest, the Phillies fan, saw his team win the World Series from McMurdo.

"Even though the games were in the middle of the day, my supervisor let me turn it on," he said. "I snuck back and watched the last few innings."

Gilchrest, who is going be back home in October, is hoping to see another championship in person.

"I'm glad the other teams in the division are cooperating and playing even worse (than the Phillies), especially the Mets," he said. "I think the Phillies are back on track. I predict they'll win the division."

Bonnet, the Mets fan, has obviously taken his share of grief from Gilchrest. He's suffering with the Mets just as any fan in the States.

"They've got $50 million on the DL," he said. "I don't think any other team can claim that. I think they need to believe in themselves. They can win. They have enough there to win."

Like a true fan, seeing the bright side.

Even in a world of darkness.