Monitoring the developing world of baseball: Europe.
Slightly off-topic, but it will affect the Olympics. The Daily Telegraph reports:
Two Australian baseball players, including an Olympic squad member, have been suspended, one of them for life, after testing positive for anabolic steroids.
The Australian Baseball Federation president, Ron Finlay, would not name the two men but said they had played professionally in the United States. The duo tested positive in January for nandrolone and stanozolol."
There is a long feature about Italian baseball in the Christian Science Monitor, centred on the Little League squad in Nettuno. Some highlights:
Today, the Nettuno complex boasts three diamonds, a snack bar, and a stadium rivaling any American minor-league set-up. It's also home to the offices of manager Alfonso Gualtieri. Rumored to be an unofficial scout for the Florida Marlins, Mr. Gualtieri beams as he points out the photographs lining the walls of his office - there he is, posing with Barry Bonds; there, with Tom Lasorda when he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers; and there, that's a shot of the scoreboard at San Francisco's 3-Comm Park welcoming the Nettuno Lions.
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Other towns, such as Rimini, Parma, and Palermo, boast winning semipro teams akin to the American Triple A division, and the halo effect extends to a Little League aura of confidence - and good strong playing.
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As in every red-blooded Little League community, games in Italy run throughout the summer; rules and base paths are in strict compliance with American Little League regulations. Ask for the count, however, and you may get the feeling you're not on home turf: Out may sound more like fuori; Safe will sound like salvo; coaches urging their outfielders to "throw it home," shout "A casa! A casa!" But strike? As everyone everywhere knows, a strike's a strike - and tre strikes always mean you're out. Er, make that fuori.
As in every red-blooded Little League community, games in Italy run throughout the summer; rules and base paths are in strict compliance with American Little League regulations. Ask for the count, however, and you may get the feeling you're not on home turf: Out may sound more like fuori; Safe will sound like salvo; coaches urging their outfielders to "throw it home," shout "A casa! A casa!" But strike? As everyone everywhere knows, a strike's a strike - and tre strikes always mean you're out. Er, make that fuori.
Go read the rest.
While anticipating chaos in future games at their home field, the Mainz Athletics remain top of the German Budesliga's southern conference, after two hard-fought away wins at Gauting.
Update: The Gauting Indians' local paper reported the 8-0 and 18-0 drubbings rather differently. Gautig coach Matthew Laack was livid, they report. "We need to wake up and realise that we are men, and stop playing like children," he is reported to have said. "We have no pitching."
Writing in the Observer, Andrew Rawnsley reports that Michael Howard, leader of the UK's Conservative opposition, is such a big baseball fan that he even lists a favourite team in his Who's Who entry, which the journalist uses as evidence of Howard's historically pro-American outlook:
[Howard] has left himself terribly exposed to the charges of opportunism that have inevitably followed from both hostile and usually friendly quarters. There was the placement of his article in an anti-war paper when the Tory leader's entire career has been founded on such strong pro-Americanism that he even lists a favourite baseball team in Who's Who.
As this blog attests, however, the logic of this arguement is a bit weak. There's nothing inherently "American" or "pro-American" about being a very public baseball fan.
Besides, he's a Mets fan. I just hope he finds ways of losing elections as creative as his team do for losing Major League ballgames.
Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military's newspaper, has taken note of the Cambridge Monarchs, a team comprised largely of American Air Force members stationsed at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in England:
Over the years, the Monarchs have had players who requested an assignment in England so they could play for the team. Others are pleasantly surprised to learn about the team once they arrive.
“I was excited. Very surprised,” said Senior Airman Eric Baxter of the 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron at RAF Lakenheath. “I hated this place until I found out they had baseball.”
Cambridge are currently 9-0, first in the misnamed Premier Division (it's actually Britain's second-tier league).
Another team comprised largely of American service men is the Menwith Hill Patriots at RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire.
Major League Baseball's plans for a Baseball World Cup, scheduled to be held during Spring Training next March, could be delayed until 2006 unless a number of "logistical considerations" are overcome quickly, reports Sports Business News:
"The next three weeks are critical," said Paul Archey, MLB's senior vice president of international business operations. "There are so many things to be done, you come to a point where you just run out of time."
Sixteen countries "are being considered" for the competition. There will be no formal qualification procedure based on preliminary tournaments, like every other global competition in the world -- MLB will just choose the countries it thinks will be most successful. While there is little doubt which 16 countries are the most likely to be competitive, MLB's Baseball World Cup will have limited legitimacy in international baseball circles if the places for the marginal countries, at least, are not open to competion. This is particularly important for Europe, because Italy and the Netherlands fit into that category.
The countries in the last "regular" IBAF Baseball World Cup, held last year in Cuba, were: Cuba, Nicaragua, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Canada, Italy, Russia, Japan, USA, Panama, Brazil, the Netherlands, Mexico, China, and France. Yes, that's right: no Dominican Republic and no Puerto Rico. But on what basis will MLB add those countries (presumably at the expense of France, Russia, Brazil, or China)?
American PhD student Bradey Jones, who plays for the Stars Baseball Club in Glasgow, and does a lot of volunteer work in deprived parts of the Scottish city, has been honoured by the British Council as one of only 12 winners of their international student award, reports the Herald.
According to Reuters, a small bomb was found on Wednesday a few hundred metres from the Hellenikon Sports Complex, where seven sports -- including baseball -- will take place this summer.
Marco Stoovelaar reports a "unique" 12-inning, scoreless game between Sparta/Feyenoord and Almere in the Dutch Hoofdklasse. The game lasted almost three and a half hours:
For Almere, this was its second scoreless, 12-inning tie in less than a year. On August 30, 2003, Almere played a 0-0 tie vs. Quick in the promotion/relegation pool.
Another day, another profile of a member of the "Greek" national team:
Clay Bellinger grew up in Oneonta, N.Y., won two World Series rings in the Bronx and currently plays for the Ottawa Lynx (AAA) in the Orioles' organization.The quintessential utilityman, a guy who has played all sorts of positions in all sorts of places, the 35-year-old Bellinger will try an altogether new role in August, when he's expected to make his debut as a Greek third baseman.
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Bellinger doesn't speak Greek, has never been to Greece and knows a good deal more about homers than Homer, about Monument Park than the Parthenon. This makes him not much different from Bobby Kingsbury, former Fordham [University] star, present Hickory (N.C.) Crawdad and aspiring Greek right fielder.
"I just became a Greek citizen today," Kingsbury said enthusiastically, not long after leaving the Greek consulate in Chicago. "I'm really excited about it. The Olympics are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
There is also information about "Greek" pitchers Kevin Pickford, Pete Sikaris and A.J. Brack; outfielder Cory Harris; catchers Erik Pappas and Mike Tonis; shortstop Nick Theodorou and manager Rob Derksen.
We learn that Derksen has already lost one of his minor-leaguers because he has been called up the The Show: Colorado Rockies second baseman Aaron Miles.
The team's two native Greek players don't get as much mention in the article as they will get playing time in the Games.
The Nederlandse Honkbalsite has the first photo gallery of the Athens Olympic baseball venue. The Netherlands' national team are there for a pre-Olympic warm-up called the Athens International Baseball Tournement several weeks ago.
So you think your umpires are rubbish? Try cricket:
ICC general manager David Richardson, speaking at the tournament launch at Lord's on Monday, said:...
"Statistics collated over the last year showed that umpires on the ICC's elite panel for international matches were, on average, getting 92 percent of their decisions correct.
This compared with a 94 percent success rate in Major League Baseball.
The Mainz Athletics are anticipating chaos at their game on Thursday, because the Federal Property Office (Bundesvermögensamt), which owns their field, has locked the adjoining car park. The club is expecting 400 fans to turn up to the game, but they will not have anywhere to park their cars.
The club leased their field in Gonsenheim from the Federal Property Office a decade ago, believing that the adjoining car park was part of the facility. But the Office later leased the lot to a car dealership, which allowed the club to continue to use the facility. But now the Office is demanding rent of €40,000 from the Athletics. But that's half the club's annual budget, so they cannot afford it.
The baseball and softball teams of Great Britain, France, Russia, and Spain could gain automatic qualification to the 2012 Olympic games as the host nation -- if their Olympic bid is successful, and the bat-and-ball sports are still on the Olympic programme by then. The IOC today annouced the short-list of candidate cities for the 2012 games. The list includes London, Paris, Moscow and Madrid. Germany will have to qualify the hard way if its national teams are to reach the Olympics. The Leipzig bid was one of those eliminated, along with Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Istanbul. The other remaining candidate city is New York. For international baseball, this would be an interesting result: The proposed tournament venue there is Yankee Stadium (how cool would that be!?). Moreover, hosting the games in the Big Apple would ensure that the USA's participation in the Olympic baseball tournament, which, as we have seen this year, is by no means a foregone conclusion!
The Major League Baseball web site, mlb.com, has a story about John Scolinos, Bill Arce and Mike Riskas, college coaches who will be working with the Greek Olympic baseball team this summer in Athens. Scolinos, who is in him mid-80s, was born in Los Angeles to Greek parents. He was a member of the coaching staff of the 1984 USA team, when baseball demonstration sport at the Los Angeles Olympics.
The Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin, has a profile of Dan Bonanno, who is a European Game Development Consultant for Major League Baseball International based in Italy:
"I was always fascinated with the opportunity to travel and, being an Italian-American, Italy held a fundamental importance in our family's history,'' Bonanno said. "I thought that being able to get a chance to play in Italy would satisfy my baseball needs, cure my travel bug and give me a chance to visit the country where our ancestors came from all at the same time.
"I found out that the Italian League allowed two 'import' players and three 'oriundi,' or Italian-American players who qualified as such through proof of ancestry. If an Italian-American could produce the correct paperwork to qualify as an 'oriundi,' he would have a very good chance to sign with an Italian club.
"I was playing at Grand Canyon at the time and my mom was stuck with the arduous task of gathering the paperwork and dealing with the Italian Consulates in Chicago and Los Angeles. The break came when an original birth certificate of my great-grandfather was found in the attic of my aunt's house.'' What a break it was for Bonanno. In Italy, he found a new and fulfilling life, not to mention a new home.
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee has decided that the Olympic program for the 2008 Beijing summer games will remain the same. This means that baseball and softball will remain Olympic events. The status of baseball in the 2012 Olympic program -- which may be significant to the baseball programmes of several European countries vying to be the host nation that summer -- will be decided at an IOC session in Singapore next year.
The Gauting Indians will be without pitcher Justin Kalnins today when they face the Saarlouis Hornets. The Germany international, who was voted Budesliga player of the week last week, will be busy revising for his Abitur (secondary school examinations)!
The 36th baseball World Cup will be held in the Netherlands in 2005. Originally scheduled for August, the IBAF and the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation have moved the tournament to the end of the MLB season, from 3rd to 17th September 2005. The KNBSB press release speculates that this may lead to Major League players being involved. I'm not yet clear about what will happen to this tournament if MLB's plans for a professional "World Cup" go ahead next year.
As this site develops, I will occasionally post summaries of useful online information sources for each country. Here are some for this week:
GERMANY - The web presence of Germany's Bundesliga is enviable. All the statistics and results can be found there, and there are excellent web sites giving a catalogue of links to German and other baseball sites. Tournaments like Regensburg's Baseball Open and the 2004 European Championships (B-Pool) often have their own web sites. The current top-flight (“1. Bundesliga”) club teams are: Benningsen Beavers, Bonn Capitals, Cologne Cardinals, Cologne Dodgers, Fürth Pirates, Gauting Indians, Heidenheime Heideköpfe, Herrenberg Wanderers, Loksted Stealers, Mainz Athletics, Mannheim Tornados, Paderborn Untouchables, Pulheim Gophers, Regensburg Legionäre, Saarlouis Hornets, and Soligen Alligators.
The NETHERLANDS - In the Netherlands, baseball (or “honkbal”) is a relatively big deal. Nevertheless, the quality of many of the Dutch baseball sites is surprisingly poor, but improving. You can get the Hoofdklasse results on Teletext. There is a news portal called the Nederlandse Honkbalsite. Another invaluable resource is Grand Slam, a site run by Marco Stoovelaar, baseball writer for De Telegraaf and official statistician for the Royal Dutch Baseball and Softball Association (KNBSB). A major international tournament held in Holland is the Haarlem Baseball Week. The current top-flight (“Hoofdklasse”) club teams are: Amsterdam Pirates, Ubink & Co Almere, Mr Cocker HCAW (Bussum), DPA Kinheim (Haarlem), DOOR Neptunus (Rotterdam), Minolta Pioniers (Hoofddorp), Hypotheekzeker.nl Tornado’s (Den Haag), Twins (Oosterhout), and Sparta/Feyenoord (Rotterdam).
GREAT BRITAIN - The British Baseball Federation is administered together with softball by an umbrella body called BaseballSoftballUK. Its web site is vertually the only online source of information on UK baseball, but the National League games occasionally get a mention during Channel Five’s late-night Major League Baseball coverage. The Great Britain national team also has a web site. The current top-flight (“National League ”) club teams are: Bracknell Blazers, Brighton Buccaneers, Croydon Pirates, Edinburgh Diamond Devils, Hull Baseball Club, Liverpool Trojans, London Warriors, Manchester Eagles, Menwith Hill Patriots, Richmond Flames, The Stars Baseball Club (Glasgow), and Windsor Bears.
While Athens is struggling to complete all the Olympic facilities in time for this summer's games, the baseball venue is ready. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that the baseball and softball venues are among the 15 Olympic sites that are now complete and have been handed over to the organising committee by the Greek government, which was in charge of their construction.
Responding to Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's efforts to buy a stake in Liverpool FC , the International Herald Tribune has a tongue-in-cheek piece suggesting other sports clubs suited for takeover by a foreign government:
It is too bad that many European governments other than the Netherlands now have budget deficits that would make overseas investments difficult to finance within European Union guidelines. Think what it could do for the strained trans-Atlantic alliance to have France buy the New York Yankees, with President Jacques Chirac cheering wildly as the Yankees won another championship. For the first time, the World Series might even live up to its name.A compelling analysis, I'm sure you'll agree.Honoring the cities to which so many of their citizens emigrated, perhaps Ireland could buy the Boston Red Sox, and Germany could invest in the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that could use an infusion of capital. Recalling history of a different sort, Russia might be interested in the Cincinnati Reds.
A few such purchases might arouse European interest in baseball, a sport that mostly confuses people from countries that never had a strong American presence. And surely if Europeans understood baseball better, they would also understand America better.
The Canadian olympic baseball team will warm up before travelling to Athens with a number of games against European teams:
Canada will play Greece at SkyDome on Aug. 2 and at Baltimore's Camden Yards on Aug. 4. After that it's on to Rome for a tournament with Italy, Cuba, Taiwan and the Netherlands from Aug. 7-10.
The German baseball community is in shock after 27-year-old Cologne Cardinals catcher André Hille collapsed during a game and subsequently died. The cause of his death is still unknown.
The German Baseball Federation (DBV) has grudgingly ruled (translation) that its system of limiting the number of overseas players on each German team cannot be enforced. All EU citizens must now be treated similarly to German citizens on Budesliga baseball diamonds. The decision is based on the same interpretation of EU labour law that is known in European football as the "Bosman Ruling". The issue arose after the Cologne Dodgers abandoned the Bundesliga's voluntary limitation on foreign players and included Dutch players Kevin Faries, Rodney Michel and Fernando Jose Sanchez in their lineup. The federation fears that an influx of foreign top-level players will carry with it "massive dangers" both for the development of young German players, as well as the continued financial viability of baseball in Germany.
Davey Johnson, will manage the Netherlands' Olympic baseball team:
Davey Johnson, who managed the New York Mets, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, is managing the Netherlands' Olympic baseball team.
