Some links

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.