The official logo of the European Baseball Champions League
© WBSC Europe
“2023 throwback”. No, it’s not a provocation but, for once, great news. The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Europe has announced with great fanfare that the first Baseball European Champions League will be born in 2024, replacing the current Baseball European Champions Cup. 8 elite teams, 4 nations involved (Italy, Holland, Germany and the Czech Republic). Spain, France and the United Kingdom are missing but perhaps at a later time they could join the project.
A tournament within a tournament, where the best European clubs, participating in different championships, will face each other by playing a series of home and away matches in the main diamonds of their respective countries. Details are not yet known, but will be soon. So after the Baseball Champions League (BCL) which has just ended in Yucatán and during which the champions of Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and America competed (Independent League, AA) – won by the latter – the WBSC made a further step forward for the high-level promotion of world baseball, and not just the Stars and Stripes.
Congratulations to President Fraccari. Let me tell you: it’s about time. Some of you will remember the previous articles on the topic published by Baseball.it, starting from October 2008, then continuing with June 2011 and April 2012.
But let’s go back to the beginning. Why “return to the past”? Because we have been talking about the European league since 2008. The protagonists of this story have the high-sounding names of Riccardo Fraccari, Martin Miller (ex-President CEB, the then WBSC Europe), Ruud Van Zetten (ex-president of the KNBSB, Dutch baseball federation ) and Robert Eenhoorn (orange champion and coach of the Netherlands national team in those years). A story that also had dark overtones, made up of denials and accelerations, of work behind the scenes. But here we are – finally – perhaps at the end: the birth of a league of champions, on the successful model carried forward in recent years by other “minor” sports such as basketball, ice and roller hockey, handball…
Because in the end, if the product that WBSC Europe is able to package is attractive, then we could see a leap in quality in our beloved sport. The latest European championships under the aegis of WBSC, and masterfully organized by the local Czech federation, are proof of this and at the same time confirmation that the foundations are there and solid: the movement at a continental level has shifted its center of gravity, broadening it.
Over time, the Baseball European Champions League could be a magnificent showcase, an opportunity for our kids and a salable product. We really need it. Since with our beloved sport we are unfortunately in the bottom of the ninth inning, down one and with two outs. Good luck President Fraccari, I believe in this project of yours and I’m rooting for it.
2023-10-05 22:17:33
#Baseball #European #Champions #League #grazie #Baseball.it
