By the time the journey to find baseball in Europe reaches its end, regret rather than joy approaches. Especially if you are a baseball fan.
Literally, finding baseball in Europe is as difficult as ‘being hit by frost in the middle of the summer’. Of course, it is surprising that there are surprisingly many countries that have their own leagues for each country, but soccer is still the mainstream in Europe. In fact, if you look for ‘baseball’ in the sports magazine section of a bookstore in Europe, you will hear the answer that most of them are not.
In the meantime, the fact that the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) Europe/Africa qualifiers were held in Regensburg, Germany is quite meaningful. This is because the WBC, which aims to ‘globalize baseball’, has now prepared an opportunity to expand its base enough to play in Europe. In such a European scramble, the Czech Republic and England advanced to the second round of the finals, and it was characterized by being able to see other European countries besides the Netherlands/Israel countries.
Another indicator of European baseball,
among the countries that participated in the WBC Europe/Africa 1st round qualifier for the European Baseball Championship, is Spain, which is famous for its soccer ‘Primega Liga’. Spain also almost passed the qualifiers, but unfortunately had to drink a lot because it was caught by England. By the way, Spain also has quite a long history of baseball. In 1945, the Spanish Baseball Federation was founded, and in 1986, the ‘Spanish Division de Horner’ was held, with 32 games per team.
And one more thing, it is necessary to pay attention to the European Baseball Championship. In the European Baseball Championship, first held in Belgium in 1954, a total of four countries have tasted the championship at least once, starting with the first Italian championship. The country with the most titles is by far the Netherlands, with 24 European Championships. 온라인바카라
The reason why this European championship is worth paying attention to is that if you look at every side of the participating countries, you can see countries that play baseball a little bit in Europe. Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Ukraine, Croatia, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ireland, Poland and Finland are also participating in the European Baseball Championship. It is not possible to look at all these countries, but nevertheless, through this itinerary, it was possible to see that ‘globalization of baseball’ is not a dream.
The WBC, now featuring those European countries, will now be held in March.