IBAF President Riccardo Fraccari visited the recent 2010 European Championship for two days and also made an appearance during the press conference following the Germany-Italy clash to speak about upcoming major changes in the International Baseball calendar.
Fraccari said that the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is currently talking with professional baseball (MLB and NPB) about the future of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), which will have an influence on all the other tournaments. In discussion is the expansion of the WBC to up to 28 teams, which would be an increase of twelve teams in comparison to the current format. The Baseball World Cup and regional tournaments like the European Championship could be transformed into qualifiers for the WBC, while other tournaments like the Intercontinental Cup will disappear all-together.
Currently only Italy and the Netherlands have represented Europe in the WBC. But with an expansion other European countries hope to get in there too. One of them is Germany. Arndt Wiedmaier managing director of the German Baseball and Softball Federation said that the German Team and its players would be honored to finally get to play in the world’s most prestigious baseball event – the World Baseball Classic. They have trained the past years to be part in this great tournament. Similar statements were made by Great Britain in the past couple of years.
While professional baseball is probably going to take over the organization of the major tournaments, the IBAF will focus more on the development of the sport. The first steps are going to be that an Under-21 World Championship will be created and the Under-17 World Championship will be held annually. Talks between the involved parties are still ongoing, but an agreement is supposed to come by the end of the year. These discussions are probably also the reason that there is still not yet known, where the next Baseball World Cup (if there will be one) will be held next year. According to rumors Taiwan, Cuba and the United States are possible destinations.
Europe remains important for the IBAF as Fraccari further emphasized, but it also needs to continue to improve the fields around the continent. This was already said during last year’s Baseball World Cup, where a dozen fields received major renovations. But it is probably still not enough to host a WBC Qualifier or Major League Spring Training Games.
Additionally Fraccari would like to make club baseball in Europe to become stronger. This was one thing, which also found an advocate during the European Championship in Dutch national team manager and Cincinnati Reds scout Jim Stoeckel. He said that the playing level of Baseball in Europe gets better every year. Now the game just needs to get marketed better and it would be time for a professional league on the old continent.
CEB President Martin Miller also was on hand for the European Championship. He is proud that European Baseball has reached a level, where MLB and NPB are recognizing Baseball over here, although he didn’t sounded as enthusiastic about the WBC plans as Fraccari. He also answered questions about the date of the European Championship, which currently prohibits Minor League players from participating.
And it probably will be in the near future. Miller said that, with him at the helm, there won’t be European Championships in November so all pro players could play, while the European Season is over for several months. With this outline he wants to prevent teams from bringing in players, who didn’t grew up playing Baseball in Europe and would like to force federations to focus on player development in their own countries.
We obviously applaud such thoughts, but we also would like to see Alex Liddi, Kai Gronauer or Rick van den Hurk to play in a European Championship one time. Especially, since you cannot prohibit federations to bring in “mercenaries” anyway. You just need to make European Baseball that strong, so these players won’t make a difference anymore.
But these are just details in a changing world of international baseball. At the end of the year we should have a much clearer picture. Until then IBAF, MLB and its owners, MLBPA, NPB and all the other involved parties will jockey for positions until the ink is dry under new agreements for hopefully a better world of baseball.
Looks like this normally neutral website has become more of a personal blog, with poor english to boot.