by John Baum
A week after losing two heartbreakers…both on walk-off homers…we leave for Brno, Czech Republic to play the toughest qualifier I’ve ever seen. Not the ideal way to go into a tournament, but I’ve always said you can learn more from losses…I just never want to get too smart! The tournament features teams representing Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and of course, us, Switzerland. It’s hard to imagine this not being the most competitive of all four qualifiers!
This will be my fifth qualifier, (one in Austria), and the fourth consecutive for the Bern Cardinals. Every other one of these I’ve been to has featured a team, or two or even maybe three that you can just say, “I can throw anybody on the mound and walk away with the win!”. Not the case this year! Every one of these teams has a legitimate shot at claiming top spot. This will make for great competition for the entire week! I am looking forward to finding out where we match up against teams with richer baseball heritage…along with legitimacy in Europe.
The Czech Republic and Croatia, both represented in the “A” pool with last year’s champions, are sure to be the most battle tested teams in Brno. Not to mention the home field advantage for Czech team. It is going to a whole lot of fun strapping it on against them, and hopefully proving that as a small country, we deserve the chance to compete against the very best that Europe has to offer!
Coming from a smaller country has its benefits, but obviously also its drawbacks. With only eight million people in Switzerland the talent pool is on the shallow end. But the competition among the players is fierce, as most are friends off the field. This creates an atmosphere that extends beyond just wanting to beat your opponent…you don’t want your friend to tell you the next time you have a beer how he knew that curve was coming and that’s why he smoked it out of the yard!
We know the road ahead will be difficult…that no one expects Switzerland to come away with the title. I hope, title or not, that when the other team walks off the field at the end of the game, no matter the outcome…has a greater respect for how we play here! Respect would be great, but, stranger things have happened this year…(two walk off homers in a doubleheader!!!)…and we expect nothing less than to win it all!