Dear Friends of Mister-Baseball.com,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you’re enjoying the last days of 2020, a very strange year for all of us.
I would like to conclude the year with a short farewell message. At the end of 2020 I will stop as editor in chief of Mister-Baseball.com and will become the number one reader. After more than a dozen years my passion and motivation to write about European Baseball have faded. While there were years, where I had the website on my mind for 365 days and published every single day at least one article, the time has come to hang up the cleats.
On October 1, 2007 I’ve uploaded the first articles about European Baseball into the website. When I am done on December 31, 2020 it will be more than 18.500 articles overall. Especially in the beginning of Mister-Baseball.com it was an adventure looking for content. Every day I would search the web for stories in various languages. Most of the national federations hadn’t discovered the internet yet. Social media was still making baby steps.
Since then, the development of media coverage about baseball and especially European baseball has changed quite a lot. All national, continental, and international federations and leagues have understood that a good website or a strong social media appearance or even live streaming will help to get the foot in the door to gain more attention for the sport.
Baseball (and softball) faced several challenges throughout my years at the helm. I’ve started right after the 2007 European Championship. The 2007 Baseball World Cup was my first big tournament to cover. The Final Olympic Qualifier in the Spring of 2008 followed and the 2008 Olympic Games. Baseball World Cups eventually evolved to World Baseball Classics and Premier12s. Baseball and softball got kicked out off the Olympics and will return to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In between IBAF/ISF/WBSC worked their butts of to bring it back. European Baseball (and European Softball) found more quality on the fields, while still is looking to increase the number of players and coaches in Europe. The first Major League players developed in Europe found their way to the big leagues with hopefully many more to come.
Mister-Baseball.com won’t stop reporting about European Baseball. To the contrary. Gabriel Fidler and Francisco Barreto will take over. It is going to be an exciting new chapter for the website. Both are very passionate about the sport and will put the website back on track and give it new life.
I am grateful to Arndt, Matt, and Marc, who founded the site and brought me over in September of 2007. I also would like to thank everyone who has read the site and contributed to it throughout the years. It was a pleasure. Thank you very much.
I will remain involved in baseball and hopefully will see everyone somewhere at a ballpark. I still love the game with all my heart. Only the love for writing on the website has somewhat worn off and its time for some new projects.
Please support Gabriel and Francisco going forward. Feed them with your news and information through news[at]mister-baseball.com
All the best
Philipp Wuerfel.
Thank you for all the work you’ve done. As an American who is eager to see baseball’s popularity expand on the world stage, I’ve enjoyed coming here to learn more about European baseball. I’ve even found myself seeking out streaming options for games that I read about on your website. I hope this website continues, as it is an invaluable resource for the game.
Don’t worry, John. Gabriel Fidler and I will be taking over for Philipp and have ambitious plans for the site. We are both passionate about European baseball and eager to introduce readers to the clubs, coaches and players that make it what it is. Check back often! — FB