Press Release World Port Tournament
The World Port Tournament and Major League Baseball are pleased to announce an official partnership for the tournament’s 2015 edition. The sponsorship deal expands the long relationship between Europe’s largest baseball tournament and the world’s premier baseball league.
As part of the partnership, Major League Baseball will assist the World Port Tournament with in-game promotions, including video spots for Europe’s largest LED stadium screen along with in-stadium entertainment by Lou Seal, the mascot of the San Francisco Giants. In return, Major League Baseball will be able to highlight its activities in Europe and the strong growth of baseball in the region.
The Netherlands have a long history of success in Major League Baseball, from pioneers like Win Remmerswaal, Robert Eenhoorn and Hensley Meulens, to current stars like Kenley Jansen, Andrelton Simmons and Xander Bogaerts. These MLB stars also highlight the strong baseball bonds between the Netherlands and Netherlands Antilles, which is further shown by the participation of Curacao in the 2015 World Port Tournament.
Major League Baseball also has a long history of developing the game in the Netherlands and in Europe as a whole, through programs such as the MLB European Elite Camp which will be hosted in Hoofddorp in August. The Netherlands has proved a hotbed for European talent in recent years, with MLB supporting the Dutch national academy system which is consistently producing professional players and the next region’s generation of stars. In addition, Team Netherlands defeated baseball powerhouses South Korea and Cuba to advance to the Semi-Finals of the 2013 World Baseball Classic where they eventually finished in fourth place, their best finish in the tournament.
Bart Volkerijk, WPT president: ‘This partnership provides European baseball with tremendous energy and is a great message to youth players that MLB is a strong believer in the united baseball community.’
The World Port Tournament will take place July 18-26th 2015 in Rotterdam. The 15th edition of the biannual tournament will feature teams from Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Curacao, Japan and the Netherlands.
Photo by Ate Stam