by Riccardo Schiroli
In December 2008 Mister Baseball posted (in an article by Pim Van Nes) my comments on the format of the main club competition in Europe. Since I made those comments not believing I was answering to an interview, I have always thought I was supposed to write an article about it to make clear what I really think. Some of you may not be interested in my “view”. That is my own. In no way this is an official position by the Italian Baseball Federation.
As a representative of Italy, last Fall I participated in a meeting on the project of a European Baseball League. The position of the Italian Federation is not in favor of this project and mine is even less in favor than that.
I have my ideas on how to market baseball and it differs from the idea I see in this project. It is not a tragedy; neither is it supposed to be a personal battle against another individual. We are talking business here. And after business meetings (or after sport matches), even unpleasant ones, we can always go sit and have a beer together (and actually did, after last Fall’s meeting).
I believe all of the main baseball leagues in Europe should play their season late April through early September. The rest of the month of April and the rest of the month of September are to me the ideal time of the year for International baseball. All of the major sports (starting from soccer) do play their international tournaments at the end of their seasons and not in between. This is a fact.
No tournament (with the exception of the Olympics, because there is no real chance to have the Olympics move their schedule to please us) should interrupt the leagues during the main months. In July and August in Europe you get good weather everywhere. Baseball to me is supposed to be the game of the Summer, the game to be enjoyed outdoors. It is like that to me and it is to most of the Europeans, who love having their drinks and their coffees outdoors. Look at the bars in Paris (to many the heart of Europe), how crowded they are when the weather helps.
It is true: in America they play (and get good crowds) also when the weather is bad. But in America, baseball is named “the national pastime”. In Europe (Holland has had baseball since 1913, Italy has had an organized League since 1948) it is never going to be like that: let’s face the truth. We have places where baseball is popular, but our beloved will never be the game of a Continent. In short: in America they sell out baseball games without even marketing them, we are here to attract people at the Stadium.
If National Leagues do not attract fans, teams in Europe will always be struggling with their finances and baseball is never going to develop.
We need to sell baseball. And we are not going to sell baseball during the Fall, simply because people in Europe are not looking for baseball when outside the leaves are falling from the trees.
Of course, we are not going to attract fans only serving beers and hot dogs in pleasant weather. We do need good competition and to have good competition we need players.
Let’s say a team needs 15 good native players to play a season (the rest may be youngsters or import players). Let’s say that the very best go try their chance of a lifetime in the United States. Who is going to play the Leagues in Europe? If we consider Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Czech Republic and Spain we are talking about (with an eight-team league format) 120 players each league, that is to say 720 players. My question is: are we developing as many players in Europe?
And the answer is a definite “NO”.
The best case scenario is of course a Europe where these 720 players make a living out of baseball. Or at least can be considered semi pros. I am not sure we will get to that point soon, but still we can do something to give the good players (the phenoms fly to the US, as we said) a chance to develop up to their potential.
This is why the Fall to me should be used to implement a European Instructional League. We have the locations in Europe where baseball is already played (Sicily, Canary Islands) and where you definitely can play 12 months a year. The main European countries could put together Under 21 teams and have them into action October and November. I am sure Major League Baseball would help. And our young good (but not phenomenal) players would have significant room to improve their skills.
To make it clear: I do not think we would sell a European Baseball League played in the Fall months and I do not think it would be useful to develop players either.
As for the European Cup for Clubs, I like the format that was introduced this year. As I wrote in another article, to me it has potential.
Of course, we cannot afford playing late March. But we could afford a week in middle April, with a Final Four in June. Or maybe we could play in June (possibly avoiding in 2010 the FIFA soccer World Cup…) and postpone the Final Four to September.
There is of course discussion to do on the subject, but with this format the best 12 teams in Europe get to play one against the other and the best four compete for the title, while any other team that wins a League in Europe has room to qualify for the year after, if they are good enough.
As for the European Championship, it cannot be played in July. It’s a big mistake and I cannot accept the motivation: “We have always played it in July”.
It is a mistake because it damages the National Leagues and because the countries who count on Minor Leaguers (Holland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, France do for sure) are going to compete in July without some of their best players.
One of the answers to the need of change to develop baseball could even be playing the Euros every fourth year. For sure, what baseball really needs is an international schedule done in cooperation by the World Federation, the Continental Federations and the main pro organizations. So that maybe we do not have the Konamy Cup happen in Tokyo and the World Cup happen in Taiwan the same week, as it happened in 2007.
I think, EU should start with a EU national league, set in four divizions…east, west, nort and south ( so every national org. could afford it ). In each division national team play games in and the champions of those leagues goes to playoffs.
We can start from there, only this way could EU baseball make prospect in all angle of a view…
I think we have to start as soon as we can with a real European League. We do not need to have a bad copy “american style” League. European media, sponsors and funs are more confident with a typical Uefa-style club competition like Soccer Champions League. In all other sport around Europe there is a “champions league” played during the season (not before or after): fron ring-hockey to handball there is one and all clubs travel across Europe… is it expensive? we could manage a partnership with a low-cost air company (i.e. EasyJet, Ryanair etc etc) and a joint-venture with an hotel-chain (Best Western, etc etc)… Using the new IBAF National ranking for set up all poule (3 clubs for Italy and Holland, 2 for Germany, France and Spain and so on). We have to do it asap. Other sports did it (see Ice Hockey with its new CHL-Champions Hockey League)…
This is my thought, an idea… we need new ideas for maximize 2009 World Cup across Europe…
What ever. Just do something, who ever is in pozition to hit this thing over the fence.