Baseball is always considered American game
and kind of sport. Nevertheless sport history opens us more details and
interesting information.
The first recorded game of baseball took
place in England in 1749. After that America, Canada, Japan and some other
countries have become real fans of such kind of sport and entertainment,
leaving Europe behind. Europe liked soccer more. In fact it was hard for
baseball to become a first choice.
“People in Europe don’t always want to
watch a long and sometimes slow game, they would rather watch soccer” - said
German Bundesliga player.
But times change and so do people and
their view towards baseball.
Now it can be seen baseball has been
budding in Europe. A steady flow of European players are getting signed by
Major League organizations. Sport experts note that it’s only a matter of time
until a European born player makes a huge mark in the MLB. Baseball
observers also add that by 2017 baseball in Europe could be set to reach new
heights.
Euro League Baseball (ELB) is set to kick
off in 2016. It will be the first year that a professional baseball league in
Europe runs with teams from multiple European countries. There are currently
two professional leagues in Europe: the Dutch Hoofdklasse and the Italian
baseball league. This ELB however, will be a true reflection of the best teams
in Europe. So far, there are three teams from Germany, two from Holland, two
from France, one from Italy, one from San Marino and one from the Czech
Republic.
There are many positive moments in the
European baseball life. To say the truth, there are however certain
difficulties as well. Money is one of the main challengers many European
baseball players face with. In particular it can be said about Ukrainian sportsmen.
It is interesting to note that baseball in Ukraine is not very popular game.
Baseball has no national support in Ukraine. Nevertheless, there are baseball
teams practically in each Ukrainian city. Sportsmen regularly participate in
different baseball tournaments. “KNTU – Elisavetgrad” (Kirovograd baseball
team) is 20-time champion of Ukraine. Just Kirovograd is considered to be “the
baseball capital of Ukraine”. Most of sportsmen of the Ukrainian national
team are players of “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” team. Not long ago, BioTexCom Center
for Human Reproduction became a sponsor of “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” team. At the
beginning of June number of baseball tournaments took place. Ukrainian team
received a quota in the second class tournament under the auspices of the
Confederation of European Baseball. This competition took place in French
cities Rouen and Chartres and eight teams played. “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” was one
of them. Thanks to the BioTexCom center sponsor support players got the
opportunity to go to France by air and to live in quite good apartments
Despite certain difficulties, Ukrainian
baseball players try their best to make baseball more popular in Ukraine. There
are a lot of baseball schools and clubs, where professional sportsmen share
their experience and skills with younger generation. That's how the JV
Ukrainian baseball team takes after their colleges “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” and
show Europe great results. This year wasn`t successful for Ukrainian Football
players (our sportsmen scored 0 goals on the European football championship
2016). Baseball team, in turn, showed how to win despite everything http://www.baseballeurope.com/post/ukraine_wins_u21_european_championship_in_tel_aviv .
Without the money, there is only so far
baseball can go. And since baseball is not an Olympic sport, many European
governments do not fund it as much as other sports. European baseball teams
were glad to hear, that International Olympic Committee added five new
disciplines to the Olympic Program. Next Games will take place in Tokyo, in
2020. Baseball competition is going to be the part of program.
Source link: https://chronicle.durhamcollege.ca/
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