European Champions Cup 2018 awarded to Curaçao Neptunus

The Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) has announced that the organization of the 2018 European Champions Cup has been awarded to Curaçao Neptunus. For the club from Rotterdam, it is a nice addition to the celebrations of its 75th anniversary.

The current European and Dutch champion organized this tournament for the last time in 2015 when the tournament was still split in two. One part in Rotterdam and one part in Paris. The winners of both parts met each other in the ECC final. In that year Neptunus beat Fortitudo Bologna to win the European Championship.

Next to Curaçao Neptunus, the Netherlands will be represented by Holland Series finalist L&D Amsterdam Pirates. Other countries that will participate are Germany (Heidenheim Heidekoepfe), France (Rouen Huskies), Czech Republic (Draci Brno), Italy (A.S.D. Rimini Pirates and likely Fortitudo Bologna) and San Marino (T&A San Marino).

Neptunus was founded in 1943 as baseball branch of the soccer club with the same name. In those days, baseball was regarded as the ideal summer sport for soccer players. As a result, many soccer clubs had its baseball branches. But in case of Neptunus, there was more. In 1943, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. As the Germans forbid everything that tended to something American or English, the establishment of the baseball branch was an act of resistance.