European Champions Cup to start tomorrow
The European Champions Cup will start Tuesday, June 4. This year the tournament with the eight best European clubs will be played in Bologna and neighboring Castenaso.
Champions Cup is a bit odd term as not only national champions are participating. Italy and the Netherlands are represented by two clubs each: their national champions and their runners up. In the case of Italy, champion Fortitudo Bologna and runner up Parmaclima Parma will represent the Azzurri. The Netherlands will be represented by champion Curaçao Neptunus and runner up L&D Amsterdam Pirates.
Belgium will be represented by champion Deurne Spartans, the Czech Republic by champion Arrows Ostrava, France by multiple champion Rouen Huskies and Germany by champion Bonn Capitals.
Group A will contain Parmaclima Parma, Curaçao Neptunus, Bonn Capitals and Rouen Huskies.
Fortitudo Bologna, L&D Amsterdam Pirates, Arrows Ostrava, and Deurne Spartans will be in group B.
L&D Amsterdam will face the strongest possible opponent of group B on the first day of the tournament: Fortitudo Bologna. Also, Curaçao Neptunus will face the Italian opponent on the first day of the tournament.
After the preliminary round, the numbers one of each group will face the runners up of the other group. The winners of those games will advance to the final. The losers will play the consolation game for the third and fourth place.
Normally it is safe to say that the winner of this tournament will come from Italy or the Netherlands. Since 1968, the last time a champion that did not come from one of these countries (Picadero JC Barcelona), teams from Italy, the Netherlands and San Marino (also playing in the Italian Serie A1) have dominated European baseball.
Parma is record holder with thirteen wins in the European Champions Cup. Neptunus is second with ten wins.
Each participating country will send at least one umpire to the tournament. The Czech Republic (Přibyl František and David Kulhánek) and Italy (Yuri Macchiavelli and Marco Taurelli) are represented by two umpires each. The Netherlands (Edwin Louisa), Germany (Tarek Lablack), Belgium (Ken Macri), France (Serge Makouchetchev) are represented by one. Two countries that do not participate in this tournament (Spain and Slovakia) will send an umpire as well: Jose Miguel Peña Carpio and Mojmír Jankovič.