European Champions Cup: Time to make changes?
As far as I can remember, in the past decade, no European Champions Cup has seen this many games that ended in five, six or seven innings. In all cases but one, the winners were teams from Italy and the Netherlands. A dominance like this can’t be good for baseball. Perhaps it is time to make some changes.
Why am I writing this? Well, what fun is it if a European Champions Cup tournament is totally dominated by clubs from the Italian Serie A1 and the Dutch hoofdklasse. In previous editions, there still were some surprising results; the 7-6 victory of the Mainz Athletics over Curaçao Neptunus in 2017 for example. Or the 8-0 victory of Draci Brno over L&D Amsterdam Pirates, last year. What surprising results did we see this year? Nothing, none, zip, nada.
In general, it can be said that most teams are ill-equipped when it comes to their pitching staff. Except for the Dutch teams, the pitching staffs of all teams are built for two games per week/weekend. Even in Italy they only play two games per week. After leaving the Italian Baseball League behind and returning to the Serie A1 format, it was decided to turn to two games per weekend instead of three. In the case of the Italian teams, it can be said that there is still enough quality to give the Dutch teams a hard time, as both Italian clubs showed in the opening games vs their Dutch opponents, but the Dutch are in a luxurious position. Due to the three games they play per week, their pitching staff is deeper. They also have farm teams that play one level below the hoofdklasse. So for tournaments like the ECC, they can bring some extra pitching to give their main starters some rest for the really important games like the semis or the final.
In the game between the Bonn Capitals and Curaçao Neptunus, two of the three pitchers that the Capitals used were hitting in the lineup. This is a sign that these players are not regular pitchers but players that are used at multiple positions. Wilson Lee is one of those players. He is used occasionally as a pitcher. His natural position is outfield. This indicates there is a lack of pitching depth with ridiculous scores as a result.
What should change? That is hard to tell. In the current setup, the teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and France are destined to play only an ancillary role next to the teams from Italy and the Netherlands. When those teams lose with double digits, it will get less interesting for the fans. Not something you want as baseball is losing ground when it comes to attendance.
The German 1st Bundesliga has two divisions with eight teams each. You may wonder if there is enough talent for that many teams. Also in France, they made the “mistake” of expanding Division 1 from eight to twelve teams. You may also wonder if there is enough talent for this number of teams. In fact, it is the same problem Cuban baseball is dealing with. The Cuban baseball federation has tried to disband some clubs because there is not enough talent for the number of teams. As a result, the level of Cuban baseball is deteriorating.
But of course it is not up to the Confederation of European Baseball to tell the national baseball federations what to do. In my opinion, European baseball will be in a downward spiral (even more than it is already), when the ECC will be vastly dominated by Dutch and Italian teams. Sure this Dutch/Italian domination has always been the case but the numbers the Dutch and Italians are beating their opponents with are ridiculous.
Would a ban on import players that are flown in especially for the ECC help? Perhaps. But in this way, it will prevent Dutch and Italian clubs to reinforce themselves with what I call hired guns; players that are used as temporary workers for the ECC especially.
I think it is up to the CEB to have a look. If nothing is done the gap between the Netherlands and Italy on one side and other European countries on the other, which was getting smaller in the past decade, will widen again. And in my opinion that is not something you want. It would be good for baseball if (clubs from) other countries than Italy and the Netherlands can also compete for a spot in the semis or finals. It would make baseball more attractive and more exciting.