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| LET'S ALL CELEBRATE THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF GB NATIONAL TEAMS! |
by Bob Fromer
There is a curious symmetry going on right now at the top of baseball and softball in Europe.
The country ranked number one in the two Olympic disciplines – baseball and women’s fastpitch softball – is The Netherlands. The country ranked number two in both disciplines is Great Britain.
And that is a much bigger accomplishment for Britain than might be immediately apparent.
Night and Day
The contrast between the resources of the two teams that met in the Grand Final of the 2009 European Women’s Fastpitch A Pool Championships in Valencia on August 1 could not have been greater.
Great Britain was the only one of the ten countries competing in the tournament that had no external (government agency) support for its national team. Most players and staff members on the British team had paid between £500 and £700 to attend pre-competition events and the European Championship itself.
Facing Great Britain in the Grand Final was The Netherlands. The Dutch have had their funding cut since they represented Europe in the Beijing Olympics, because softball is currently not an Olympic sport. But the Dutch still have enough funding from their National Olympic Association and their federation to pay two full-time and two part-time staff members, pay stipends to 21 players to train four times a week and travel to three or four high-level tournaments around the world each year with all expenses paid.
The contrast was almost as great when the GB and Dutch baseball teams met in the final of the CEB European A Pool Championships in Barcelona in 2007. The Dutch team and programme had plenty of funding; the British team barely made it to Barcelona thanks to a one-off grant from the International Olympic Committee, but the GB team had zero funding from its own country.
Recent Achievements
At least the GB Baseball and Women’s Fastpitch teams have had some external funding in the past, which has allowed them to build professional programme structures. But the GB Men’s Fastpitch and Co-ed Slowpitch teams, and the youth teams in both sports at Under-13, Under-16 and Under-19 age levels have never had a penny.
So it’s all the more remarkable to look at recent GB accomplishments:
-- By coming second in Valencia, the GB Women’s Fastpitch Team achieved its highest-ever European ranking and qualified for ISF World Championships by right for the first time. When the GB Women were given a wild card place in the last World Championships, in 2006, they finished as the tenth best team in the world.
-- By coming second in European Championships in Barcelona in 2007, the GB Baseball Team likewise achieved its highest-ever European ranking in the modern era and qualified for the IBAF Baseball World Cup (effectively a world championship event) for the first time. That competition will be played in various European countries in September, and if the GB Team can do well, despite being the only one of the 22 competitors without funding, an invitation to compete in MLB’s World Baseball Classic when it runs again in 2013 is a distinct possibility.
-- The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team competed in its second straight World Championships in Canada last month, and finished eighth, one place better than in 2004. Think about it: the GB Men’s Team is in the top eight in the world!
-- The GB Cadette (Under-16) Girls’ Fastpitch Team competed in European Championships in Holland last month, and moved up from seventh place in 2007 to fifth place this time. Still a ways to go, but the direction is upward.
-- The GB Minime (Under-13) Girls’ Fastpitch Team, with no official competition this summer, is playing in an invitational tournament in Italy, and has already beaten the Czech Republic.
-- Last summer, the GB Junior (Under-19) Women’s Fastpitch Team won the bronze medal in the European B Pool Championships and the team was unlucky not to get to the final.
-- And let’s not take for granted the fact that the GB Co-ed Slowpitch Team has won six straight European Slowpitch Championships or that GB club teams have won the first two European Slowpitch Cups. Sure, we play more slowpitch and have more slowpitch players than anyone else, but other countries have good players and winning hasn’t always been easy.
Cause and Effect
The government agencies in Britain that deny us any funding whatsoever for national teams in either sport might point to these accomplishments as a sign that we don’t really need money to do well or to maintain elite programmes. But the opposite is true: all our national team programmes, apart from the GB Slowpitch Team which has established successful self-funding mechanisms, are struggling to stay alive. After our teams participate in this year’s Baseball World Cup and next year’s ISF Women’s Fastpitch World Championships, GB senior programmes in both baseball and softball are likely to go downhill.
It has been a long upward climb for both programmes, entailing a huge amount of hard work and sacrifice, and what both have accomplished deserves to be rewarded. Instead, funding will continue to be denied, and the contrast in resources between GB and its competitors in Europe will begin to tell.
And while GB youth fastpitch softball teams are still progressing slowly from a low base, GB youth baseball teams are already showing that without the resources to train properly and compete consistently, results are likely to decline.
And as results decline, morale and motivation is likely to go with it. People can spend only so much time beating their heads against a wall.
Olympic Prospects
On August 13, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee is expected to announce the two additional sports it is recommending for inclusion in the 2016 Olympics. When the full International Olympic Committee meets in October, it is expected to endorse this recommendation – so the Olympic fate of our sports will probably be settled very soon.
But even if baseball or softball or both regain an Olympic place for 2016, nothing will change in this country. There will be no prospect of government agency funding for either sport, even if it’s back in the Olympics, until 2013; and even at that point, funding can’t be guaranteed if the government continues to concentrate the majority of its money on those sports that win Olympic medals for Britain.
So at this particular point in history, while the tide of British baseball and softball accomplishment is at its peak, let’s celebrate the hard work and achievements of all our national teams and recognise how extraordinary those achievements have been.
The players, coaches, managers, parents and everyone else involved deserve the admiration of the whole British baseball and softball community.
This article reflects the opinions of its author, and not necessarily those of BSUK, the BBF or the BSF.
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