This is an excerpt from the latest edition of Michael Clair's International Beat Newsletter, bringing global baseball news to your inbox every month. Sign up for future installments HERE and check out the full newsletter, featuring a Q+A with the first French player ever taken in the MLB Draft, HERE.
As the rain lashed the field for yet another day, the players remained up on the railing, tuned in for every pitch. Sure, there were cancellations and mid-game delays, but the players’ spirits never dipped. They were in Rouen, France, for the European Cup -- the second tier below the European Champions Cup, essentially the baseball equivalent of the Europa League for soccer fans -- with teams from Belgium, Spain, Austria, and France all coming together for a week of cross-continent baseball. They had all sacrificed so much to reach this point, becoming ballplayers in countries where many don’t even know the game is played.
“We love it,” Rick Van Dijck, a pitcher for the Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks, told MLB.com. Originally from Holland, the pitcher first fell in love with baseball when he saw Mark Prior play at Haarlem Baseball Week on TV back in 2000. Van Dijck had played for teams in Holland and the Czech Republic before arriving in Austria, where he was then called on to pitch and help develop the Diving Ducks’ promising young arms.
“You may have seen in this tournament that a lot of the guys are involved in the game,” Van Dijck continued. “Even if it's raining, we’re still on the railing cheering our team on.”
I was fortunate enough to be in attendance with MLB Europe, who were shooting a documentary about the tournament host, the Rouen Huskies, who are the most successful team in France, with a legion of French Division I titles to their name. (Be on the lookout for that video and a few things I might pop up in later this summer!) Their facilities are the best in the country, even if they don't have lights to play at night. Their infield is turf and the outfield grass can soak up plenty of water, helping keep the action going for as long as possible throughout the rain-soaked week. They even have an indoor batting cage and weight room to let them work out all year long, a rarity in European baseball.
The city of Rouen also shows up in force -- at least, as much as you’ll find in Europe. Groups of school kids arrived with their teachers every day to watch, learn and scream their heads off, whether it was for the home team Huskies or one of the visitors like the Montpellier Barracudas, Hoboken Pioneers or the powerful Tenerife Marlins.
That wasn’t by accident.
“The club is very present with all the schools around the area,” Rouen Huskies manager and new France U-23 national team pitching coach Quentin Becquey said. “We propose baseball during their [gym] classes, too, so baseball is present for all the schools.”
For events like the European Cup, where many of the teams may not have anyone in the stands, “we’ll split them in half and we tell them, ‘You are with this team and you are with the other team,’” Becquey said. “We make sure that both teams are feeling loved."
Becquey, who came to the States to play college baseball at Dominican University, is always tinkering, hoping to find a new way to grow the game or improve the product on the field. Training follows the latest science and his Rouen Huskies lineup subscribes to run expectancy charts. His leadoff hitter would probably hit cleanup on any other European team; the batter behind him is arguably the best all-around slugger on the club. He spends hours watching video on YouTube or Instagram to find the small tips and tricks that could be the difference between a win and a loss.
“Baseball evolves so quickly now that if you don't do your own research, if you don't question yourself often, you’re going to miss a lot,” Becquey said. “You have people that still think that some techniques should be the only technique, and they think that all the players should play like this, or swing like this, or pitch like this. Today, there's so many different details and techniques to approach the game. That's the beauty of our game."
Sure, there may not have been many 90 mph fastballs and outfielders at times took routes more circuitous than airplanes circling the runway, but there was still plenty of great baseball on display.
Young French prospect Ben Couvreur, set to pitch at Cochise College next year, threw the first six innings of a combined no-hitter, striking out 12 and walking just three.
The French rivals Rouen and Montpellier faced off in a tense semifinal, with former Rouen pitcher Owen Ozanich – arguably the best pitcher in French national team history with more than 100 Division 1 victories to his name – helping the Barracudas defeat the Huskies.
And in the end, the Tenerife Marlins won the tournament, the team’s powerful lineup filled with Spanish national team players Wander Encarnacion, Edison Valerio, and Jesús Ustariz providing more than enough thump to carry the club.
“We will never share the field with big leaguers. Let's be real,” Van Dijck said. “And if you do, it's maybe the one that's like, ‘OK, I want to play here in Europe to just experience it.’ But you see it here? Everybody loves it. We all know each other off the field. So it's just a great time, a great experience.”
Becquey’s Huskies may not have won the Cup, but he has his sights set on even bigger accomplishments. For baseball to continue its growth around the globe, it needs people like Becquey at the helm.
“I want to build a stadium,” Becquey said, the rain pattering upon his head once again. “I want to build a stadium so I can propose so many different activities like they do in the Minor Leagues. My dream is to get the lights so we can play night games. My dream is to get the best equipment for my players, and make sure that the fans can buy the same thing. My dream is to transform this park into the temple of baseball in France."