Further Reflections from the Baseball World Cup – and questions about what the future holds for Great Britain Baseball

By Tim Stride

The Great Britain baseball team concluded its campaign at the 2009 Baseball World Cup on the afternoon of Sunday, September 20, after 12 days and 10 games in Croatia and the Netherlands. Prior to that, players and coaches had spent several days preparing in Germany, including three training games against the German national team. After more than a fortnight of international baseball, with virtually a game a day, squad members have since had some time to reflect on an experience that very few GB baseball squads have been lucky enough to enjoy previously – the opportunity to test themselves against some of the best hardball-playing countries in the world. Despite leading the team through one of the most successful phases in its history, the Great Britain Head Coach and General Manager have also voiced their concerns about the the programme’s future.

During the campaign we published an initial ‘reflections’ piece after Great Britain had played the World #1, Cuba, in its first game of the second round in Haarlem, Netherlands. The end of that game on the night of Sunday, Sept 14, marked a whirlwind 24 hours for GB Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia and his squad. Britain’s place in the second round had not been confirmed until late the previous night after the final result came through from Germany’s defeat to Venezuela in the final first-round game. It meant that Great Britain took the last qualification spot over Germany due to having conceded less runs than the Germans in the first round. General Manager Alan Smith then had to round up the troops in the early hours of Sunday morning for a flight from Zagreb, Croatia, to the Netherlands. Later that day they were facing a team full of Major League-calibre ball players which has won the World Cup 25 times. Great Britain was making only its second appearance in a major world competition since winning the inaugural Baseball World Cup (BWC) back in 1938.

The Cuba game was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the campaign for the GB squad for a number of reasons. First and foremost, there are few better signifiers that your team has ascended to a new level of baseball than playing the Cubans in your opening game of the World Cup second round. Though the Cubans eventually ran out 6-0 winners, they were contained to just a 3-0 lead until the eighth inning.

“In ten years Great Britain went from losing 27-0 to the Netherlands at the 1999 European Championship to holding Cuba to just six runs,” observed Will Lintern, one of the squad’s catchers and a former member of the National Baseball League’s Brighton Buccaneers and London Mets.

For Lintern and many others on the squad, taking the field with the Cubans brought home what an achievement it was just for GB to make the second round – both on a personal level and for the programme as a whole.

“To play in the Baseball World Cup for Great Britain was the most amazing thing I have ever done in my entire life, let alone my baseball career,” explained Lintern, who began his baseball career in Kent’s Tonbridge Bobcats youth organisation. “This was the culmination of a ten-year journey that took me to America and Germany to play baseball, all part of a life long dream to play for the Great Britain national team.”

As well as a 70-year absence from the world baseball stage, Britain has also struggled in that time to establish itself in the top tier of European baseball. Though it won a silver medal in the 1967 European Championship (EC) and took first place in the ‘B’ Pool in 1988 and 1996, GB has generally found itself in the bottom half of the standings when competing in the ‘A’ Pool of the European Championship. Consequently, the country has not been viewed by the rest of Europe and the world has possessing particular international baseball pedigree – until recently.

The progress made by the senior team over the past six years has seen it move from barely avoiding relegation to the European ‘B’ pool in 2003, to winning the silver medal in Barcelona in 2007, and then competing in the top 16 in the 2009 World Cup,” says Alan Smith, GB General Manager and a former pitcher for the side. “To have been one of only four European teams to qualify for the World Cup was in itself a significant achievement [subsequently, other European countries were invited to participate as co-hosts when the the 2009 event was expanded]. To progress to the second round and then be competitive against seven of those top 16 teams was fantastic.”

“David and Goliath”

Though the squad was disappointed to ultimately come away with only one win from the campaign – the 4-1 defeat of Croatia which helped GB book a place in the second round – the 0-7 record in the second round belies the competitive manner in which GB engaged baseball nations which are much more established at this level, better-resourced and full of professional-calibre players.

As well as the dream-like experience of facing the Cubans and giving them a game to remember, Great Britain’s journey through the World Cup included several other notable team feats. There was the late comeback in the opening game against the Japanese in which a five-run rally in the ninth inning – punctuated by a three-run homer from Sam Wiley – gave the World #3 a scare. There was the four-run fightback in a televised game against the Olympic Champions, South Korea. This time a two-run double by Wiley helped tie the game 5-5 in the seventh and force the Koreans to up their game. And for a short while Great Britain led against another of the world’s top ten teams, Puerto Rico, taking a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning after battling back from 2-0 down.

“Like most competitors, I am not a big fan of moral victories, and we would undoubtedly be much happier if we had we pulled off a major upset in the second round,” admits Stephan Rapaglia, GB Head Coach. “That said, we accomplished our primary goal of advancing to the second round, and we competed hard until the last out of the last game. We may have been at a decided disadvantage in terms of ability, but we played with great heart and character. There is no doubt that GB made the international baseball community sit up and take notice, and I am proud of how the guys performed.”

“I hope that people understand how impressive it was that a team of part-timers (at best our players could be considered semi-professional) took the field against some of the best baseball teams in the world and didn’t just compete, but competed well,” adds Jason Holowaty, GB infielder and a former British championship winner with the London Mets and Richmond Flames. “It’s a David and Goliath story that doesn’t quite show up in the won-loss record, but was evident in the quality of the games.”

At the conclusion of Britain’s World Cup exploits, Liam Carroll, National Teams Programme Official for the British Baseball Federation, credited the Great Britain baseball team on behalf of the BBF Board:

The BBF Board congratulates the Great Britain baseball team on its accomplishment at the 2009 Baseball World Cup. Making the second round and competing among the top 16 nations in the world is a tremendous achievement for the national team, a measure of the continuing growth of baseball in Great Britain, and an inspiration to the GB players of the future. We thank Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia, General Manager Alan Smith and each and every player and coach for their hard work and commitment to Great Britain Baseball.”

Falling just short

Coach Rapaglia will be well aware of the limitations of his squad which perhaps prevented those ‘nearly’ games turning into the “major upset”-calibre of beating he would have loved to administer. Generating consistent offense was often a challenge. Of the 16 teams in the second round, Great Britain posted the second-lowest team batting average (.213), scored the fewest runs (25) and ranked second in the number of groundouts (112) (all cumulative over first and second rounds).

While Britain did exhibit offensive outbursts – such as the comebacks against Japan, Korea and Puerto Rico – these were generally sporadic and often limited to one big inning every couple of games. This wasn’t enough to mount a serious challenge to the more established teams, despite Britain’s pitching staff toiling valiantly to keep their team in games.

There were some beacons of light; as mentioned already, Sam Wiley got key hits, scoring six RBIs and hitting .333 over the tournament. Catcher Chris Berset hit .387 and smashed a two-run homer which helped defeat Croatia. For anyone who was at the Netherlands game it’s also hard to forget Tim Collins fouling off nine pitches before earning a single in a battling at-bat against Dutch starter Tom Stuifbergen, or, in that same game, Sam Whitehead motoring around the bases to beat out a triple for his first hit of the campaign.

Unfortunately, there were a few occasions where the batters’ hard work to tie a game or put GB in the lead was quickly undone by a defensive error at a crucial point which let the opposition back into the game a little cheaply. Illustrative of this is that after the first and second rounds, Britain was tied with Nicaragua for first place in the number of errors committed (18).

Competing with a different class

It’s important to also acknowledge the sheer difference in class in the opposition that Great Britain’s players were confronted with in each game. Rather than being derogatory to GB’s squad that’s intended as a compliment to both the standard of the opposition and the achievement of GB in playing close games against those players, many of whom come from a professional baseball background where they train and play at a high level every day.

In contrast, Britain’s squad could only get together to train as a team a few days before the World Cup began. With that mind, it was pleasing to see Britain’s defense get gradually tighter as the games went by. Despite this, there were a number of times during the second round where a GB player, coach or spectator could only marvel at an opposition player’s natural talent for baseball. This was particularly prevalent among the Latin American players who could make outrageously athletic defensive plays with nonchalant ease in order to rob the hitter of what looked like a sure hit. By the latter stages of the second round, GB’s fielders could go some way to matching this. In the penultimate game against Spain, Tim Collins laid himself out at third base to stop a hard hit ground ball and then issued a fine throw from his knees to make the out at first. In the same game, centrefielder Alex Malihoudis made an amazing diving catch in centrefield to rob the batter of a hit.

“As a player, the experience of facing such strong competition was truly phenomenal. There were no easy games to be had, especially in the second round,” explains Holowaty. “If on Sunday night we fought hard against Cuba, the number one team in the world, we couldn’t rest on Monday as we faced Korea, the number two team in the world. Every team had professional players, strong pitching staffs, and deep hitting lineups. It really made you raise your game as a player, and the intensity of playing 10 world-class games in 11 days was something I had never experienced before.”

Where next for Great Britain Baseball?

Having made its presence felt at the top end of the European scene in the past two years and now on the world stage, GB’s appearance in next summer’s European Championship in Germany will be accompanied with a certain level of expectation – and possibly even a smidgen of pressure – as it will participate as reigning silver medallist. Given this September’s achievements, Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia, General Manager Alan Smith and the staff and players should be relishing this next challenge.

However, between now and next summer there are two fundamental issues which will determine the national baseball team’s direction in 2010 and beyond – the lack of funding and the possibility of the British Baseball Federation introducing eligibility requirements for players on the GB roster. For Rapaglia and Smith – both of whom have presided over this chapter of GB’s history since 2004 – the concern is that these factors might spell the end of an era rather than allowing them to build on the work so far.

If the existing funding problems continue, ever-greater financial contributions from players will become necessary. And this could ultimately lead to a team consisting of those willing and able to pay,” speculates Rapaglia. “On the other hand, [if] the BBF Board decides to impose significant Britain-based roster composition requirements on the GB coaches, the current weakness in domestic British baseball will have a direct and negative impact on the near-term competitive ability of the GB senior team. Under such circumstances, the senior team would be unlikely to avoid relegation during next summer’s European Championship, and the Baseball World Cup would soon become little more than a distant memory.”

Funding

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) vote in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the Olympic Games before London 2012 was a huge blow for Great Britain’s national baseball and women’s fastpitch softball teams. Not only has it denied them the opportunity to play in an Olympic event on home soil and the exposure that would have given the sports in the UK, but it means that government funding for elite programmes – through bodies like UK Sport and the British Olympic Association – is now concentrated on teams and individuals which will feature in the London games. Both the national baseball and fastpitch teams relied heavily on grant funding in order to fulfil their mutual aim of competing at the highest level of their sports.

GB Baseball’s last piece of grant funding came in the summer of 2007 as it prepared for September’s European Championship (also a potential route into the 2008 Olympics) and General Manager Alan Smith has effectively had to make the team’s funds from that summer stretch over three seasons and two major events, as no further funding could be secured for the team’s historic return to the world championship this September. During that time, GB was forced to pull out of the final Olympic qualifying competition in early 2008 due to funds not being able to extend to three major events. It has been stated a number of times that Great Britain was the only one of the World Cup’s 22 participating teams not to have supporting funding in place.

“Despite repeated requests to reconsider its position, the government has steadfastly refused to provide funding to baseball, and any prospect of future government funding went out the window when the IOC decided not to reinstate baseball as an Olympic sport,” confirms Smith.

Given the situation since 2007, Smith should be credited with managing the finances and the team’s operations in such a way as to get the Head Coach’s chosen players and coaches to the European and world championships with enough preparation and resources to allow that squad to far exceed general expectations – and without the programme having to go into debt. However, with virtually nothing left in the bank, Smith could be facing his greatest challenge as General Manager in planning for the 2010 EC.

Roster composition

The debate around the national baseball team’s roster composition has surfaced a number of times over the years. Ironically, it seems that the more successful the Great Britain baseball team has been, the louder the questioning of whether its coaching staff is choosing the right players – that is, whether too few UK-based players are being given an opportunity to represent their country rather than the overseas-based players from stronger baseball backgrounds who make up the bulk of the roster.

By the official criteria of the international baseball competitions – and the current criteria of the British Baseball Federation – all of the present members of Coach Rapaglia’s squad are eligible to represent GB so it’s not so much a debate of eligibility but of philosophy. It re-surfaced during the World Cup with talk that the BBF might introduce requirements to include a certain number of British-based players in future GB rosters.

Rapaglia has addressed the issue in detail in a statement published on the Great Britain Baseball website in which he makes clear the reasoning behind his roster policy and how he believes the potential changes would affect the chances of future success:

At the moment, in terms of Britain-based players representing GB in international competition, the connection between the GB senior national team and British domestic baseball is much weaker than I would like. The main reasons for this are (i) the extremely shallow pool of qualified players based in Britain and (ii) the lack of adequate domestic training and competition opportunities. As to the first of these items, after years of contraction there are only four teams in all of Great Britain that are currently attempting to play at the top domestic level. This means that there are only 50-60 players in all of Britain who are playing at the top domestic level on any given weekend, and only half of these (at most) are British. As to the second of these items, the standard of play in Britain at the top level pales in comparison to that of other top-tier baseball nations in Europe…

“… Ultimately, therefore, the combination of the shallow talent pool and the lack of adequate domestic training and playing opportunities leads to a situation in which there are very few Britain-based players who are legitimate candidates for the Great Britain national team…

“… Each of General Manager Alan Smith and I would certainly prefer to have more Britain-based players on the GB roster for major events. We each believe that to do so would have some benefits for domestic play in Britain, and we have accordingly given senior national team playing opportunities to multiple Britain-based players in friendly events. But, we also believe that to wear the GB uniform in international competition is a tremendous privilege that must be earned through ability and commitment. In our shared view, no player should have the opportunity to represent GB simply because he is a member of a very small talent pool (i.e., the pool of Britain-based ballplayers with GB passports who play at the higher domestic levels). Rather, he should earn that opportunity on the basis of his ability and his level of commitment.

“Finally, we believe the GB programme is under an obligation to field a team in sanctioned international events that is best capable of achieving on-field success for Britain… We continue to believe that such is the primary obligation of any national team in any sport.”

Of course, there are reasonable arguments on either side of the debate. Rapaglia’s development of the programme has led to the increasing success of the team in Europe and, in turn, a presence on the world stage. In theory this should improve the profile and perception of British baseball and it would be nice to think that it’s seen as building on the work of previous GB head coaches who pulled the team out of the ‘B’ Pool and into Europe’s top level in the 1990s. Given the choice and resources, the next aim for the current management would surely be to permanently establish GB at the level of the past two years and hope that inspires an invitation to MLB’s World Baseball Classic, which has rapidly become the most high-profile and star-studded arena for national baseball sides.

It should also act as a high benchmark towards which young players in the British Baseball Academy and GB junior programmes aspire and work. Surely it is a good thing that those players of the future could watch, on television and online, the senior team playing at a high level, taking on top baseball nations in the World Cup? Hopefully, the effect was even greater given there were more recognisable faces for the domestic baseball community in the 2009 squad than in the last EC roster.

In his statement, Rapaglia draws on the examples of Richard Kiljn, Will Lintern and Alex Malihoudis who were involved in the BWC campaign and who all grew up playing baseball on the British youth scene, progressing to the adult leagues and then spending time abroad improving their baseball education. There are also players like Brian Essery, Jason Holowaty, Aeden McQueary, Raef Hobbs-Brown and Sam Whitehead, who have each spent time in the UK playing or coaching in the National Baseball League. Thirdly, there is a group of long-term participants, like Bradley Marcelino, who, despite not plying their trade in the UK, have served under a number of GB head coaches and are thoroughly invested in the team.

However, with no extra public funding to show for recent achievements and with the UK press generally apathetic towards promoting baseball, you could forgive those who question the impact that the national team’s success is having on domestic baseball. But it seems – with slightly perverse logic – that for the GB programme to capture the attention of the media, to justify public funding, and to attract commercial sponsors, which might in turn generate similar interest and support for domestic leagues, it first needs to be playing to a high standard on the field… for which, funding and resources are needed. It’s something of a chicken-and-egg situation. But what Rapaglia aims for in his selection policy is to aim for that high standard.

He makes it clear in his statement that in his evaluation of the level of domestic baseball he intends no criticism of teams and individuals competing in the British leagues. But both Rapaglia and Alan Smith share the view that if the GB coaches continue to be allowed the freedom to compose their rosters as they see fit – rather than having certain criteria imposed on them – then the domestic leagues, the British Baseball Academy and Great Britain Baseball junior and senior programmes must work together to build a pathway which encourages and, ultimately, enables players raised and based in the UK to reach the standards required to represent their country.

I would like to think that [GB's] success would energise and invigorate domestic baseball in Britain, in particular by improving the quality of the domestic leagues to a level that would enable GB-based players to hone their skills to international standards without the need to travel overseas to play their baseball,” says Smith. “To achieve the necessary improvement will require strong and unified direction from the BBF board and the commitment of all members of the domestic baseball community. Hopefully, the increased awareness created by the success of the national team will be the catalyst for such improvement.”

Links

• GB Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia’s full statement
• Complete reports from each of GB’s World Cup games are here at greatbritainbaseball.com
• Bob Fromer encourages us to celebrate the achievements of the GB national teams (BaseballSoftballUK site)
• Results, standings, television listings and general news from the official Baseball World Cup site
• Facebook fan page – look for the ‘Great Britain National Teams’ page
• Matt Smith’s round-up of GB’s World Cup campaign on the BaseballGB blog site

The BBF, BSUK and Great Britain Baseball take no responsibility for the content of external internet sites.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individuals concerned and do not necessarily represent those of BaseballSoftballUK and the British Baseball Federation.