Regensburg
Enjoyed visiting the ballparks last week that will host the 2014 European Baseball Championships. Thanks to CEB President Jan Esselman and Czech Republic VP Lucie Cubikova for handling all the logistics. Our friends in Regensburg Armin, Philip, Juergen and Martin were also a big help in getting around the country and seeing the park on a last minute check up. The event will be held in mid September and played in 4 cities. Regensburg Germany and Trebic, Ostrava, Brno Czech Republic. Baseball clubs in Europe are operated much differently than the clubs and leagues we have in the USA. Each city typically has a sports club that houses several sports. In some cases the sport has their own field and venue. Kids begin to use the club at a young age and work their way up in the levels. In most cases they do not have a high school or college baseball sport program so the club development fills the gap. It’s a really cool concept as it brings the community together similar to the way our MLB academies function in the states.
Ostrava
It’s great to see baseball growing in Europe. A testament to the work that the IBAF, CEB and the World Baseball Softball Federation are doing to grow our game. 
Brno
Chad also took a look at a pre-event training field in Paris France. All synthetic field except mound and plate. All of the tournament competition fields are natural grass.
Lieusaint France
Trebic
I also had an opportunity to see the new ballpark in Hoofddorp , Holland a suburb of Amsterdam. These guys are not hosting any of the European championship rounds this year but i had a chance to see the progress on my return. What a nice baseball venue! The CLub team and city should be real proud of this park that has 5 fields and they added 2 half fields. Ike , Joe and Chad are helping to train the local volunteers how to maintain the field. This week they are hosting an MLB clinic.
Hoofddorp ( Amsterdam)
Also took in the opening game of the Prague Baseball Week. Home of the Eagles. Jan Begin the man who runs the sport complex had a nice crowd on hand for the event. ( photo below)
