Book on the history of Baseball in Europe

[Euro baseball]

I know there is a lot of discussion on this board about European baseball. If you're interested in one of the first efforts to comprehensively chronicle the history of baseball in Europe, you might want to pick up "Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History," which was just released.

It looks at the history of baseball in 40 European countries. Individual chapters highlight 11 countries (Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, Sweden, Czech Republic and Croatia) and two additional chapters cover 29 other countries. Another chapter gives tournament-by-tournament summaries of the European Championships and nine appendicies cover such topics as European-born Major Leaguers; Former Major Leaguers who have played in European domestic leagues; country-by-country champions and European country performances in major tournaments featuring non-European nations (like the World Cup, Olympics and the Intercontinental Cup).

If you're interested, you can check it out at:

The publisher, McFarland's, website or a host of other online booksellers.

If you have any questions feel free to post or private message me as I'm the author of the book.

Many thanks.

[cutchemist42]

WOW, where can I order this online?!

Also....how come you wanted to do this book?

[Euro baseball]

Thanks for the interest. I've played baseball in Europe for more than 10 years. Although I grew up in the US, I had dual nationality (with Great Britain) and played on the GB national team between 1996-2006 (competing in, among other events, four European Championships and one European Championship B-pool tournament). I ultimately moved to Europe and played in two domestic leagues -- Great Britain (which is amateur) and Sweden (where I was a foreign "professional"). In total, I've competed against national or club teams from 21 different European countries (from Italy to Ireland) and I've played the game in ten different European nations (from Netherlands to Norway). I've also held assorted off-field positions related to the sport in Europe. (In the US, I had played four years of Division I NCAA baseball and one season of independent ball in the Frontier League.)

While the book does make passing reference to my personal experience when appropriate, the vast majority of the book is based on research (interviews, European federation archival materials and numerous articles and books dating back more than 100 years).

A moderator said that posting links to where you could get the book was "spamming" :noidea so if you struggle to find the book online just drop me a private message and I'll give you the link. Thanks!

[Mischa]

Former Major Leaguers who have played in European domestic leagues

I plan on ordering the book (or getting my wife to order it for me as a birthday gift) but I was surprised at this - have there been many such major leaguers? I know of Mike Hartley in Germany and otherwise only the Netherlands and Italy.

For the Netherlands, I see Stan Bahnsen, Ivanon Coffie, Robert Eenhoorn, Rikkert Faneyte, Ralph Milliard, Win Remmerswaal, Calvin Maduro, Roger Bernadina, Eugene Kingsale and Eddie Oropesa.

For Italy, there are a lot more - about half of the 160 guys listed at http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Category:Serie_A1_Players were major leaguers.

What other countries had MLBers? Or is the list basically Italy and the Netherlands?

[Euro baseball]

Mischa - As you suggest, the vast majority are from Italy. I have more than 130 former Major Leaguers on my Italian list (I make the disclaimer that this is not a totally exhaustive list as I figure I might have missed some). Beyond that and players you mentioned who competed in Holland and Germany (one in Mike Hartley), I have two in Great Britain, two in Belgium and one in France. After the book went to print, I think I've uncovered another in France. Hopefully, the list will serve as a foundation for further research as I'm sure other names will surface. The list also includes the name of the club team in Europe that the players competed for as well as a brief rundown of their Major League careers.

Incidentally, I didn't include players like Pat Ahearne,who played for a Russian club this summer in the European Cup or those who played in country but not in a domestic league (like Jim Bunning in Germany in the early 1960s).

[Paul Wendt]

Congratulations on completing your book.

> A moderator said that posting links to where you could get the book was "spamming"

the point is, a form of commercialism that is unwanted here.
When there are book reviews online somewhere, refer to those. Because this subject is so new, I suppose there will be some academic reviews --permanent publications by people whose purpose is not commercial.

Meanwhile, BR Bullpen is a baseball wiki hosted by Baseball-Reference --a small but not tiny wikipedia devoted to baseball.
Evidently it welcomes entries on books by title in the "Books" category.

For example, here the entry for a related book by its author.
Books at baseball-reference: Baseball in World War II Europe, by Gary Bedingfield (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Baseball_in_World_War_II_Europe)
Note how BR Bullpen incorporates links to booksellers automatically using the (International) ISBN.

--
Did you use the pseudonym "Euro Baseball"? If not, I suggest that you add the author's name far above.

What is the timespan of the book? Does it begin with a tour by American ballplayers in, say 1874 or 1889?

[Euro baseball]

Per Paul's post above, this link is to an MLB.com article on the book:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article_entertainment.jsp?ymd=20080903&content_id=3412966&vkey=entertainment&fext=.jsp

[Euro baseball]

Another review: http://www.mlbscoop.com/?p=47