The start of 2023 brings three pieces of good news for French baseball and softball.
Record number of registered players.
The federation has recorded the new all-time high for baseball, softball, and cricket registrations for 2023 since the beginning of the 20th century. It’s encouraging to see that the combined efforts of clubs, departmental committees, leagues, and the federation are paying off. This is also thanks to baseball-specific media, which are not numerous but, with the help of social networks and their blogs, podcasts, or apps, keep baseball alive in France. (A coup Sur, The Strike Out, and Baseball TV France). Bein Sport also contributes by broadcasting a few matches. However, this is a figure: 14,564 registered players, which needs to be adjusted. If we remove cricket, which will no longer be included in this figure in 2024, we have to count 12,816 registered players, which brings us back to the 2019 figure but which included cricket. We can therefore clearly talk about a federation with around 13,000 registered players, including 23% women and 50% under 18 years old.
The ranking of the French national teams
The world federation (WBSC) announces several times a year the rankings of nations in terms of points based on the results of European and world competitions. France has been steadily progressing or stagnating for about a decade.
Women’s softball is the strongest, as it has moved up four spots to 14th place in the world. Men’s softball remains in 23rd place. Men’s baseball also moves up one spot to one of its best positions, 21st. The results of the World Baseball Classic do not count in this calculation, as it is a competition dependent on the MLB. Women’s baseball has not yet been revalued; France currently holds 16th place. Clearly, the girls are beating the boys on this one!
A top-tier international umpire
The World Baseball Classic, which will take place in March 2023 without France, which failed to qualify, will feature a French umpire among the international officials. Serge Macouchetchev, who officiates at the highest European level and has been umpiring for over 20 years, will be assigned to Pool A, which includes the teams from Taiwan, China, the Netherlands, Cuba, Italy, and Panama. It goes without saying that one of the finalists is in this pool. We will return to this topic with an upcoming interview with Serge.
