A non-competitive baseball movement has taken root and begun to grow across the Atlantic. On the occasion of the Texas Playboys’ visit to Paris on August 5th, baseball TV France took a closer look at this trend.
The Sandlot Revolution, born in 2006, is rapidly expanding and includes around 150 clubs primarily in the United States and around the world. Sandlot is its trademark and can be translated as vacant lot or dirt field. The fundamental value of baseball is to have fun, not to win. These are either former players, or people who have played as amateurs or even complete novices. By coming together, this community first seeks to create social bonds among people in a living space. The baseball game is a link that is surrounded by many other activities: yoga, music concerts, dance, charity collections…
Indeed, the charitable approach is often at the heart of the action. So let’s say it right away, this American trend is already customary in France. We are not like in the United States surrounded by clubs, universities, professional clubs that impose competitive baseball where only the most gifted can participate. Our clubs in France are mostly in this ‘Sandlot’ approach. Our clubs are inclusive and allow all populations to have fun. Of course, competition tends to frame as much as possible in regional leagues the championships. But we see everywhere on social networks friendly matches in France that seek joy of life, fun and laughter. The ‘big players’ are banned from handicaps: hitting left-handed, hitting with a junior bat, not having access to the mound…
Back to the upcoming August 5th. Particularly rare in the history of baseball in Paris, even in France, an American team is visiting the City of Light. As soon as they heard about this visit, a group of passionate players, without labels, from different Paris-region clubs, came together to create an event: the organization of friendly matches between the TEXAS PLAYBOYS and an ALL STAR team of Paris-region players, which will take place on Saturday, August 5th from 1 PM to 8 PM at the Ranelagh Paris baseball Club field within the Auteuil racetrack in Paris.
« The purpose of this event is to throw a big baseball party, open to everyone, inclusive, participatory, fun, cool, for the pleasure, passion and love of the game, and to introduce baseball to the Paris-region public »
we declare Vincent DANNA, the main organizer. « We’re doing this especially for the young people we want to make dream when they meet, with stars in their eyes, American stars, in an extraordinary atmosphere »
This event is also an important test before the organization (not yet confirmed) by
the powerful American league, Major League Baseball (MLB), of the first official MLB matches in
2025 in France at the Stade de France.
To be up to the challenges of the MLB’s visit and the development of
baseball in our country, we need new infrastructures, especially in Paris where
aging fields in the Bois de Vincennes have been overcrowded for several
years due to the growing number of players. For example, the Ranelagh Paris Baseball Club has submitted to the Paris City Hall a project to build an innovative field, the first eco-friendly field in Europe, inspired by the scheme and spirit of Central Park in New York, in Bagatelle, near the Bois de Boulogne, in the 16th arrondissement, where baseball began in France at the beginning of the 20th century.
Developing such eco-friendly and innovative infrastructures will allow French baseball to have its own revolution.
