A major event returns to the spotlight. High-level baseball celebrations will take place in Metz this Saturday, July 15, 2023. The program includes a junior match in the morning following a Friday camp, the All-Star game at 2:30 PM, and the home run derby at 7:00 PM.
This competition was launched in 2016 in La Rochelle under the leadership of Didier Séminet, then President of the FFBS. It was held for two consecutive years (2017 in La Rochelle and 2018 in La Teste de Buch). Then the idea was rejected by the executive committee, which deemed the cost of such an event too high. COVID-19 added its own complications, and it’s five years later that the event rises from the ashes for the delight of many baseball fans.
The Metz club volunteered to host this event, which will put an entire region in the spotlight. Local media are already interested in the program. The recent news of Mathias Lacombe’s draft adds to the media coverage of our favorite sport.
The preparations for the welcome area
President David Ten Eyck expressed his thoughts: « This will be a great baseball celebration. Our main goal is to honor the French national team and highlight the work done by the best foreign players in D1 for French baseball. It’s important to have this festive gathering moment in the D1 calendar, and I thank the Federation for trusting us to host the All-Star Game. Having an event of this type in Metz allows us to showcase the progress we’ve already made in terms of our facilities, and it also helps us advance other projects in the pipeline. And of course, we hope this event will inspire young people from our region to play baseball with the Cometz or with another club in the Grand Est. »
Let’s focus on the program. This Saturday morning, a junior match will be supervised by All-Star players. About twenty 15U players from the East region were coached by Shane Priest, Frédéric Hanvi, Yvan Acuña, and Yeixon Ruiz.
The players from the camp and their VIP coaches
The club’s current facilities, as the President mentioned, are still a bit tight. There’s no clubhouse, for example, but the conviviality and help from neighboring sports clubs will ensure a successful welcome.
A ceremonial pre-game will precede the All-Star match. If the public at previous All-Star events in La Rochelle was marked by the arrival of players on Harley Davidsons in 2016, or by a stunt plane dropping the game ball in 2017, they were stunned by the French team’s mascot (Striky) parachuting in to deliver the game ball in La Teste de Buch in Gironde. What does the Metz club have in store for us?
At 2:30 PM, the French national team will face a selection of the best foreign players. This selection was made internally by the National Technical Directorate, with Keino Perez, the selector of the French national team, coaching the team. On the All-Star foreign side, coaching will be done jointly by Pierre Cézard, the D1 coach of the Cometz, and Randy Perez, the D1 coach of Stade Toulousain. The Perez family finds itself in opposition with a brother on each team!
On the player side, see the selection above. For the French national team, this is a form of small preparation for the upcoming competitions (Under-23 European Championship in August and European Championship at the end of September). Some players called up will be absent: work or injury…
A souvenir photo from 2018
A vote was organized to determine the starting pitcher for each team. Mathias Lacombe was chosen for France, even if the White Sox may not allow him to pitch, and Shane Priest, the local player from Metz for a year, for the All-Stars. Nearly 6,000 votes were cast, which doesn’t represent as many people since the vote was anonymous and you could vote as many times as you wanted.
In the last three meetings, the foreign All-Stars won every time. The French team is young and will have their work cut out against the seasoned foreign players. The average age of foreign players is often at least 4 to 5 years higher than that of the young French team. This was already the case in previous editions. Let’s hope for a great performance by France, even if the match has no stakes. On the umpires’ side, it will be Nathan Polis and Antoine Salvador who will officiate.
The baseball celebration will continue in the late afternoon with a Home Run Derby. Eight players selected from the best hitters in the championship will compete. Each chooses their pitcher, who pitches to them rather than throwing the ball, and each will have five minutes to record the most home runs (over 105 meters at Cometz Field). Quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. We remember the impressive performances of Velazco in 2018 and especially Alex Carter in 2017 with 60 home runs in three five-minute rounds!
On the broadcast side, the federation announced a live stream that we will not fail to relay on Baseball TV France.
Photo credits: FFBS, Cometz
