The 2025 season has just drawn to a close, taking with it its share of victories, disappointments, and well-established habits. On the French fields, little suspense: Rouen and Saint-Raphaël once again dominated their respective championships, true to their status as heavyweights in French baseball and softball.
The PUC, crowned Division 2 champions, will return to the elite next year, relegating the Cometz de Metz to a season of regrets and bitterness.
Internationally, the spotlight came from the South: the Comanches de Saint-Raphaël pulled off a historic triple — Challenge, Championship and European Cup — and dominated one of Europe’s major softball competitions. Montpellier earned a well-deserved podium finish, while Rouen and Évry struggled to make their mark beyond our borders.
Bleus in the doldrums
For the national teams, the picture is more bitter.
The senior French baseball team finished in a painful 12th place, without a single win — a performance that sparked social media outrage. For the women’s team, France lost its European crown, slipping to third place in a competition it had dominated since its inception.
In short, a year without sparkle, much like an autumn sky: grey, without storm or flash of genius.
Well-run championships, but without fresh air
Nothing to say about the organisation: the championships ran smoothly, apart from the usual refereeing controversies and heated disqualifications.
But on the whole, the general feeling is one of a dull season, without a vision for the future. The stands lack fervour, the fans lack spark, and structural projects are slow in coming.
There was a time when we dreamed of a national centre in the Paris region, when we passionately debated the presence of baseball-softball at the Paris 2024 Games. Today, these hopes seem distant. Qualification for Los Angeles 2028 seems almost out of reach.
Talents abroad keeping the flame alive
Fortunately, a few individual highlights keep the flame of French baseball alive.
Mathias Lacombe, author of a dazzling season with the White Sox, has made it onto the list of rookies of the year, a promise of a radiant future on the mound.
Mathis Meurant and Eduardo Martinez also shone, the latter signing a fine season in the Minor League with the Brewers. Finally, Jordan Ouanyou has joined the organisation of the Cincinnati Reds.
Precious successes, even if they remain too rare to sustain the national press columns for long.
Communication: a slight stir
On the media front, progress is timid but real.
An MLB report on the Rouen Huskies put a welcome spotlight on French baseball. And with 13 articles in L’Équipe this year (including three dedicated to French baseball), we dare to hope for a renewed interest.
Clubs and the federation are exploring artificial intelligence tools to animate their social networks: well-crafted visuals, punchy texts… sometimes successful, often improvable.
On the broadcasting front, progress is notable: the final of the French Women’s Softball Challenge even found its place on Sport en France.
A first working group has been set up to structure these broadcasts, proof that attitudes are evolving, slowly but surely.
2026 in sight
The coming season is shaping up to be a transitional year.
Among the changes: a strengthening of JFL rules in Divisions 1 and 2 (and their extension to D3), a merger of the pools in D2 baseball, and a grouping of divisions in men’s softball.
Technical adjustments that won’t revolutionise the landscape, but testify to a desire to evolve.
On the continental level, WBSC Europe, supported by world WBSC, now structures its development around two axes:
- athlete development, with new lines of subsidies and aid,
- management and promotion of the sports, through support for infrastructure and communication.
Let’s hope that France will seize these opportunities to launch ambitious and structural projects.
Awaiting a new impetus
As we close the 2025 season, one thing is clear: French baseball and softball lack less talent than collective momentum.
The game holds up, the clubs work, the volunteers invest themselves. But where are the projects that make you dream, those that reignite the passion and project our sports into the future?
All that remains is to hope that, behind the scenes, the federal officials are preparing this visionary boost — the one that will make everyone want to pick up the bat and believe again.
