It’s understandable, given the little time spent in D1, that teams like Clermont-Ferrand’s Arvernes and Nice Cavigal, both with 5-15 records last year in the regular season, are struggling.
Nice only joined the league in 2019, when D1 expanded from eight to 12 teams. The Arvernes were also promoted through expansion, although in their case, they had prior experience at the highest level of French baseball, qualifying for D1 in 2016 and 2017 before being relegated again in 2018.
That Nice and Clermont-Ferrand finished 10th and 11th out of 11 teams in 2021, in other words, is no huge surprise.
But what about the next team on our list?
With a regular season record of only three wins and 13 losses, Paris UC finished third from the bottom of the standings and starts this season—now that Clermont-Ferrand has been relegated and the league reduced to just 10 teams—ranked second from last.
And here’s the problem: unlike the aforementioned teams, Paris UC can’t blame its struggles on a lack of D1 experience.
On the contrary, my friend.
Finalists as recently as 2014, the club has a long tradition and once absolutely dominated the league.
Their reign as the crème de la crème of French baseball was challenged in the mid-1990s by a Montpellier Barracudas team under the tutelage of famous Canadian coach Greg Hamilton. But before that, Paris UC won 13 consecutive titles. They won another in 2000 and have 22 championships in total, the most in D1 history.
These days, they’re but a shadow of their former selves, and in 2021, they finished with a batting average of just .212. Only Stade Toulousain and the 2019 expansion team Cometz de Metz did worse. Additionally, the Parisians were second-to-last in runs scored, with 68, and dead last in pitching, with a team ERA of 6.51.
Can they turn things around in 2022? The team certainly hopes so, especially in light of plans to reduce the league, after the 2023 season, to eight teams.
For Paris UC, in other words, the name of the game is improve now, or risk losing their place in a D1 they once dominated.
Benjammin Witte
