Piling on...NO!

Some teams, despite their energy and good intentions, simply don’t reach the level needed to compete on equal terms. This edition proved it: the European Cup will remain a missed opportunity for the senior French baseball team, a harsh but useful warning if the ambition for Los Angeles 2028 remains serious.

Five matches, five losses, and yet some constants that offer as many lessons to avoid repeating this scenario at the highest level:

• The start of the games are often solid, but consistency is lacking.
• One or two fatal innings loaded with walks tip the score irrevocably.
• Too many runners left on base, due to offensive inefficiency.
• An attack stifled by too isolated standout performances to weigh in durably.
• A management of the pitching staff that, despite its abundance, has not found the right chemistry.

The president of the federation quickly sought to contextualize the defeat, recalling that some nations have advantages linked to dual nationalities and more flexible regulations. A valid, but partial, explanation. Because the question goes beyond this tournament: it questions the training, the passage through American universities, the structuring of our elite, and more broadly the disinterest of public authorities in disciplines considered too ‘minor’ in France. Without strong institutional support, French baseball can only rely on its private forces — themselves limited by a national sports culture not very focused on this sport.

The players fought, the staff worked. But nothing worked out. As often in sports, you have to accept to erase, digest, and start over. The assessment is harsh: the 12th place out of 16 in this competition will lower France’s European and world ranking, just like the rating of a country relegated to an inferior category in the financial field.

The essential is now elsewhere: turning this failure into a wake-up call. Multiply the gatherings of the France collective throughout the year. Convince more expatriate players and their organizations to join the competitions. Reactivate the project of a national training center, already sketched in 2018, but never materialized… In short, put concrete solutions on the table rather than regrets.

Because if this campaign is a setback, it can also be the starting point of a new cycle. Provided we don’t look away.

Photo credits: Glenn Gervot