Eavesdrop on any D1 dugout, France’s top-tier baseball league, and you’ll likely hear a wild mix of languages. French, of course. But also Spanish, English, and who knows, maybe even a bit of Portuguese or Japanese.
The multilingual murmur is a testament to the international nature of the sport. But it also speaks to the importance that foreign players (and coaches too) have within the French championship.
Every team has its share of foreign recruits. And before trying their luck in France, they have invariably tasted success in their home countries, places where baseball is, for the most part, more widespread and competitive than here.
Forrest Crawford feels at home in France (Credit: Le Baseblog)
It’s no surprise that such players often have an outsized impact on the D1, especially those who settle in with their respective teams and play multiple seasons. Guys like Forrest Crawford (USA) of the Boucaniers de La Rochelle, Ivan Acuña (Venezuela) and Yeixon Ruíz (Dominican Republic) of Savigny, and Felix Brown (Sint Maarten) and Alex Perdomo (Venezuela) of the Templiers de Sénart come to mind.
Others only stay in France for one or two seasons, either as a final hurrah before hanging up their cleats for good, or as a stepping stone to new opportunities elsewhere.
The catcher Andy Cosgrove (USA), who played for the Barracudas de Montpellier last season, will take his talents to London this year. The pitcher Sam Belilse-Springer (Canada), a sensation in 2021 for the Templiers, will play professionally in his native Quebec. Yoimer Camacho (Venezuela), a right-hander who has dominated the D1 since joining the Huskies de Rouen in 2019, is heading to Mexico.
Yoimer Camacho heads to Mexico (Credit: Le Baseblog)
Their teams will surely miss them. But it’s also true that the departure of such players opens up roster spots for a new group of foreign recruits, and it’s these players that Le Baseblog wants to focus on, especially with Opening Day just six weeks away.
None of the 10 teams that will participate in the D1 season have yet officially unveiled their roster. And when it comes to foreign recruits, some clubs prefer to keep the team composition a mystery.
In other words, we don’t yet have the complete list of all the new D1 imports. But we can at least introduce a few of them, starting with a young man who was a New York Mets fan growing up and will now have the chance to play for… Metz!
Markus Melendez, Metz Cometz
One of the many recruits heading to the Metz Cometz club in northeastern France this year, Melendez grew up in the United States, in Connecticut. But he also has ties to Sweden, where he won a league championship in 2020 with the Sölvesborg Firehawks before joining the Swedish national team in 2021.
An American with a Swedish connection (Credit: Metz Cometz)
Last year, the catcher played for the Ulm Falcons in the South Division of the German Bundesliga. He batted .309 with 17 hits in 18 games. In 2019, before taking his talents to Europe, he played for the Moose Jaw Miller Express in the Western Canadian Baseball League.
Melendez’s stint in Moose Jaw followed a successful college career at Mitchell College, a Division 3 NCAA school in Connecticut, where he played all four years. As a senior in 2019, the catcher batted .324, with 48 hits (and 52 runs scored) in 42 games.
« Metz is just the right place for me, » explained Melendez in a recent interview with his new team, the Cometz, which finished eighth (7-13) out of 11 teams last season.
« I know there’s a core of players on site who are very eager to progress. I know the club is professionalizing. And that we’re doing excellent recruitment work for the upcoming season. »
Héctor Velasquez, Sénart Templiers
Another player ready to make his D1 debut this year is Héctor Velásquez. But at 36, the Venezuelan is far from a typical rookie.
Velásquez is a seasoned veteran
An infielder who can also pitch, Velásquez has already spent a decade in Europe, much of it in the Spanish Baseball League (formerly División de Honor).
Before coming to Spain in 2011, he spent time in the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional (LVPB), which has many ties to French baseball. And since arriving in Europe, he has also played in the Polish, Austrian, Slovenian, and Italian leagues, amassing over 300 hits and consistently batting over .300.
With Sénart, he will join a team that nearly won the D1 title last year. The Templiers lost to the Huskies de Rouen in the 10th inning of the fifth and final game of the league championship. They were also runners-up in 2019. « I like the idea of playing with a team that always seems to be fighting to be at the top, » he told the Templiers in a recent interview. « I had other offers but my heart told me to choose them. »
Steve Anderson, Montpellier Barracudas
Like the two men mentioned above, Steve Anderson, 30, has also spent time in quite a few countries, but more as a businessman than as a baseball player. Indeed, in 2018, as reported by the recruitment agency
*Baseball Jobs Overseas, he launched a consulting business that took him from the Americas to Asia and many places in between.
Credit: Baseball Jobs Overseas
But just because he has a business acumen doesn’t mean he can’t play ball. A everyday player at Georgetown University, at the highest level (NCAA D1) of American college sports, Anderson, a powerful hitter, had a .344 batting average during his senior season, when he was named team MVP and had the highest slugging percentage in the entire Big East conference.
That was a few years ago, certainly, but in 2021, still eager to test his talents, Anderson joined the Fredericton Astros in the Capital City Intermediate Baseball League in Canada, and made it known right away that he still had what it takes! In 19 games, he batted .457 with five home runs and 16 RBIs en route to winning Rookie of the Year honors.
How that will translate to the French D1 remains to be seen, but the Montpellier Barracudas, third in 2021, are convinced that the American recruit will make a difference and help lead them, hopefully, to their first championship since the mid-1990s.
Stay tuned: in the coming weeks (weather permitting), Le Baseblog plans to introduce more D1 recruits.
*The players highlighted in this article were recruited through Baseball Jobs Overseas.
Benjamin Witte
Credit Photos : Baseblog, Hiep Than Trong
