Serbia national baseball team

The Serbian national baseball team represents Serbia in international baseball competitions.

Serbian national baseball team
Information
Country Serbia
FederationSerbian Baseball Association
ConfederationWBSC Europe
ManagerJohn Vodenlich
WBSC ranking
Current 56 Steady (5 October 2023)[1]

History

The first recorded baseball game in Serbia was played in 1935, during the halftime of a football match between the Belgrade Sports Club and Hajduk Split in Belgrade.[lower-alpha 1] The first Serbian baseball club was formed in the late 80s as part of the JSD Partizan society,[lower-alpha 2] with their first match being in late May 1989 against Varaždin 1181 in Belgrade, the first recorded match there since 1935.[9][8] BK Partizan played in the second tier of the Yugoslavian baseball league until the breakup of Yugoslavia. With the breakup of Yugoslavia, in order to maintain baseball's continued domestic survival, BK Partizan split into two teams, leading to the formation of BK Kings, based in Košutnjak. Alongside BK Dogs, based in Batajnica, BK Sleepers, based in Kragujevac (otherwise known at the time as the 'American Embassy' team),[5][3][6][lower-alpha 3] and BK Orlovi, the national league of what was now Serbia and Montenegro (FR Yugoslavia) continued from 1993 on, with its national team forming in 1994, and the Yugoslavian Baseball Federation (now Serbian Baseball Federation) being founded the same year.[4][6][5][7]

The Yugoslavian Baseball Federation was admitted to the International Baseball Federation in 1995,[3] and the Confederation of European Baseball in 1996.[4] That same year, the national team participated in the B-group European Baseball Championship in Great Britain, recording five defeats. BK Kings and BK Dogs would merge into BK Beograd '96, and would help record the national team's first victory against Lithuania in 1998 on the B-group European Championships in Stockerau, Austria, finishing the championship with three victories and one defeat.[6][4]

The first dedicated baseball field in Serbia was built in 2001 on the Ada Ciganlija recreational ground in Belgrade, which helped the development of the sport.[4][12] Some have since called for another court to be built in Novi Sad.[13] By September 2017, at least 10 baseball clubs were playing nationally,[6] with others having come and gone since.[lower-alpha 4]

The best performance of the national team since 1998 was achieved in the 2004 B-group championship in Germany, taking the fourth place. In the next two B-group championships, the team did not fare well.[4] Afterward, Serbia won the 2016 C-group European Baseball Championship in Slovenia, thus qualifying for the B group, its best performance since 2004.[15][6] Along with Poland, it hosted the B group European Championship in Belgrade, on 24–29 July 2017.[16] In 2022, along with Bulgaria and Lithuania, it hosted the European Baseball Championship Qualifiers in Belgrade.[17] Domestically, in 2020, Beograd '96 would be crowned national champions for the 20th time.[18]

Roster

Serbia's roster for the European Baseball Championship Qualifier 2022, the last official competition in which the team took part.[19]

Serbia national baseball team – European Baseball Championship Qualifier 2022 roster
PlayersCoaches
Pitchers
  • 24 Christian Bokich
  • 10 Sava Dupor
  • 31 Nikolas Juković
  • 70 Adrian Mularczyk
  • 33 Danijel Kozjak
  • 15 Dušan Nakić
  • 19 Đorđe Tomić
  • 20 Aleksandar Vlaisavić
  • 17 Stefan Zivić
 Catchers
  • 21 Danilo Cvijović
  • 55 Jovan Filipović

Infielders

  • 72 Marko Badovinać
  •  3 José Ceballos
  • 13 Uros Culum
  •  9 Draza Dupor
  • 36 Dušan Milovanović
  • 12 Bojan Ninić
  • 11 Andrej Stefanović
  • 58 Ranko Stevanović
  • 97 Dušan Todorović

Outfielders

  • 32 Slobodan Bogdanović
  • 30 Alen Pantelić
  •  2 Ivan Šijačić
 Manager
  • 23 John Vodenlich

Coaches

  • 99 Greg Fetherston (first base)
  •  1 Nick Mitrović (bench)


Tournament results

European Baseball Championship - B-Pool

  • 1996: 10th
  • 1998: 15th
  • 2000 (Group A) : 6th
  • 2002 (Group B) : 8th[20]
  • 2004 : 4th
  • 2008 (Group 3) : 5th[21]
  • 2017 (Group 2) : 4th
  • 2019 (Group 2) : 4th

European Under-21 Baseball Championship

Notes

Explanatory footnotes
  1. A similar game to baseball known as Shora was reportedly played in the area of Banat prior to the arrival of baseball in Yugoslavia in the 1910s.[2]
  2. Sources report the club's founding as early as 1987,[3] and as late as 1989,[4] with most generally agreeing on 1988.[5][6][7][8]
  3. Since then, a new baseball club had formed known as USA Team, consisting of the kids of the workers at the American Embassy.[10][11]
  4. One such team would be the first Roma baseball team in Serbia, BK Čirikli.[14]

Citations
  1. "The WBSC World Ranking". WBSC. 5 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  2. Petrović, Dragoljub (28 March 2011). "Šore u Sakulama". Danas (in Serbian).
  3. "Bejzbol na srpski način". Glas javnosti (in Serbian). 5 March 2005.
  4. "Kako se rodio bejzbol u srbiji". WOO Clothing (in Serbian). 9 March 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  5. Lekić, Slobodan (14 August 1993). "Baseball in Yugoslavia: No Runs, No Hits, No Balls, No Bats". Associated Press.
  6. "Reprezentacija Srbije gostovala u SAD". Balkan City Magazine (in Serbian). September 2017.
  7. "O bejzbolu". Baseball Club 7 Crowns Kraljevo (in Serbian).
  8. Istorija Bejzbol u Srbiji - BK" Partizan" (in Serbian). 20 March 2020 – via YouTube.
  9. Dretar, D. (25 May 1989). "Savezna baseball liga - Nova pobjeda". Varaždinske vijesti (in Croatian).
  10. "Deca iz američke ambasade na "Trofeju Beograda"". Sportski savez Beograda (in Serbian). 21 September 2020.
  11. "Takmičenja za Trofej Beograda 26. i 27. septembra 2020". danubeogradu.rs (in Serbian). 22 September 2020.
  12. Brown, Justin (13 July 2001). "Serbian baseball league finds its own field of dreams". The Christian Science Monitor.
  13. V., D. (4 August 2015). "Novosađnin najperspektivniji bejzbol igrač". Omladinski radio “O radio”.
  14. Apostolovski, Dragan (13 November 2002). "Imamo snažan zamah - Romi iz Koteža osnovali prvi romski bejzbol klub". Glas javnosti (in Serbian).
  15. "Srbiji zlato u Sloveniji – sledeće sezone u B grupi!" (in Serbian). Serbian Baseball Federation. 31 July 2016.
  16. "Evropsko prvenstvo B grupe u bejzbolu na leto u Beogradu" (in Serbian). Blic. 9 February 2017.
  17. "13 National Teams to compete in European Baseball Championship Qualifiers in Utena, Belgrade and Blagoevgrad". WBSC. 10 July 2022.
  18. "Beograd 96 wins Serbian Baseball League". WBSC. 12 November 2020.
  19. "Serbia Roster". WBSC Europe. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  20. Mulcahy, Enda (23 June 2019). "Confederation of European Baseball - European Championship Seniors - B-Pool 1996-2004". Eirball.
  21. "Qualifier European Championship Seniors '08 - Karlovac, Croatia". Confederation of European Baseball.


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