Quick Guide to Czech Extraliga (Part 1)

Season 2020 of czech baseball Extraliga will start at May 22nd. Here is quick guide for overseas baseball fans. In first part we will introduce you basics about league and teams.

Rules

Czech league use international baseball rules. Teams can use DH, two runners are on bases at start of extra inning. Because players are amateurs games are ussually played fridays’ evenings and weekend. Every team plays two or three games per weeks. Teams without lights play doubleheaders on saturday.

Teams will play in two phases. In first phase teams will play against each other two times. Than they will split to to groups. First six teams will play 15 games each and first 4 will advance to playoff. Last four teams after first phase will play against best four teams from second league for 4 places in Extraliga 2021. Because of coronavirus pandemic teams are not allowed to bring in foreign players. There will play only foreign players who lives in Czech republic on a long-term basis.

History

Baseball is played in country for more than 50 years. Till the end of communism era (till 1989) baseball was marginal sport. His position improved in last 30 years. History of czech Extraliga started in 1993 after Czechoslovakia was dissoluted. The most succesfull team is Draci Brno with 21 titles. Last two years won Czech series Arrows Ostrava. From 1993 to 2016 there was 8 teams in league. In 2017 Extraliga expanded to 10 teams.

Last year

2019 season brought second title for Arrows Ostrava. They won Czech series against Eagles Praha 3-0. Skokani Olomouc was demoted to second league and SaBaT Praha will replace them in 2020. SaBaT will play in Extraliga after 21 years.

How to watch?

You can follow all games via Play-by-Play on iScore. Schedule and links you will find on official website of league. Link to Play-by-Play will be available less than hour before game start. Some clubs offer webcam live stream. Links you can find below.

Arrows Ostrava

Founded: 1973

Czech titles: 2 (2018, 2019)

Notable players: Boris Bokaj (P), Tomáš Juněc (1B), Jakub Malík (OF), Ondřej Satoria (P)

Streams: YouTube

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Eagles Praha

Founded: 1981

Czech titles: 0 (3 Czechoslovak league)

Notable Players: Matěj Hejma (OF), Marek chlup (OF), Petr Zýma (IF), Tomáš Duffek (P)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream: YouTube

Draci Brno

Founded: 1972

Czech titles: 21 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)

Notable players: Petr Čech (C), Martin Schneider (SS, RP), Radim Chroust (P), Jakub Hajtmar (IF)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream: Webcam

Kotlářka Praha

Founded: 1982

Czech titles: 1 (2015)

Notable players: Martin Mužík (C, OF), Jan Novák (P), Filip Smola (IF, OF), Daniel Vavruša (C, IF), Martin Červenka (if not be with Orioles)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream: Webcam

Cardion Hroši Brno

Founded: 2003

Czech titles: 0

Notable players: John Hussey (P), Vojtěch Menšík (IF), Michal Ondráček (OF)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream:

Tempo Praha

Founded: 1963

Czech titles: 0 (2 in Czechoslovakia)

Notable players: Jake Rabinowitz (P), Marek Minařík (P)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream:

Třebíč Nuclears

Founded: 1982

Czech titles: 0

Notable players: Lukáš Hlouch (P), Marek Krejčiřík (IF)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream:

Olympia Blansko

Founded: 1988

Czech titles: 0

Notable players: Jakub Kostka (P), Štěpán Havlíček (P)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream:

Technika Brno

Founded: 1971

Czech Titles: 3 (1993, 1994, 2011 + 2 in Czechoslovakia)

Notable players: Pavel Budský (1B), Mário Gottschall (C), Martin Střítecký (C)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream: YouTube

SaBaT Praha

Founded: 1969

Czech titles: 0 (7 x in Czechoslovakia as Kovo Praha)

Notable players: Jiří Vavruša (P), Daniel Vítek (OF)

Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Stream:

Who to follow?

First choice is obviously official website of Czech baseball association baseball.cz. Don’t forget to follow their Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Some interesting video you can find on their YouTube.

Stats. Alpha and omega for many baseball fans. If you want to find more stats than offer official website, you have to visit baseball-stat.cz. You can finde there many additional stats, especially WAR.

We can recommend you as well project MLB Czech. Especially their Twitter is for sure one of the best baseball Twitter accounts about MLB in Europe. Don’t miss it.