Kruno Karin: “…this is the best European Championship in the history.”
We asked the president of WBSC Europe Krunoslav Karin for an interview on the last day of the European Championship. He was very satisfied with the organization of the tournament, and even went as far as to say it was the best European Championship in the history. You can also read his opinions on sixteen team format, his thoughts on changing the game to 7 innings, and the state of EC 2025 in Isreal.
We are in the last day of the championship. How are you satisfied with the organization?
First, I have to say this is the best European Championship in history. Perfectly organized. There were a lot of people in every stadium. I think that nobody in Europe has as many stadiums with such a high quality on such a small area. There were two games played daily, which is great. Each had lighting. I can say this is the best tournament in the history.
We will see the finals between Spain and the Great Britain. Netherlands or Italy is not a part of the finals for the first time since 1967. Do you think it signals other teams are catching up with the two countries?
Yes, I think they are catching up. For example, Switzerland won two games and they don’t have to qualify. While there were a lot of games that ended on mercy rule, but if you look deeper, first 5 to 6 innings were close. This means they now have pitchers, who can battle for several innings. Of course, they still have a lot of improvements ahead of them, but I think, it’s a good format.
We need to give these countries a chance. Swiss and Hungarians wouldn’t be here, if we kept twelve team format. It’s not a good format for Italy, or Netherlands, but it’s good for the others. Yesterday we had a game where Croatia could beat Italy, but they didn’t have what it takes at the end. Four or five years ago, when I was the president [of Croatian association], we couldn’t even imagine it. It’s good for baseball and it show the quality of other countries improves.
WBSC started youth tournaments in a new format with 7 innings. Do you think there’s an option to change the rules for senior category, too?
We changed it for all tournaments, beside the men’s. I understand that it would help the organizers, if the games were shorter, when people now don’t want to watch games that are too long. However, as we saw in European cups, the games are pretty swift, because pitchers have top quality. Even here we only had a few games that lasted more than three hours. I know the motivation was to shorten the games, but some changes here would mean less competitiveness. I think we will keep senior games played for nine innings, we will see how it goes.
Let’s go to year 2025, when Israel hosts European Championship. Currently, there is not enough infrastructure in Israel, especially when it comes to stadiums. Do you have any promises from Israeli federation that it will change?
We had a lot of meetings with them this week. The agency they hired to organize the tournament was also there. It will have a professional leadership, the same it was here in the Czech Republic. It is an agency organizing a lot of big events in Israel. It shouldn’t be a problem from that point of view. Of course, the stadiums are a problem. There’s a new one being built in Bet Shemesh, which should be really nice. That one will be fine. Then they have two small fields, where they have good lights, which is good, since lights are always expensive. If they fix them, these fields will be fine, too.
They also have a chance to build a field in Tel Aviv, but they have to wait until the election, which will take place in November. Then they will go after it. I was there in the previous year, I saw the places and our delegation will go there in two weeks. They will look at the stadiums and tell them what they need to do. They need Major League Baseball approval, because their teams have a lot of players from minors league. I am an optimist, they will handle it. If they won’t we will have to make a certain decision next summer, to decide we are we going to do. Maybe we will do a short qualification here on the continent and then a short tournament. Right now I’m an optimist, I’m in contact with a journalist from Israel, so I have a steady stream of information from him and I hope it will be alright.
