Men's Baseball WBSC European Championship 2025

[phelps 8,685]

2 minutes ago, copravolley said:

Is baseball in Italy getting weaker lately? When was the last time we played in the Olympics? In 2000? We have much better in softball in last some years.

baseball in Italy barely exists, we can only get some good result by enrolling many US born players from mlb and triple A teams, but it normally happens at the WBC, where the rules on the eligibility of the players is way different from IOC's

 

last time we played the Olympic tournament was in 2004

[copravolley 635]

3 minutes ago, phelps said:

actually, half the team is made of foreign players

the problem is that they're all low level players that normally take the field in our championship

Just like in hockey NT team?

[phelps 8,685]

Just now, copravolley said:

Just like in hockey NT team?

more or less, yes

the difference is that in Hockey there's no tournament like the WBC, with its rules and the interest of nhl and iihf to keep our team competitive

in these terms, baseball is just another world

[copravolley 635]

Just now, phelps said:

baseball in Italy barely exists, we can only get some good result by enrolling many US born players from mlb and triple A teams, but it normally happens at the WBC, where the rules on the eligibility of the players is way different from IOC's

 

last time we played the Olympic tournament was in 2004

In 2000 and 2004 were a great period for Italian team sports: we even could to qualify 7-8 teams for the Olympics: football, basketball, volley x 2, pallanuoto x 2, baseball, softball...

[copravolley 635]

Recently the FISG has invested heavily in women's hockey: further naturalizations, long 1/2 month training camps in Canada and the USA. The result is that we're at the same level as Slovakia, or even slightly better. Worse still, men's hockey has no plans for improvement and Jalonen alone won't be able to do miracles with such weak players.

Edited September 24, 2025 by copravolley

[phelps 8,685]

2 minutes ago, copravolley said:

In 2000 and 2004 were a great period for Italian team sports: we even could to qualify 7-8 teams for the Olympics: football, basketball, volley x 2, pallanuoto x 2, baseball, softball...

still, the only medal candidates were the men's volleyball and the 2 waterpolo teams (I don't consider the men's football tournament a serious thing to get mad about)

 

now we lost the women's waterpolo and gained the women's volleyball, so, nothing changed since then

 

however, team sports only award 2 sets of medals, it's way more important to develop the individual disciplines that give us the chance to win more medals

[copravolley 635]

6 minutes ago, phelps said:

still, the only medal candidates were the men's volleyball and the 2 waterpolo teams (I don't consider the men's football tournament a serious thing to get mad about)

 

now we lost the women's waterpolo and gained the women's volleyball, so, nothing changed since then

 

however, team sports only award 2 sets of medals, it's way more important to develop the individual disciplines that give us the chance to win more medals

In 2004, women's volleyball could have won a medal – if I remember good we lost a 3-2 to Cuba in the quarterfinals. We were also the actually World Champions in 2004 and we have just became this title in this year. I still believe women's water polo is such a niche sport that we could still be a powerhouse, for example, since Greece and Spain they are. In my opinion, federnuoto focuses more on swimming, diving, etc., than on women's water polo, which is a shame. We could certainly be better than Greece- the actually World Champions, or the Netherlands- the bronze medalist in OG.

 

In 2004 we also won silver medal in men`s basketball  

Edited September 24, 2025 by copravolley

[copravolley 635]

for: 0-2 to 2-2...

[Gianlu33 5,998]

It was really tough, but we won 6-2. Tomorrow we'll play Germany in the quarter-finals

[copravolley 635]

Is Germany much stronger than France? From what I understand, the Netherlands and the UK are the best here on paper?