Sport Baseball Inaugural season 2016 | Founded 2015 No. of teams 3 active in 2016 | |
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Countries Czech Republic (1 team)Germany (2 teams) | ||
Euro League Baseball (ELB) is a professional baseball league in Europe founded by the European Association of Professional Baseball (EAPB). The winner of an ELB season is awarded the Gregory Hallman trophy. ELB played its inaugural season in 2016 with three teams: Draci Brno, Haar Disciples and Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg. The first championship was awarded to Draci Brno.
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Organization
EAPD holds a 60% stake in Euro League Baseball Ltd. which is the operator of the EBL and holds all naming and media rights as well as all partnership and sponsor contracts regarding Euro League Baseball. EAPB President Wim van den Hurk is the CEO of Euro League Baseball Ltd.
2016 season
The inaugural ELB season in 2016 was contested by three teams: Draci Brno, Haar Disciples, Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg. Each team played a total of 8 regular season games (4 at home and 4 away) between April and July.
Amsterdam Baseball
A team called Amsterdam Baseball was founded with the purpose to compete in ELB, and to be run by the league. The backbone of the team was supposed to be players from Amsterdam Pirates, but also some previously retired players like Dirk van 't Klooster and Chris Mowday. However, when the season was already well underway, Amsterdam Baseball had to withdraw from the league due to pressure from the European and Dutch baseball federations. This left the league with only three teams for its inaugural season.