Tournament details | |
---|---|
Country | Italy |
Dates | 10 – 15 July |
Teams | 5 |
Final positions | |
Champions | ![]() |
Runner-up | ![]() |
Third place | ![]() |
Tournament statistics | |
Games played | 10 |
The 1956 European Baseball Championship was held in Rome, Italy and was won by the Netherlands, in its tournament debut. Belgium finished as runner-up. The games were played at the Motovelodromo Appio, former home stadium of AS Roma. [1] [2]
As winner of the tournament, the Netherlands qualified for the 1956 Global World Series, held in Milwaukee in the United States. [3]
The Netherlands, which debuted in the tournament and won its first gold medal, won most of its games by a thin margin; the only blowout was its victory against Italy, the continent's baseball powerhouse. Dutch ace Han Urbanus squared off against Italy's Giulio Glorioso; Urbanus would later call the 1956 Netherlands-Italy game one of the best moments of his career. [4]
France, which had debuted in the tournament the previous year, did not participate, reportedly since many of its players were drafted to fight in the ongoing Algerian War. [4]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | RF | RA | RD | PCT | GB | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | 4 | 4 | 0 | 23 | 8 | +15 | 1.000 | — | 1–0 | 13–2 | 6–4 | 3–2 | ||
2 | ![]() | 4 | 3 | 1 | 27 | 8 | +19 | .750 | 1 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 14–3 | 10–2 | ||
3 | ![]() | 4 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 24 | −7 | .500 | 2 | 2–13 | 2–3 | 7–5 | 7–3 | ||
4 | ![]() | 4 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 30 | −13 | .250 | 3 | 4–6 | 3–14 | 5–7 | 5–4 | ||
5 | ![]() | 4 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 25 | −14 | .000 | 4 | 2–3 | 2–10 | 3–7 | 4–5 |
Approximately 5 million of the 17 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly.
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