The International Baseball Community Blog
Written / Audio / Video
Heart and Grit Behind Czech National Team Advancing to the World Baseball Classic for the First Time
By Carter Cromwell October 15, 2022 When the World Baseball Classic begins next March, the Czechs will most likely be an underdog, but that won’t faze them. After all, the Czech team wasn’t a favorite before the recent qualifying round, but it proved adept at...
A Pitcher from Texas and a First Baseman From NYC Combine to Win a Championship in Europe
Brett Holtz is an Ivy League first baseman who had his college baseball career ripped away from him by COVID-19 and Alec Lemmon had hung up the cleats and got the travel bug while backpacking in Australia before deciding to combine his new passion with his old...
Finding Your Post-Playing Career Path: The Gretchen Aucoin Story
When Gretchen Aucoin was hired as minor-league player development coach by the New York Mets in January – thereby becoming the Mets’ first female on-field coach – it might have seemed the culmination of a long-held goal steadily worked toward over time. But it...
Locked Down in a Dreamland; The Logan Moreland International Softball Story
By Carter Cromwell April 5th, 2022 When Logan Moreland went to New Zealand in late 2019 to play softball, it was to be for just one season – get in, get out, go home. Pretty simple. Then Covid-19 happened, and things weren’t so clear-cut. Suddenly, the short-term...
Chasing Summer; The Gary Owens International Baseball Story
By Carter Cromwell April 25th, 2022 From very early on, Gary Owens had a vision – he knew he wanted to be a baseball player. But he couldn’t envision then how far the game could and would take him. At the time, his vision extended only to the boundaries of his...
Working in the offseason for summers in Europe playing baseball; This UCLA Bruin continues at 34
UCLA Bruin alumnus Eddie Murray (far right above) teaches in the offseason in order to play baseball in Europe during the summer. Eddie wrapped up his college career in 2009 but it wasn't until 2014 that he discover that baseball in Europe was a thing. He got his...
Haven’t played in three years? No problem, come hit leadoff, win a championship and coach our National Team
Photo Credit: jchristophestudio.fr In this episode, Baseball Jobs Overseas founder David Burns and co-host Jimmy Jensen interview Jacob Biller, a BBJO member who played his first season overseas in France in 2021 where he won a championship and even managed to get on...
After two years playing professionally in Japan, Lisa Maulden shares her experience
Seattle University alumna, Lisa Maulden, first took her career overseas in 2015 and never looked back. Her first few seasons overseas were in lower leagues including the Belgian second division and Hungarian Softball League before moving up the ranks to higher-level...
Repping The Motherland; the Erika Piancastelli Story
January 20, 2022 By Carter Cromwell Given that her father played baseball and her mother was a member of the 2000 Italian Olympic softball team, one could easily assume that Erika Piancastelli’s path to softball stardom was pre-ordained – mapped out early on and...
The Only Active Openly Gay Pro Baseball Player Tells his Story; Bryan Ruby Part 3
In my previous two podcast interviews with Bryan Ruby, he was not openly gay. Since our last interview, Bryan has come out and is now the only known active, openly gay professional baseball player in the world. His coming out was not just within his friend and family...
PlyoShop.Com
Plyoshop is the first European-based online seller of plyo balls, leather weighted baseballs, and resistance bands. Our mission is to make elite sport products more accessible for athletes and coaches in Europe. With over 10 years of experience in worldwide E-commerce business, we’re pleased to partner with BBJO in elevating the level of baseball and softball in Europe. Use the discount code BBJO10 for a 10% discount off of any of our products. 
Hakusoh Bat
Hakusoh Bat has been producing bats in Japan for over 70 years and recently expanded to North America and Europe under the label ‘Spark Slugger’. They produce high end, professional wood and composite bats with a wide selection of models using many different types of wood from Japan, North American and Taiwan.
Hakusoh Bat is now approved with the WBSC and across Europe as of 2020. 
