Non US amateur baseball news thread

[wvcbxl]

It occurred to me that tidbits from around the rest of the world of amateur baseball might not warrant starting a seperate thread each time, but could be interesting enough to be mentioned on NSBB, hence the title of this thread.

 

In the drive to make baseball internationally more popular, there are sometimes unexpected setbacks: FC Barcelona axes baseball.

That's bad news ten days after the announcement that the 2013 WBC would be expanded with 12 new teams (including Spain) and include a 16 team qualifying round for the smaller baseball countries among them.

[wvcbxl]

Kudos to the Samardzija brothers for this:

 

Enclosed in a letter to the SBDA received last week was a generous donation made by the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs coordinator of community affairs and special projects, Vijay Tekchandani, personally sent in the donation after explaining the donation had originally been sent in May however, was returned back to him. The Cubs representative also enclosed a letter which stated that this donation was made on behalf of the Samardzija brothers, Jeff and Sam. Sam had contacted Mr. Tekchandani on behalf of the SBDA in the spring and obviously made an impression on him along with brother Jeff who just completed his fourth season with the Cubs organization.

 

This donation comes at a great time as the season has come to a conclusion and winter practices have begun in Serbia. Many kids in Serbia will no longer have to attempt catching a fly ball bare handed and will be outfitted with proper baseball gloves thanks to the Cubs. In our efforts to raise awareness among Major League Baseball and its individual clubs, the Chicago Cubs have been the first club to make a donation to the SBDA. We hope that other MLB clubs will follow the lead of the Cubs and help in the SBDA’s effort of spreading the joy of baseball amongst the underprivileged youth of Serbia.

 

Source: Mister Baseball Europe