Czechs among world baseball elite

Czech baseball experienced its own smaller version of “Nagano ‘98” over the last few weeks. For the first time in history, the national team made it to the World Baseball Classic (WBC), a top tournament with the top teams on the planet including the best players from America’s Major League Baseball (MLB). Pitcher Lukáš Ercoli, a graduate of sports management at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of the Charles University, was instrumental in helping the Czechs advance.

“The World Baseball Classic was created after baseball was phased out of the Olympic Games program and is the most prestigious national tournament on the planet. Moreover, under the patronage of the most famous league in the world, MLB, which guaranteed no other world competition would be held at the same time, allowing the best baseball professionals to compete,” Lukáš Ercoli explained for Forum.

Only elite national teams get a chance to compete at the WBC, which has added the top four qualifying teams for the tournament played next March. However, you have to get an invitation from the organisers for that one too. The Czech team got an invite for the third time in a row, but only succeeded this year in Regensburg, Germany, when they knocked Spain out in the deciding match. And at the beginning of October the team celebrated the biggest success of a generation.

“The World Baseball Classic is the most prestigious national tournament on the planet,” says Lukáš Ercoli.

Twenty-six year old Ercoli, who has been a steady player on the national team for several years, wasn’t certain of a place in the WBC qualifiers. Quite the opposite. “When the baseball federation got the invitation for the qualifiers, I called Coach Pavel Chadim and said straight up that if I was the 10th pitcher on the list, I'd rather go as an official than sit on the substitutes' bench,” he says.

Ercoli has been an employee of the Czech Baseball Association (ČBA) for the past three years, and has been in charge of social media or contact with journalists. And so, before every big national event, he has to balance the role of an active player and that of an official. “At the time, the coach appreciated that we were talking on the level and we agreed that I would not be in the team. But then the end of the league season was exceedingly successful and the situation suddenly changed. So I found a replacement for myself at the association and put on the national jersey again,” Ercoli adds.

Player or functionary?

Meanwhile, the European Championship will be held in the Czech Republic next year, which Ercoli sees as the culmination of his work for the baseball federation. Does that mean he won't play for the national team anymore? “I would definitely still like to go to the World Baseball Classic as a player, but I honestly am not counting on the European Championship. However, Coach Chadim told me that it's a long way away and we'll talk about it in June when the European Championships will be nearer. So we'll see. It's a bit of a bizarre situation,” he smiles.

In fact, for now, he doesn't even know where he will play in the league next season. A year ago, he left Kotlářka in Prague, the team he grew up playing baseball with and joined Hroši Brno, which reached the finals with his help. “It was a great success for such a young club, until this year the semi-finals were the maximum. I have an offer from them for next year, but commuting to Brno was really difficult. I still have to think about it and give it careful consideration.”

Lukáš Ercoli's path to baseball began in his native Roudnice nad Labem: “My dad wanted me to be athletically versatile, so when I was a kid I tried athletics, hockey, joined the Boy Scouts, I tried my hand at everything. Then I tried baseball, and that decided it. We had a great group in Roudnice.” Martin Červenka, probably the biggest icon of Czech baseball, was one of them. “Martin and I have known each other since we were about eight years old, and we played against each other almost every weekend at the cottage and fooled around. I also followed in his footsteps from Roudnice to Kotlářka in Prague, which was then led by Martin's father as a coach. At the age of eleven, I was one of the national team's hopes, but I needed to play at a higher level, so they gave me a try and I stayed there. My dad drove me to Prague several times a week until I was 18, for which I am still grateful,” says Ercoli.

While Červenka then experienced twelve years of professional baseball in the USA and went through the farm teams of three famous MLB teams, Ercoli remained loyal to Kotlářka until last year, when the traditional club was relegated from the league. He, too, once dreamed of playing professionally in America, ideally for his favourite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. He considered studying in the USA, but for financial reasons he decided to go to college in the Czech Republic after graduation. “Most of my classmates from high school applied to study economics, but I was always good at math and I didn't want to study sports because I don't feel like an all-around athlete. And I came across the management course at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, where the combination of marketing and economics with the sports environment appealed to me," he says. As an undergraduate, he worked in marketing for Sparta football and the Czech Olympic Committee, then was approached by the baseball federation during his Master's studies and has been a member of the CBA marketing team since 2019.

Czech baseball players have day jobs

After all, all his teammates have civilian jobs as well; you would have to look in vain for professionals in the Czech Republic who can only make a living from baseball. “Certainly not native Czechs, unless of course you count the guys who coach baseball or take care of the facilities. Baseball in the Czech Republic is a very collegiate sport, so half of the guys usually work in the economic field. But it's varied. For example, Martin Červenka is involved in strategic sales on the foreign market, Arnošt Dubový is a high school teacher, Martin Schneider is a professional firefighter,” he names some of the professions of his national teammates.

"Whenever I go on the field, I try to imagine a kind of tunnel where I focus only on myself and don't notice the surroundings," says Lukáš Ercoli.

In any case, everyone is already looking forward to the World Baseball Classic, even though the tournament won't take place until March 2023. The next WBC group is hosted by Taiwan, while the other two are held on US soil.

Taking to the field in a 55,000-seat stadium

“Playing against America, which will be represented by really thirty of the best baseball players in the world, would be a tremendous experience. But I was personally more attracted to Japan, so I'm excited about the draw,” admits Ercoli, who loves Asian culture and has been to South Korea and Taiwan several times. In Tokyo, the game will be played at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome, which is always sold out and boasts an incredible atmosphere.

Baseball players playing in the Czech Republic can only dream of such a crowd; Ercoli himself experienced his largest crowd at the U23 World Cup in Taiwan, where there were seven thousand people in the stands. That's why he can't guess what a few times the number of people in the stands would do to him. “But I try to focus as if I was in a kind of tunnel whenever I go on the field, where I just focus on myself and don't notice the surroundings. I then think of my role as a mini-match between me and the batter. I am satisfied when I succeed four times out of five,” he says.

It will be very difficult to achieve such a record even among the world's elite, but the Czechs are not just going to take part in the WBC. “None of us will go there just for a trip, our goal is to showcase Czech baseball. After all, the whole world will be watching. However, I am realistic and our goal is to win at least one game, which in the past was enough to secure the team's participation in the next edition of the WBC,” he admits.

If his form from last season holds, participation in the competition should remain in reach. And how long does he want to play before he moves definitively into an officiating role? “At the highest level in Czech conditions it is realistic to play until 35, exceptions play until 40. As a pitcher, I already have to compensate for the one-sided load or strain on my back with various exercises and massages, so I'll see how my body holds up and whether injuries can be avoided.”