By: Alexi Friedman (@alexifriedman)
Translated to English*
In the 2004 Olympic Games, something unexpected happened: Greece participated with a baseball team. In fact, at the matches, some, not a few, mysterious Greek sports fans were watching celebrating some balls that ended up being fouls or that didn't land where they should. This is easily explained: at that time, it was easier to find a supermarket open on Sunday than a Greek who knew how to play baseball. The sport was practically non-existent in Greece. Building a baseball team that could play against the best in the world and not lose hands required a titanic effort, promoted by the Greek government and largely organized by enthusiastic Greek-Americans on the other side of the Atlantic.
This year, on the 20th anniversary of the Athens Olympics, Tom Mazarakis, general manager of the National Baseball Team, looks back on those days with a sense of admiration, but also of a missed opportunity. However, and while until recently what prevailed was uncertainty regarding the future of organized baseball in Greece, the sport seems to be recovering. "It's moving in the right direction," he says.
The Olympics may have made a few Greeks become baseball fans and may have caused the creation of some clubs and leagues, but the big picture is that America's favorite sport has failed to impress the Greek public. The federation was formed with the sole aim of creating an Olympic team. "But that was a mistake," says Mr. Mazarakis in a cafe in Klathmonos square. "You can bring athletes from the USA and give them Greek passports and let them play, but the federation should from day one start with attracting new kids." Mr. Mazarakis, together with Kostis Liarommatis, president of the Hellenic Baseball and Softball Federation (S.t.M.: A related sport to baseball, played with a larger ball on a smaller field), are now trying to correct this mistake . In the spring, they organized a one-week get-to-know-you baseball and softball seminar at Paleo Faliro. Hundreds of children responded. Similar events have been organized throughout the city.
At the same time, the national team has achieved some success last fall had a decent performance at the European Championship in the Czech Republic, while in another tournament, in the same country, which ended on July 9, it took first place in its category, winning all four games played. The most exciting development, however, concerns the construction of two new fields one for baseball and one for softballas part of a planned sports complex in Paiana, near the airport. "We have been promised that they will be ready in February," says Mr. Liarommatis. "But with politicians, you never know."
In the summer of 2018, the two stadiums in Elliniko that were the only ones left were closed in view of the large investment and have now been definitively "removed", along with the hopes of those who played there, the national team has played at home since 2005. The loss of the stadiums it also emptied the pool of new talent. "You can't have development without a stadium," says Mr. Liarommatis. "Even if we are looking to find new players, they have to train somewhere, and that somewhere can't be a football pitch."
In the meantime, the National Team, made up almost exclusively of Greek-Americans, has managed to remain in the first division in Europe. But, as Mr. Liarommatis says, "we need to involve the younger generation". For this generation, Mr. Mazarakis is trying to keep the flame burning.
It has helped attract players of Greek descent from the US and Canada, works with Greek authorities to maintain the federation and secure passports for athletes, coordinates travel arrangements for tournaments and raises money to cover certain expenses. At the Athens Olympics he volunteered at the baseball games while coaching a local club. Today, at 69, he is considered the main reason there is still a national team. Born in New York to a Greek mother and a Greek-Italian father, he remains a New York Yankees fanatic, while living permanently in Athens since 2008. The reason he fights for the development of the sport was because he "refused to accept that the Greek dream of baseball would disappear due to indifference".
Until now, the history of baseball in Greece has been written mostly by Greek-Americans who decided to support the country of their ancestors. The list includes the likes of Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, who helped finance the Greek Olympic team's bid and who died in March, former US Senator Paul Sarbanes and former American League star Nick Markakis, who played on the Olympic team before starting his professional career. Former US Ambassador to Greece, Nicholas Burns, also assisted in the effort.
Supporters of Greek baseball in Greece include Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos, owner of the Byron Hotel near the Acropolis, who during the preparations for the Olympic Games was appointed president of the newly formed Hellenic Philatelic Softball Federation in 1997, the current federation is its continuation. Mitsiopoulos initiated Greek-American participation in the Olympic baseball team and was a key sponsor of the national team, as was the president of the American University of Athens, Achilleas Kanellopoulos.
The blue and white uniform has also been worn by first-class players from the USA, such as brothers Chris and Scott DeMetral. "Whether it's the connection with our Greek roots or the opportunity to represent the country where our grandparents and, for some of our teammates, their parentswere born, this was a major reward," says Chris, 54, who coaches Greece's national baseball team from 2021. When he was playing for the national team that participated in the Olympics, he had already had several good seasons in the US. His brother, Scott, at 51, is currently an assistant coach, while in 2002 he had helped the team to qualify for the Olympics. Like almost all players and coaches, the brothers live in the US and travel to tournaments in Europe once a year, at their own expense. "What we can do from here, besides trying to build the best team, is help baseball and softball get some exposure," Scott says.
The National Softball Team, which won two games in the 2004 Olympics, faces similar problems. The women's division, which recently traveled to the World Softball Championship in Canada, has launched an online fundraising campaign to cover travel expenses for that and two other tournaments. The new coach, Jay Nelson, wants the team to qualify for the 2028 Olympics (S.t.M.: the two sports will not be held in Paris, but by decision of the International Olympic Committee they will reappear in 2028). "It's ambitious, but I think not impossible," he comments from his home in New Jersey. "Our goal is to improve and succeed." Denise Horafa, who lives in Athens and has worked for the Greek National Softball Team in various positions for years, says the biggest challenges for the sport today are finding talent that has grown up in Greece, but also a decent place for practice. "The right way to grow the sport again is to attract new kids," he adds. She was born in Manhattan to Greek parents and her family moved to Athens when she was thirteen. "But it will take a long time," he adds.
The Greek national baseball and softball teams have both suffered from a lack of players living in Greece. The 2004 Olympic team had only one resident of the country on its roster. Accordingly, the current team also has only one: Loukas Soukeras, a dedicated 23-year-old who lives in Nea Smyrni. Sukeras started baseball a decade ago, after a friend encouraged him. "I fell in love with it," she says. He then joined a club, but the team "deeply feared that one day it would all end". Indeed, when that happened, and the last pitch was lost, Soukeras continued to play with the support of his parents, who travel with him to the games.
For one year he played in a Bulgarian team, while he has been a member of the Greek national team for four years. He declares himself a baseball fanatic: "It's not a boring sport," he says. “It bothers me when I hear someone say that. They say that because they haven't watched it and they don't know, they can't understand the flow of the game. It takes patience to watch a game, but that's the beauty of it." On June 4 this year, Sukeras watched a major league baseball game in the US for the first time when he was in the stands for the Red Sox game in Boston.
He was among the honored guests for the annual "Greek Celebration" event and was on the field with his Greek National Team teammates Noah Zavola and Chris Demetral. Soukeras' trip, his first to the US, was paid for by his teammates. On the field he is versatile, while off the field he helps many young kids living in Athens learn baseball. At the same time, he attends courses to become a certified coach. Despite his passion, he admits he is on a "completely different level" to other players on his team, some of whom have almost reached the top professional league in the US. “I'm just a guy from Greece. I continue to train and follow my dream,” he says.
At the European Championships last year, Greece needed wins to maintain their place in the rankings and Soukeras did not get much playing time. In the end, the team finished with three wins and three losses, a respectable result considering that they started the tournament with two heavy losses. "It was amazing to be involved," he says. He wants to see more funding for both baseball and softball and more support for national teams. "No one knows I'm here practicing baseball, no one has approached me."
The finances for these sports are meager. "The Greek government is giving us an amount that is shameful, it is nothing," says Mr. Liarommatis. As he explains, the 12,000 euros given to the national baseball and softball teams together mainly covers the tournament entry fees.
One Saturday afternoon not long ago, Soukeras and two of his friends met at the dirt track of Metsovios in Zografou to play sports. With 14 worn-out baseballs, a few bats, a few square pieces of turf for bases and a net, they spent hours taking turns throwing and catching balls that bounced sideways on the rough surface. The three friends often meet in empty spaces they find for training, one is 32-year-old Stratos Paleologos and the other is 40-year-old Anthony Del Vasto.
Del Vasto is from Panama, has lived in Greece for 24 years and plays in matches with his friends on the weekends. Paleologos, who that Saturday wore an old hat from his days playing with the Patras Panthers, says many Greeks love baseball and adds that support from the Greek state will go a long way in increasing participation. 31-year-old Dimitris Kourtis, who first joined the National Team in 2016, agrees that the emphasis should be on finding the Greek players for the next day, while commenting that Mazarakis kept the sport alive: "We call him the 'godfather' of baseball in Hellas". Today, Kourtis plays for a professional team in Italy. "When I play with the National Team," he says, "I feel like I'm playing with people like me." For Peter Maestrales, one of two current national team players who also played in the 2004 team, it is still a "tremendous honour" to represent the country where his grandfather was born. Maestrales, who turns 45 this year, loves to play and wants to help Mazarakis and his company continue. "Will baseball ever become a huge sport in Greece? Probably not," he says. "But I think if people had more exposure to this sport, they would appreciate all the things that make it great for us."
