(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Jimmy Summers named General Manager of Croatian Baseball Team
Nederlands
 ZAGREB (Croatia) -
Jimmy Summers, who pitched five seasons in the Dutch big league, has been named the new General Manager for the National Baseball Team of Croatia by the Executive Committee of the Hrvatski Baseball Savez (Croatian Baseball Association).
...Jimmy Summers at the...
...European Championship...
...2007 in Barcelona (Spain)...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In July of this year, Croatia will be the host country of the European B-Championship to be held in Karlovac.
Croatia will be a serious contender that will battle for first place.
The champion of the event promotes to the European A-Championship, which will be held again next year.
Jimmy Summers is a Mexican-born American turned Croatian.
Twenty years ago, in 1995, the 41-year old pitcher first played for Olimpija Karlovac in the Croatian baseball-league.
He went on to obtain a Croatian passport, making him eligible to play for the National Team of the country.
Summers first played for the Croatian squad in 1999 during the European Championship in Italy.
Summers then also started a career in the Dutch big league, making his debut in 2000 playing for ADO in The Hague.
Summers returned to play for the team in 2001 and 2002.
During these three seasons, one of his teammates was Japanese pitcher Tetsuhito Monna, who later also obtained the Croatian nationality to play for the national team.
Croatian player Danny Karin also briefly played for ADO in the highest Dutch league in 2001, which was one of the best seasons for Summers, who then won nine games and struckout 89 batters.
After an one-year absence, Summers returned to ADO and the Dutch league in 2004 and also pitched for the team in 2005.
In June 2004, he took over as Head Coach, then also led the team in 2005 and 2006, while also being the Pitching Coach of ADO.
In 2006, Summers led ADO to the Play-Offs in the Dutch big league.
That would be the last time that the club from The Hague reached the top-4.
After the 2006 season, Summers returned to the USA where he went on to coach the baseball-team of Columbus State College.
In the meantime, Summers kept on pitching for the national team of Croatia during international events.
He pitched one of his best games during the European Championship of 2001 in Bonn (Germany) when he faced the Netherlands.
The Dutch team narrowly won 8-7, escaping elimination for the play-offs.
The Orange squad went on to win the championship-title a few days later.
Summers then threw another fine game against the Dutch during the European Championship of 2003 in Rotterdam (Netherlands), which was won by the Orange with a 5-3 score.
During the European Championship of 2007 in Barcelona (Spain), the Dutch Team won 13-0 against Croatia.
Summers didn't pitch in that game, as he was used in games which were more important during the event, which also served as the Olympic Qualifying Tournament
The Dutch won the title and with that also qualified for the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing (China).
Last year, Summers again was a member of the Croatian Team, which then participated in the European Championship the Czech Republic, which was his seventh A-pool Championship as a player in a Croatian uniform.
With 15, Summers pitched the most innings of the Croatian pitching staff and was the winning pitcher in a 10-3 win against Russia.
Unfortunately, Croatia ended up in last place and relegated to the B-pool.
This year, Croatia gets the chance to move back into the A-pool.
After having been involved in Croatian baseball as a player for 20 years, Summers now will take on another task, that of General Manager.
,,I'm really looking forward to it'', Summer reacted.
(March 11)
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