(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Ivan Rodríguez named Manager of Greek National Team
Nederlands
...Ivan Rodríguez...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 ATHENS (Greece) -
Ivan Rodríguez Rodríguez has been named the new Manager of the Greek National Baseball Team for the upcoming European Championship, which opens next Friday in Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep (Netherlands).
The Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation announced the naming of Rodríguez last Friday (September 2).
Rodríguez succeeds Italian Mauro Mazzotti, who stepped down last month for personal reasons.
On February 11, the Greek Federation had announced that Mazzotti was named as new Manager of the Greek squad.
He then succeeded Tom Mazarakis, who led the team during the last European Championship in 2014 in the Czech Republic, where Greece finished in tenth place.
In the past, former Major League-catcher Jim Essian also led the Greek team for some years.
Essian played twelve years in the Majors for five clubs.
Ivan Rodríguez is an experienced coach, who led HCAW in the Dutch big league in 2013 and 2014.
Last year, the Venezuelan-born Rodríguez was the Head Coach of Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg in the highest German league.
This year, he returned to lead the German squad, but the two separated at the end of June and Rodríguez was succeeeded as Head Coach by Kai Gronauer.
In November last year, Rodríguez was a member of the coaching-staff of Team Europe, which then participated in the two months-season of the Asia Winter Baseball League in Taiwan.
In the past, he also had been a member of the coaching-staff of the Netherlands AAA-Team (Juniors).
Early August, Rodríguez was named 3B Coach of Dutch big leaguer DSS when Nick Stuifbergen took over the team as Interim-Head Coach for the remainder of the season.
As of now, Rodríguez will lead the Greek Baseball Team only during the European Championship.
On Thursday-evening, the team will play a final exhibition game before the start of the event.
It will then play against Dutch big leaguer L&D Amsterdam Pirates at its site in Amsterdam, starting at 7:30 PM.
| Results Greece on European Championships |
| Year | Location | Ranking Greece |
| 2003 | Netherlands | 2nd place |
| 2005 | Czech Rep. | 9th place |
| 2007 | Spain | withdrawn |
| 2010 | Germany | 4th place |
| 2012 | Netherlands | 7th place |
| 2014 | Czech Rep. | 10th place |
Greece opens the European Championship coming Friday in Pool B against Italy, starting at 3 PM in Hoofddorp.
The Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation was founded in 1997 in order to field a representative team during the Olympic Games of 2004, which then was held in Greek capital Athens.
In 2000, the inaugural season of the Greek Baseball League was played.
Peter Angelos, the Greek-American owner of Major League-club Baltimore Orioles, helped with financial support to create a Greek National Team for the Olympics.
The team was compiled mostly of American players with a Greek background, but it indeed participated in the Olympics.
That the team was compiled of very qualified players was underscored in the two years before the Athens Olympics.
In 2002, it won the title in the European B-Pool Championship to promote to the A-Pool.
In 2003, Greece first partipated in the European Championship, which then was held in the Netherlands.
Greece became the surprise of the event and reached the Final against the Netherlands, which then extended its European title.
(September 5)
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