(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Real Federación Española de Béisbol y Sófbol)
  Winfried Berkvens one of five European Umpires invited for World Baseball Classic
Nederlands
 ZAGREB (Croatia) -
Dutch Umpire Winfried Berkvens is one of five European Umpires, who have been invited to officiate in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which opens on March 6 next year and also will serve as a World Championship.
The names of the five Umpires were announced by the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) on Friday (November 25).
The other European Umpires who were invited by the organization of the World Baseball Classic are Michael Ulloa Díaz (Spain), Jens Waider (Germany), Fabrizio Fabrizi (Italy) and František Přibyl (Czech Republic).
Berkvens and Ulloa will be active in Pool D of the First Round of the event, which takes place in Jalisco in México.
Waider and Fabrizi will travel to Japan where Pool B will be played in Tokyo.
Přibyl will be one of the Umpires in Pool A in Seoul (South Korea), where the Netherlands will be one of the participating teams.
In a reaction, Paul Bokern, the Umpire Director of CEB, stated:
,,We succeeded in one of our goals, which we have as CEB Umpire Commission, to have more European Umpires in the World Baseball Classic.
Our European Umpires now get the opportunity to work with the highest level of teams, players and umpires.
It is a great moment for baseball umpiring in Europe''.
This year, Winfried Berkvens was one of the Dutch Umpires during the European Championship in Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep (Netherlands).
Last year, he was one of the Umpires in the inaugural edition of the Premier12 in Taiwan.
Berkvens also officiated during this years Baseball Week Haarlem in the Netherlands and the European Champions Cup in Italy and San Marino.
In previous years, Berkvens has done many other international events, including the 2012 European Championship.
The other four also are experienced umpires.
Fabrizi, Přibyl and Waider all officiated during the European Championships in 2012 and 2014.
Ulloa also was an umpire during the previous World Baseball Classic in 2013.
Berkvens is the second Dutch Umpire who has been invited for a World Baseball Classic, the first being Fred van Groningen Schinkel, who was active during the first Classic in 2006.
For that first event, former umpire Edwin van den Berk was an alternate.
Besides Van Groningen Schinkel and Ulloa, one more European Umpire participated in the main tournament of the Classic, being Italian Pierfranco Leone, who also officiated in 2006.
Four European Umpires were active during the Qualification Tournaments for the 2013 Classic, being Ulloa, Waider, David Kulhanek (Czech Republic) and Marco Screti (Italy).
Earlier this year, two European umpires officiated in two of the four Qualifiers for next years Classic, being Cuauhtemoc Suárez Hernandéz (Spain) in March in México and Serge Makouchetchev (France) in September in the USA.
There were no European Umpires in the second edition in 2009.
...Fabrizio Fabrizi... |
...František Přibyl... |
...Jens Waider... |
...Michael Ulloa Díaz... |
| (© Photos: Henk Seppen) | (© Photo: RFEBS) |
(November 25)
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