(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
       Germany replaces Curaçao in Baseball Week Haarlem
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
The National Team of Germany will replace Curaçao in the upcoming 29th edition of the Baseball Week Haarlem, or Haarlem Baseball Week as it was known through 2014.
On Wednesday (April 18), the Organizing Committee of the bi-annual international event announced that unfortunately it is not possible for Curaçao the participate in the tournament that will take place July 13-22.
In cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Baseball & Softball Association (KNBSB), the tournament-direction find a replacement quicky in Germany.
With this, the field of participants will remain at six teams.
Besides Germany and host Netherlands, the other participants will be National Teams from Cuba, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Italy and Japan.
The Netherlands, Italy and Germany also will participate in the inaugural edition of the Super 6 Baseball Softball, which will be held September 18-23 in Hoofddorp (Netherlands).
The game-schedule for the Baseball Week Haarlem has been adjusted.
It will mark the first time that the National Team of Germany participates in the Baseball Week Haarlem.
In the early years of the event, several teams from Germany participated, but that were all American teams from military bases in then West-Germany.
The only time that a team with German players participated in the tournament was in the very-first edittion in 1961.
Back then, Mannheim Knights was one of the participating teams and was compiled of both American and German players.
The team was led by well-known German baseball-pioneer Claus Helmig, who passed away in 2016.
The National German Team participated once in the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam ( Netherlands), which was in 2011.
Japan will be in Haarlem for the 15th time, Cuba will participate for the 14th time and Chinese Taipei comes the Netherlands for the 13th time.
Italy returns to the event for the first time since 2004 and will participate for the fifth time.
In 2016, Germany finished in fourth place in the European Championship in Hoofddorp (Netherlands) and is ranked 21st in the World Ranking-list.
Initially, Germany was to host the next European Championship this year in Bonn and Solingen.
However, in May last year, the European Baseball Confederation and Deutsche Baseball und Softball Verband agreed to move the event to 2019 to serve as an Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (Japan).
The top five teams of the 2019 Championship will be joined by the winner of the 2019 African Baseball Championship for a six-team Qualifying Tournament to be played early 2020.
(April 18)
Game Schedule 29th Baseball Week Haarlem
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