(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Janneke Louisa-van der Ploeg)
     German Tim Meyer fifth European Umpire to be invited for World Baseball Classic
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
A fifth European umpire has been invited to officiate games in the upcoming fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic.
In the weekend, it was reported that German Tim Meyer will join Fabrizio (Fabry) Fabrizi (Italy), Edwin Louisa (Netherlands), Serge Makouchetchev (France) and Cuauhtámoc (Cuti) Suárez Hernandéz (Spain).
Last Friday (January 5), this site published an article regarding their invitations.
...Tim Meyer and Edwin Louisa during the 2019...
...European Championship in Bonn (Germany)...
(© Photo: Janneke Louisa-van der Ploeg) |
With the addition of Tim Meyer, the assignments also changed somewhat.
Fabry Fabrizi will officiate games in Tokyo (Japan) in the First Round (Pool B) instead of Miami (USA).
In Japan, Fabrizi will join Cuti Suárez.
Tim Meyer will travel to Miami, as he has been assigned to Pool D.
As published on Friday, Edwin Louisa will participate in games in Phoenix (USA), where Pool C has its home, and Serge Makouchetchev will be in Taichung (Taiwan) in Pool A.
Like Fabrizi, Louisa, Makouchetchev and Suárez, Tim Meyer also is a veteran umpire with a lot of international experience.
He is one of the leading umpires in the German 1.Bundesliga, the highest baseball-league in the country.
Through the years, Tim Meyer almost annually officiated in several European Cup-tournaments, including last years European Champions Cup-tournament in Bonn (Germany).
In this event, Fabrizi, Louisa and Makouchetchev were amongst his umpiring colleagues.
All four also were assigned to the European Champions Cup-tournament in 2017 in Regensburg (Germany), as well as the European Championship in 2019 in Bonn and Solingen (Germany).
In 2014, Meyer was one of the umpires during the European Championship (in Germany and Czech Republic), as were Fabrizi and Makouchetchev.
Meyer, Fabrizi, Makouchetchev and Suárez also led games during the Champions Cup Qualifier in 2013 in Barcelona (Spain).
In 2018, Meyer was one of the umpires at the Under-15 World Championship in Panama and last year, he was assigned to the Under-23 World Championship in Taiwan.
The first game in this years World Baseball Classic will be played on March 8 in Pool A, which will be the game between the Netherlands and Cuba.
Also playing in this Pool will be Chinese Taipei, Italy and Panama.
The games in Pool A will be played in the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung (Taiwan).
This Pool ends on March 13.
Pool B (March 9-13) will be played in Tokyo (Japan) in the Tokyo Dome, the home of Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Playing in this Pool are Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Japan and South Korea.
Pool C (March 11-15) is composed of Canada, Colombia, Great Britain, Mexico and the USA, which is the defending champion.
They will play their games in Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Major League-club Arizona Diamondbacks.
The games in Pool D (March 11-15) will be played in Miami, Florida (USA) in the LoanDepot Park, the home of Miami Marlins.
In this Pool, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Venezuela will play.
The best two teams of each Pool then will advance to the Second Round, which are the Quarter Finals.
The top-2 of Pools A and B will continue in Tokyo (Japan) for their Quarter Finals (March 15-16), the two best teams of Pools C and D will play the Second Round (March 17-18) in Miami (USA).
The four winners then will meet in the Semi-Finals on March 19-20 in Miami.
The Final then will be played on March 21, also in Miami.
Since 2009, the World Baseball Classic is held every four years by the WBSC in partnership with Major League Baseball.
The upcoming fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic was originally scheduled to take place in March 2021, but in May 2020 the event was cancelled due to ongoing measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Earlier, the Qualifying Tournaments, which were to take place in March 2020, were already scrubbed.
(January 9)
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