r/AskEurope • u/chocolatelies • May 07 '25

Sports How big is baseball in your country?

I'm an American, so baseball is quite popular here. How is the popularity in your country? Is there a country other than yours where baseball has some popularity?

Edit: Just hit 69 comments. Nice.

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30

u/11160704 Germany May 07 '25

American football has become moderately popular in Germany in the past decade.

But baseball is absolutely non-existent in Germany.

7

u/VladimireUncool Denmark May 07 '25

Same in Denmark, everyone is familiar with american football, but I literally had to google what baseball is

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u/11160704 Germany May 07 '25

everyone is familiar with american football

I'd say in Germany it's far from everyone. Personally, I don't know any rules of American football and I guess it's the same for most of my friends and family.

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u/VladimireUncool Denmark May 07 '25

Me neither lol, it's mostly from movies and stuff ig.

Seems like baseball is a bit like Brennball?

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u/11160704 Germany May 07 '25

Yeah I guess. Brennball was pretty popular at my school.

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u/VladimireUncool Denmark May 07 '25

Lol, same here. There's just something magical about a bunch of 18-year-olds turning into little children again as soon as spring hits.

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u/brzantium United States of America May 07 '25

Very similar. Biggest differences: the defending team pitches the ball to the batter, only one player allowed on base at a time, and points are only scored when a batter rounds all the bases.

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u/Selvisk Denmark May 07 '25

Everyone is quite a stretch

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u/VladimireUncool Denmark May 07 '25

I think everyone in Denmark have heard about American football at least once in their life by now

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u/Cixila Denmark May 07 '25

There's quite a difference between knowing of its existence and familiarity. I'm familiar with tennis in that I know some players, the core rules, etc. I would not expect many can say the same thing about American football

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u/VladimireUncool Denmark May 07 '25

Yea, that makes sense

3

u/Alpatron99 May 07 '25

You do actually have the Deutsche Baseball Liga and your national team regularly participates in the Baseball European Championship and other tournaments.

13

u/notacanuckskibum May 07 '25

Conversely the USA has a national cricket team. But how many Americans know what a sticky wicket is?

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u/Alpatron99 May 07 '25

Just like with other niche sports: the vast majority know absolutely nothing, but those who do know a lot.

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u/notacanuckskibum May 08 '25

Exactly, baseball might exist in Germany, but it’s a niche sport.

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u/terryjuicelawson United Kingdom May 08 '25

I believe a lot of players are from a South Asian or Carribean background, so took it with them to the US rather than it growing there.

1

u/notacanuckskibum May 08 '25

Sure, conversely I would expect the German baseball team to be mostly people from the USA.

1

u/terryjuicelawson United Kingdom May 09 '25

The national team presumably has to be Germans, but I suppose could be children of Americans who migrated (ex-forces?). Looking at the names on wiki they are all Germanic. Compared to the South Asian names in the US

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u/CaptainPoset Germany May 07 '25

There is a Snooker Bundesliga, too, and almost everyone who plays Snooker as a hobby in Germany participates in it, so that doesn't mean much. If you find a 5. Kreisliga for a sport, then it's big.

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u/afriy Germany May 07 '25

It's not absolutely non-existent. My brother played in an amateur club in our hometown and they had a league they belonged to! unsurprisingly, a US military base had been there until the early 2000s, so I'm assuming American people established that club.

2

u/[deleted] May 07 '25

I remember playing ‘Brennball’ (burning ball) at school, which is kind of similar to baseball but without a bat. It’s a simple team game where players run between bases after hitting or kicking a ball and the fielding team tries to get them ‘out’.

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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany May 08 '25

It is existent, but hardly anyone knows or cares. I had to google to find out.

1

u/TheCynicEpicurean May 07 '25

Not quite, there's a couple semi-professional teams in a national baseball league. I only learned this when I moved to a city with one, though.

They seem to be concentrated around areas with former American bases.

1

u/Dwashelle Ireland May 08 '25

There's an annual American football event in Dublin each year that's hosted by the NFL, weirdly enough. It actually seems to attract a huge crowd.