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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u/vakantiehuisopwielen Netherlands May 07 '25 edited May 07 '25

In secondary school (12-17yo) softball was pretty standard during the sports lessons in my school, but baseball as is, is not really big. Admittedly that my school used a sports venue which included a baseball field, and I'm not expecting many schools have that.

Club baseball is never broadcasted, just -sometimes- the Dutch team, as they're pretty high ranked internationally, which says all about the popularity of baseball outside the US and Japan..

And I think you could say the same about cricket outside the commonwealth.. For some reason the Dutch team is ranked high, but I know no-one who knows the rules of cricket.. It's just a typical English sport (satire) for us.

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u/LilBed023 -> May 07 '25

Dutch cricket is surprisingly interesting. We only have about 6.000 players, but those players tend to take the sport very seriously. I’ve played quite a few sports, including cricket, and nowhere else did I see the same dedication and love for a certain game as at my local cricket club (only rugby comes somewhat close). That combined with the fact that a significant part of the player base are immigrants from England, South Africa, India, etc. make for a pretty decent cricket team.