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The World Baseball Classic will feature some of the greatest players MLB has seen in a long time. Mike Trout, Shohei Otani, Mookie Betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and more will go head to head as the global tournament returns for the first time since the pandemic.
In addition, there are teams in which most of the players have permanent jobs. Let’s take the Czech Republic for example. It has only one Major League Baseball player on its roster: Eric Saugard, who spent part of 11 seasons with the Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs and last played in the majors in 2021. .
Oh, hi! @EricSogard 🇨🇿 #Czech pic.twitter.com/SyrRMapJUa
— BaseballCzech (@BaseballCzech) March 4, 2023
The rest of the team is made up of a small group of minor league players, college players, and members of the Czech Baseball Extraliga—talented amateur players who go to work, like the rest of us, when they don’t qualify for international tournaments.
The team’s path to the WBC began unsuccessfully. Despite hitting three home runs, the Czech Republic were defeated 21-7 by Spain in the qualifying round. However, he did not give up and hit back in the losing bracket, sending France and coming from behind against Germany en route to a rematch with Spain in the final.
Martin Schneider, a combined shortstop and relief pitcher, was asked to start and did so with aplomb, holding the hot Spanish bats to a single run in six innings. The Czech Republic managed three runs on two homers, stunning the Spanish team and claiming a place in the WBC.
This is how history was written. Czech baseball is living its dream.#baseball #jesmecesko pic.twitter.com/1cd3ILUACK
— BaseballCzech (@BaseballCzech) September 22, 2022
Schneider, by the way, works as a firefighter – this is just one of the many everyday professions that Czech team players have to support their baseball life. Here is a list of some celebrities from the Czech WBC list and what they do for a living.
Martin Cervenka, C: Minor league player with stops in Cleveland Guardians and Baltimore Orioles systems. Sales Representative.
Daniel Vavrusa, C: Baseball Equipment Importer
Peter Zima, DH/3B: Played college baseball in Creighton and southwestern Oklahoma. Team captain. Works as an Account Manager at X-Trade Brokers DM SA.
Martin Schneider, SS/P: Firefighter. Misses one of three Czech Extraliga games due to 24-hour shifts.
Philip Smola, 3B: KPMG Auditor
Jakub Kubica, 3B: Sales Manager
Vojtech Mensik, 3B: Bachelor of Mathematics, NCSU 2021
Jakub Grepl, Utah: Study of International Relations and Political Science
Arnosht Dubovy, CF: high school geography teacher
Matei Mensik, LF: sports manager
Lukas Ercoli, P: Manages Baseball Czech communications
Jan Tomek, P: Youth Coach
David Mergans, P: Journal moderator
Marek Minarki, P/OF: Former farmhand of the Phillies and Pirates. Works in real estate.
David Winkler, 3B Trainer: carpenter
Pavel Chadim, manager: Former Czech national team player who won 10 titles in a row with Draca Brno of the Czech Extraliga. Currently a neurologist.
Source: www.espn.com
