Baseball in Croatia
For the first time baseball appeared in Croatia during the First World War. American Blue berets brought it there. New kind of sport became rather popular in Split, big town on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. It was the first baseball center in Croatia. After war, it took a long time to form the first team. It was in 1975, when the first baseball club “Nada” was founded. After that in 1980 appeared two clubs more: “Donat” and “Zadru”, in 1982 “Zagreb”, in 1983 “Olimpija”, “Čakovec” and “Varaždin” were formed in 1984.
Croatian Baseball Clubs
BC ‘Baza’- Sibenik
BC ‘Donat’- Zadar
BC ‘Gajnice’- Zagreb
BC ‘Grabrik’- Karlovac
BC ‘Kaptol’- Zagreb
BC ‘Kelteks’- Karlovac
BC ‘Nada SSM’- Split
BC ‘Novi Zagreb’- Zagreb
BC ‘Samobor’- Samobor
BC ‘Medvednica’- Zagreb
BC ‘Osijek’- Osijek
BC ‘Purger’- Zagreb
BC ‘Sisak’- Sisak
BC ‘Vindija’- Varazdin
BC ‘Zagreb’- Zagreb
BC ‘Gorica’- Velika Gorica
In 1986 Croatian Baseball Association (HBS) was founded in Zagreb city. Now it`s a member of CEB (Confederation of European Baseball) and IBA (International Baseball Association).
For the first time Croatian Baseball League took place in 1992. Nowadays there are four categories of baseball in Croatia: youth, cadet, junior and senior.
The most successful club among seniors is BC ‘Kelteks’ from Karlovac.
It so nice, that baseball pushes forward the boundaries. Maybe Croatian baseball are not so powerful, but they have all categories in it. So, I hope, the amount of clubs will be growing. This great, that they cooperate with CEB. They can help develop this game. Croatia has a possibility to have powerful baseball team. Maybe they need more time and knowledge. But it`s clearly, they are trying to involve into baseball and to make this sport popular there.