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Terve! Hailing from Finland

Finnblue

By Finnblue
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Finnblue

Finnblue

Posted
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HI ALL!

Greetings from North-East corner of Europe!

Baseball started here 1981 and has been strugling since. But we enthusiast still go on and try to improve our skills and make the sport more known in our country - I still meet people in Helsinki that are surprised that baseball is played in Finland.

My first umpiring job was also 1981, plate, and no good knowledge of rules. But I got through it with no problems.

I have umpired amateur and kids games in Japan, USA and several European countries. I love doing it and I'm happy my family is in baseball, too.

Mika Sarjanen

Helsinki

Finland

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Umpire in Chief

Umpire in Chief

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Welcome, It's interesting that you've been involved with baseball since the beginning in Finland. Do you see it's popularity rising? Do they play any modified rules there?

Glad to have you.

Finnblue

Finnblue

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Welcome, It's interesting that you've been involved with baseball since the beginning in Finland. Do you see it's popularity rising? Do they play any modified rules there?

Glad to have you.

The popularity is not rising so much, now we have only five teams in our championships league - finals starting next wednesday, I'm behind the plate, btw.

We have to modify some rules concerning the field: we play on dirt (read: gravel) that has no fences all around. So we have ground rule doubles a lot, also overthrow at firstbase mostly end up batter and runners getting two bases. We hate it.

During all these years we have been stugling to get a field of our own. Finally we are promised funding, but the problem is the location. All grass fields are for soccer (which sucks).

Here you find some pics of our games:

http://jarimiet.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Baseball/

I'm happy I found this group. There are plenty of rules and situations that we need to clarify here (even umpires disagree some cases).

Thanks (kiitos) for welcomes. :nod:

MS

Edited by Finnblue
link added
Finnblue

Finnblue

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Really! I am shocked! You'll find that all umpires in USA always agree.:nod:

I found that, yes. But I had great time umpiring in TX (700 games in 3½ years).

Wow, those are some great pics. I love the pitchers mound. Are you #13? Also do you at least have backstops?

No, I'm #19. We use backstops, some fields we put a soccer goal behind the plate and hang the backstop from that. One field has a permanent backstop.

why are there a lot of ground rule doubles?

Only one field we play on does have a fence all around the outfield. Others have out of play areas.

MS

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Finnblue

Finnblue

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Greetings from Switzerland. I had the honor of being the Finnish delegate at the meeting of the International Baseball Federation.

The new executive comitee was chosen and some best people were awarded, including the Umpire of the Year:

"Umpire – Paul Hyham ( Australia)

Hyham is an excellent international umpire with outstanding performances at international competitions. Tournaments he has worked include the IBAF 2007 Asian Olympic Qualification/Asian Championship, the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the 2009 World Baseball Classic"

More about the meeting: www.ibaf.org

MS

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