Baseball and beer go great together – or so I’m told. And perhaps baseball might go even better with Czech beer, the best beer in the world – or so I have also been told.

The 4th annual World University Championship is to be played this summer (July 17-27) in the Czech towns of Brno, Olomouc, Blansko and Choceň.

Teams from 14 countries, including China, Croatia, Cuba and the USA, will be participating.

While baseball does not seem likely to usurp soccer as the dominant sport around the world, it has grown a steady and very loyal following in numerous countries in Europe, like the Czech Republic.

Click here for more information.

Tomorrow marks Opening Day for the British Baseball Federation. The defending National League champion London Mets travel to last year’s runner-up Croydon Pirates for a doubleheader. This seven-team division is the highest in British baseball.

The reigning British AAA division (formerly the Premier League) champion Richmond Knights enjoy an early bye week before hosting the Oxford Kings on Saturday, April 27. Most of the other 12 teams in the division start this Saturday.

The 10-team British AA division (formerly Division 1) will crown a new champion this season as the Humber Pilots and Herts Falcons, winner and runner-up from last season, have been promoted.  Bournemouth Sharks return as top contenders.

British A (formerly Division 2) continues its role as a developmental league for ten teams.  The famous Old Timers Baseball Club joins the division this season.

The Midlands Division has only three teams, so the schedule includes interleague games with some British AA teams.

The schedule for the four-team Scottish National League is to be decided.

I had a business meeting with a couple of Canadian friends the other day and they were bemoaning the fact that back in the days of the six team NHL, kids would pick their favorite team and then be able to cheer on their favorite player for years and years.  It’s definitely not like that anymore in hockey, to say the least.

And it’s not like that anymore with baseball.  But back in the day it was the same as hockey.  I’ve been a Cardinal fan my whole life and I can tell you the starting lineup for the 1967-8 Cardinals teams that were NL Champs 2 years in a row, winning the world series in 1967 and losing the seventh game to the Detroit Tigers a year later.

I thought to myself with the era of free agency dawning shortly after my hero, Bob Gibson, retired, WWBGD if he in fact became eligible for free agency.

It’s a difficult quandary.

Because of his fierce competitive nature and because he would always want to play for the championship, one could assume that he would rather sign with a perennial contender than stay with one team out of loyalty if that team had fallen on bad competitive times.  And I would imagine because of his close friendship with Curt Flood [another hero of baseball and should be in the HOF, IMHO], he would have wanted to seize control of his own destiny.  He could go to wherever it was best for him, his career, his family and his team.

So, I could see him signing on with the great Oakland A’s teams of the early 1970’s or with the pitching and defense laden Baltimore Orioles or anchor the lackluster starting pitching staff of the famed Big Red Machine.

However, I would dare say that he would be loyal to the city, his team and teammates and would choose to make the best deal he could with his current team.  He’d be a Tony Gwynn or a Cal Ripken.  People who stayed with the home team because they wanted to spend their career in one place. He would dance with the date that brung him to the dance.  I believe he would be pissed off when one of his teammates left just for the money.  He would throw at them the first chance he got.

Just ask his best friend, Bill White.

Starting on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, the number 3 is off limits to players on the Savannah Sand Gnats baseball team.  Lou Brissie, former southpaw pitcher for the minor league club, will have his jersey retired that night prior to the team’s game against the Hickory Crawdads.

Leland Victor “Lou” Brissie compiled a stellar 23-5 record with a 1.91 ERA and 278 Ks to propel the then-Savannah Indians to the South Atlantic League championship in 1947.  Called up to the major leagues at the end of that season, Brissie went on to become an All-Star with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1949.

Born in 1924, the South Carolina native pitched in the textile leagues and at Presbyterian College before heading off to Europe for World War II.  While fighting in Italy in late 1944, an artillery shell hit Brissie, seriously maiming his left leg.  Brissie convinced the medics to not amputate, but he was forced to wear a leg brace throughout his pitching career.

The first 1,000 fans attending the game at Grayson Stadium on Tuesday, April 29 will receive a replica Lou Brissie jersey T-shirt, courtesy of the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society. 

When Ken Griffey, Jr. hits his 600th home run this season, it might not be champagne that gets uncorked.

The Cincinnati Reds rightfielder and Charity Wines have teamed up to present “Junior Cabernet Sauvignon,” a 2006 California wine from Longball Cellars. 

According to the Charity Wines website, proceeds will be donated to the Ken Griffey, Jr. Family Foundation, “a fund that supports several causes, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Florida Children’s Hospital.”

Other Longball Cellars offerings benefitting the charities of major league baseball stars include: Chipper Chardonnay (Chipper Jones), Cabernet Glavingnon (Tom Glavine), and Sauvignyoouuk Blanc (Kevin Youkilis).