Dear athletes, coaches, managers, officials, 

Dear softball and baseball friends,

let me say hallo to all of you from my home where I am locked  the same way as many of you. All our society and the whole civilization are facing to unprecedented challenge today, which we have never faced in our life so far. It is very logical, that all national governments are making restrictions to stop invisible enemy, which coronavirus surely is. Nevertheless we are able to manage this challenge, when we will all face this challenge responsibly. Responsibly to ourselves, responsibly to others. Today more than any time before is important personal hygiene, but also to stay above things. The panic is surely not on the program, the panic has never helped.

The essential questions are coming in our mind in this time, the distinction between significant and minor things is now clearer. I am receiving questions what we will do with our events, if and when we will cancel them or postpone. Even I fully understand the ratio of this question, because the health is always on the first place, this question is not on the table right now. Now there is just one task in front of all of us – to manage health situation in our cities, in our countries, in our continent. Of course I know we have almost half of our events in this year in Italy, in Northern Italy. Northern Italian regions were, are and I am sure will be one of the strongest centers of our sport. Even our Italian friends are experiencing one of the hardest time in their contemporary history, I am sure Italy finally will go over. I am almost in permanent contact with Andrea Marcon and I am sure Italy will be ready for recovery. One of the role of international sport is to connect people and bring messages to the world society that sport is here to make bridges to the future. We can use all together this bridge on the way to future Europe, which could be much stronger than before.

All Europe has almost stopped now in many parts of our life, but it does not mean we have to stop all functioning of our life. We can do some activities like doing personal sport exercises or watching top sport events. Our media house, even I am talking about a few people only, preparing some options. You can see today top European softball and baseball games from last Super6 at our OTT platform baseballsoftball.tv. We have started campaign STAY HOME - TRAIN AT HOME. The campaign will bring some exercises which you can do at home. The reason is not only to stay physically fit, but also mainly to be stronger mentally. Strength of mental part is now much more important and we will need it in the next days. We can remind the old proverb – in the healthy body is the healthy spirit. 

Many other activities are published on the social media now. I really appreciate all of you who are bringing those activities on the air, even as the serious sport exercises, or doing funny performances. Thank you for all your activities, for a big wave of solidarity. I am sure we finally beat the virus and we will see all together on the fields soon. I am proud of you. 

Thank you,

Gabriel Waage WBSC Europe Co-President Softball Europe President