A Deep Dive Into Portuguese Baseball – The Good, Bad and Ugly

The story of Portuguese Baseball is one of an outsider, a sport perceived by locals as an American phenomenon, trying to make its own mark on a country where football/soccer is the undisputed king.

My involvement with baseball in Portugal started as fan, first rooting for the Phillies and then developing a particular interest in Japanese Baseball. Even though I was a die-hard fan of the sport for half a decade, I never knew about baseball being played in my country until someone on Twitter pointed it out to me. I had looked for it and wanted to play, but the information wasn’t out there. Now, as someone who had the chance to play baseball for 2 years, serving as a youth baseball coach and even umpiring a few games, I want to help and educate anyone who might be looking for the same thing I was 2 years ago.

Here is everything you need to know about the state of Portuguese Baseball today:

Good

Increased participation in youth baseball

Some senior teams have also put in the effort to accommodate a youth team. The highlight is the Pumas of Cascais (Lisbon District), of whom I act as an assistant coach, which features 35+ active players on their u-15 team and u-11 team while also hosting a women’s softball team. The president of the Portuguese Baseball Federation (FPBS), Sandra Monteiro, highlighted this lately as a point of focus in growing the game from the ground up, with the goal of one day having a competition circuit based around youth baseball.

Solid championship with real talent

Especially within the top teams, who have featured some former minor league players up to the AAA level, while others might have played semi-professionally, usually in Venezuela. As for the league itself, it has been running for decades, awarding a champion since 1994. In the 2024 season, the national championship featured nine teams; all teams played a doubleheader against each other, with the top 4 teams at the end of the year making the playoffs. Three teams competing near the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, and the rest coming from the northern west coast, with Aveiro and Porto being key spots.

Major league representation

With the Azores-born reliever, Isaiah Campbell making his MLB debut in 2023 as a member of the Seattle Mariners. Campbell was traded to Boston for INF Luis Urías, and despite a horrid showing in limited MLB appearances (12 ER in 6.2 IP), the Red Sox brought him back on a minor league contract. Though Campbell is not a star by any means, and his ties to Portugal seem tenuous at best other than being born here, you will still see a Portuguese flag next to his Baseball Reference page, and that’s pretty cool to me.

Other than Campbell, some MLB stars, such as former All-Stars Mark Teixeira, Shane Victorino, and Dustin Pedroia, are also of Portuguese descent.

Isaiah Campbell has received his MLB call-up, and will get the start on the mound this evening against the Astros.

Isaiah was born in Angra do Heroismo, Portugal.

He will become only the second player in MLB history, and first in 148 years, to be born in Portugal. ???????? pic.twitter.com/sVxmvWkbDD

— Shawn Spradling (@Shawn_Spradling) July 6, 2023

Yearly Coaching Clinic

One of the few things the Federation has been able to get done is their Coaching Clinic, hosted every year at Abrantes Baseball Field, the only officially recognized field in Portugal. This year featured the likes of current Padres 3B coach Tim Leiper, UT-Whitewater’s Mark Fuller, Kimberly HS Ryan McGinnis and Panthers Whittenbach’s Argenis Blanco. This year had the highest participation on record, with 40 coaches and athletes taking part. I was able to take part in the clinic for my 2nd straight year, and once again proved to be an invaluable resource for learning the game and learning to teach it.

Was lucky to participate in my 2nd coaches clinic in Abrantes, Portugal!

Thank you to the coaches, Argenis Blanco (Panthers Wittenbach), Mark Fuller (UT-Whitewater), Tim Leiper (San Diego Padres) and Ryan McGinnis (Kimberly HS), and the Portuguese Federation for setting it up! pic.twitter.com/uJuMiUC3Su

— Lucas Borja ????????⚾️ (@lucasborjaBB) November 19, 2024

Promises of the rebirth of the Portuguese National Team

In the coaches clinic, I had the chance to hear from the previously mentioned Sandra Monteiro, who showed us a video of the last time Portugal participated in a sactioned WBSC competition, the 2010 European Baseball Championship Qualifier. Held in Abrantes and featuring the host country (Portugal), Ireland, Russia and Greece, Portugal won their first international game ever 11-8 against Ireland, but lost to Greece and Russia and did not qualify for the main tournament. Still, everyone seemed enthusiatic about the future of the sport, but the Federation ran into trouble and failed to capitalize on the momentum. Now, with the World Baseball Classic proving to be a huge sucess and European countries like Czechia taking the baseball world by storm, Portugal sticks out like a sore thumb as being by far the biggest country (by population) in the European Union to not be on the WBSC World Rankings, with the next being Latvia with 1.8 million people (Portugal’s population is 10 million!). I would be lying if I said this didn’t make my blood boil, but I am glad there is finally a discourse to put Portugal back on the world baseball map.

Bad & Ugly

Lack of portuguese participation:

Most teams in the league have a almost exclusively latin-american roster, with most coming from baseball powerhouse Venezuela, and these teams routinely outperform the ones that have more homegrown talent. It has been suggested that a foreigner cap, similar to those found in NPB and KBO, should be put in place, but at the time there is not enough homegrown talent to fill those spots or the seeming will to regulate it.

Federation does not have public status:

This restricts the Federation to apply and receive state help as it does not meet the required guidelines. In 2022, the Portuguese Government handed out 48 million euros to 59 different federations of all sports, from football to canoeing. Safe to say it is hard to compete with other sports much less catch up to them when you don’t have the funds to back it up.

Lack of public awareness towards the game

Safe to say that the vast majority of Portugal’s population did not grow up with the game. Kids spend their days running around a ball, not using a broomstick and bottlecaps like you see in the Dominican Republic. At school, the game is sometimes part of PE classes, but due to lack of equipment and PE teachers lacking the knowledge to teach the game properly, it’s hard to get kids interested. Funnily enough, people seem to be somewhat familiar with one word: Homerun.

Lack of infrastructure

Currently there is only one official baseball field recognized by the WBSC in Portugal, located in Abrantes, as most teams practice either on makeshift baseball fields or soccer pitches, and play their games at Abrantes or their own field. You will also not find things like public batting cages like the ones you’d see on a trip to Japan.

No Portugal-based Umpires

The Federation and the clubs have steadily relied on Spanish umpires to make the weekend trip to Portugal, which sometimes can take over 8 hours driving. This drives up costs for the Federation and makes it harder to schedule more games.

Zero TV and media coverage

Unfortunately, there is currently no broadcasts or little to zero reporting being done on baseball. Sports channels don’t show or mention the sport, the only way to watch baseball is through highlights or live streaming foreign channels. This is not the case for other niche sports like American Football or Ice Hockey, who have regular NFL/NHL broadcasts with Portuguese commentary.