Auerbach offering unique European opportunity for college players
By Matt Betts
Canadian Baseball Network
It’s amazing the places this game can take you.
From coast to coast, from continent to continent.
That’s something former McGill Redman player and top tier Swiss League Embrace Mustang player and coach Casey Auerbach knows something about. Now he is hoping to give other players that same experience.
“We will be playing eight-to-10 games against respective National teams, top division league teams in Germany and Switzerland,” Auerbach, who has been the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for McGill since 2014 said. “The trip will take place from May 11-23 2018. We’ll travel together as a team through Switzerland, Germany, and Austria and expose our players to the baseball and cultural opportunities available to them overseas. Our preliminary roster is made up of University and College players from across the country.”
Auerbach explains the roster will be comprised of Canadians playing college or university baseball within Canada, as well as some Americans doing the same.
“Our preliminary roster is made up of university and college players from across the country,” he said. “Players from Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association North and Atlantic as well as Ontario University Athletics and Ontario Colleges Athletic Association teams. Players from Quebec and Ontario all the way out east to New Brunswick as well as a number of American-born players going to school and playing their college baseball in Canada.”
Along with the thrill of travelling across the globe and enjoying new experiences, the team will have the opportunity to do something no Canadian team has done before.
“The baseball highlight of the trip will be our time at Finkstonball in Austria,” he said. “It is a baseball and softball tournament and music festival that has attracted more than 2,500 players from 23 countries over the past 20 years. We will be the first Canadian team to compete in Europe’s biggest baseball festival.”
Auerbach has experienced playing baseball in North America, as well as travelled overseas, exposing him to different cultural perspectives of the game.
“I was fortunate enough to play and coach in Switzerland for two summers back in 2011 and 2012,” he said. “It was a unique way to combine my two passions of baseball and travel."
Those personal experiences are something he wants to share.
“Baseball is what gives the trip purpose but there is much more to it than that,” he said. “I wanted to expose and share the baseball and cultural opportunities available overseas with other Canadian players who could benefit from the experience like I did.”
It certainly will be an adventure the players involved will take with them throughout their lives.
“This will be a baseball and cultural opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “We will experience some of Europe’s most amazing places, take in a new culture, and make friendships that will last a lifetime.”
To apply and learn more about the trip, including cost players can check out the website at www.thenorthbaseball.com or email info@thenorthbaseball.com.