Alex Webb graduated from the Tritons in 2012 after 2 years with each of the junior and senior teams. He is currently a 3rd year (Junior) starting pitcher with the UBC Thunderbirds baseball team. In 2014, he got to pitch for Team GB in the European Baseball Championships in Regensburg, Germany.
"The story of how I ended up pitching for the Great Britain national team essentially begins back when I was still a Triton. By September of my Grade 12 year, I had not put much thought into playing college baseball, and I had certainly not done anything to expose myself to college coaches. Luckily, my teammate Adam Shumka was going to UBC baseball’s recruit weekend and convinced me to go with him. I showed up a virtual unknown but pitched well enough to get noticed. I spent the next few months emailing the coaches, trying to make sure that they didn’t forget me, and in March I finally signed a letter of intent.
After an up and down freshman season that included at its worst a re-evaluation of myself as a pitcher, and at its best a WMBL championship with the Melville Millionaires, I came back to UBC for mini-camp of my sophomore year. Mini-camp that year started with three minute introductions by each player to the rest of the team and coaches. The player who went before me was Karl Malacek, a new member of our team. In his presentation he explained how he had Czech citizenship and had spent his summer playing in the Czech league. Not thinking too much of it, when I went up for my introduction I briefly mentioned how I also had a dual citizenship, with my second country being the UK (Great Britain). Well, it’s funny how things work out, because one of our assistant coaches who I had hardly ever spoken to heard me say that, and later that day he asked me if I was interested in playing international baseball.
As it turns out, Fred Beitler, an assistant coach at UBC, knew Sam Dempster, the coach of the Great Britain national team. He got us in contact with one another, and before long I was in the process of applying for my UK passport. It took a while, but the passport came, and during the summer I was told by Great Britain’s pitching coach that I had been selected to their European Championships roster. Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, I decided to miss the first two weeks of class this past September and hop on a plane to Europe.
My European baseball experience kicked off with a 3 day training camp in Prague in the Czech Republic in which I spent most of my time trying to recover from jet lag. I was immediately thrust into a completely new group of teammates who turned out to potentially be the most diverse group of players I will ever step on a field with. There were Americans, Australians, a Cuban, another Canadian, and to my surprise, actual Brits. Their baseball resumes ranged all the way from Division I NCAA and professional baseball to essentially Sunday league in England, and their ages ranged all the way from me at 20 to 37. They all knew each other, and I was the new guy.
After training camp we headed to Regensburg, Germany for the first round of the championships. Our pool included the likes of Sweden, France, Belgium, Germany, and the powerhouse: Italy. I impressed the coaches enough during my first few days with the team and was given the start against Belgium. I pitched well, but in a losing effort. We ended up going 1-4 in our pool, which meant that we were sent to the relegation pool along with Sweden, Croatia, and Greece in Trebic, Czech Republic. The bottom two teams of that pool would be relegated to the European B circuit. We ended up dominating the relegation pool, maintaining our spot in the top grouping, finishing 9th overall. I threw some relatively easy relief against Croatia and headed home shortly after.
Playing baseball in Europe was amazing, and I hope that I have the chance to do it again in the near future. The next European Championships are in 2016 as well as the World Baseball Classic qualifier, and I hope to be given the chance to take part. The coaching staff are also pushing hard to make a run for the Olympics in 2020, as there is a strong possibility that baseball will return.
In the end, I believe that I owe my European baseball experience to some nearly perfect circumstances. I may have never gotten the opportunity had Karl Malacek not mentioned his European baseball experience right before I went up for my mini-camp introduction, and further still, I may have never been in that position had I not pitched well for 5 hitters at a September recruit weekend that I was convinced to go to by my friend and Tritons teammate."
Video of Alex's appearance against Belgium can be found at http://legionaere.de/posts/1759.
For more info on Team GB and the UBC Thunderbirds baseball team:
http://www.britishbaseball.org
http://gothunderbirds.ca/index.aspx?path=baseball
