Meet baseball’s Mr. Worldwide, who has played in seven foreign countries
Water envelops 70 p.c of the earth. The relaxation has most likely been lined by pitcher and second baseman Jimmy Jensen. At least, it feels that manner.
The veteran from Oakland, Calif. — who can be the pitching coach for the Austrian National Team and is Chief Operating Officer for Baseball Jobs Overseas — has traveled all around the globe to play skilled baseball. Like a world model of Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere,” Jensen has performed professionally in Austria, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Czech Republic, the place he at present fits up for Hroši Brno within the Czech Extraleague.
But should you requested a teenaged Jensen if he may have ever imagined such a life, the reply could be easy: Absolutely not.
For one, Jensen wasn’t conscious {that a} baseball profession abroad was a risk and even one thing that existed on the time.
For one other, Jensen was lower from his highschool staff.
“I was pretty upset when I got cut,” Jensen advised MLB.com in a latest Zoom name from his residence in Austria. “I think I actually did use that as a kind of motivator for me to keep working and getting better. But I definitely didn’t think that my baseball career would lead to here because I never really traveled as a kid. And I never went outside of the U.S., except for across the border to Canada for baseball or something like that, but that doesn’t really count.”
After working his manner again into the sport, Jensen starred at Menlo College in Atherton, Calif. With solely a mid-80s fastball, he did not get a lot professional consideration when he graduated, so he performed within the Pecos League for one season. After shedding within the finals to the Roswell Invaders, the right-hander was prepared to hold ‘em up. He headed again to California with plans to get a job and begin a “real life.” Baseball could be one thing he did on the weekends, becoming a member of up with buddies for a ballgame or two earlier than grabbing some beers and heading again residence. The downside was, he was just too good.
“When I played in that men’s league, I threw 95 innings, and I gave up four runs the entire season,” Jensen stated with fun. “And I hit like .450 with a bat I made in high school woodshop.”
A former coach satisfied Jensen to look into the worldwide baseball group, and he reached out to what has change into referred to as Baseball Jobs Overseas. Ten minutes after making his profile, the CEO of the corporate, David Burns, referred to as Jensen and made him a proposal: Come over to Austria and be a part of him on the Attnang Athletics.
Little did he realize it on the time, however Jensen’s future had simply mapped itself out.
“It was an interesting experience first coming over, because I had never been outside of the U.S.,” Jensen stated. “And I didn’t go to a big city like Vienna or anything, I went to a really small farm town in the middle of Austria.”
While the gamers on the ballfield largely spoke English — and baseball has its personal particular language with out boundaries or borders when you’re on the sphere — issues had been just a little tougher for Jensen when he went to the shops or into the village.
The fields had been a little bit of a wake-up name, too. Though they’ve come a great distance since he made his Austrian debut in 2015, Jensen remembers one specific sport hosted by the Dornbirn Indians, whose area was the parking zone for the soccer area.
“It was literally like little pebbles and asphalt, and the right fielder was playing on the infield dirt because the dirt stretched all the way to the fence,” Jensen remembers. “And there was one game that was played — I wasn’t there — but there was a soccer game the night before. And one of the fans had gotten too drunk and left their car in the parking lot. There was a game the next day on the baseball field, so they just put nets around the car, which was in center field. They just played around it.”
So much has modified since that point, although, with Jensen calling Dornbirn’s area now one of many nicer fields in all of Austria, full with an indoor facility and batting cages.
He’s been in a position to see that progress up shut — not simply as a ballplayer, however in his position with Baseball Jobs Overseas, working carefully with the person who first introduced him to Europe and launched him to the worldwide sport.
“I really loved his insight and the company and what he started,” Jensen stated about David Burns and the group. Inspired to work for the corporate from that first season in Austria in 2015, Jensen was satisfied that that is the place his future was.
“I used that as an opportunity to travel myself, and then help network into new leagues and create relationships with new teams,” Jensen stated. “That was why I went to a new team every season. Even though I really enjoyed every team I played with, but my goal with Baseball Jobs Overseas was to help it grow.”
From Attnang, he spent a winter in Australia with the Macarthur Orioles. If he had any reservations about staying abroad, that have sealed it.
“The guy that I lived with, he was a chef for like 40 years, and he cooked these amazing meals every single night,” Jensen stated. “We lived right by the beach. He bought us a car. He took us deep sea fishing. He took us to the opera house. He spoiled us. He really, really did. Our team was really good that year, we ended up losing in the championship, but after that experience, I was just like, ‘OK, I’m going to be playing overseas for a long time.’”
He then joined the Sénart Templiers in France, shedding to the Rouen Huskies – the perfect staff in French historical past – within the finals, earlier than becoming a member of the Newport Rams in Australia for the winter. He signed on with the Stuttgart Reds in Germany the subsequent 12 months, attending to reside close to his spouse’s household and introduce them to baseball.
“Her dad really got into it,” Jensen stated. “None of them really understood the game at first. But once they started coming to games and sitting with other fans who explained the rules to them, they started to get into it a lot more. Now he watches a lot of our livestreams whenever we have games, and he gets really into it.”
He subsequent headed to Canada for 2 seasons to play with the St. Johns Alpines — named for the lager that’s brewed within the area.
“Our team was sponsored by a beer company. So after every game, on the bus ride back, our team bus would be stacked with our sponsors’ beer,” Jensen remembered with fondness.
He then packed up and headed for New Zealand to hitch the Waitakere Bears as the primary BBJO participant signed there, attending to take pleasure in a 15-minute drive to both the rainforest or a stunning seaside buffeted by cliff partitions.
“I wanted to kind of go there to help establish a lot of new relationships with teams and leagues, and just help grow the game because it was really like grassroots level, at least at the local level,” Jensen stated. “There’s a lot of talent because softball was a really big sport in New Zealand. So the hitting was always really good, but pitching wasn’t as good and not as much depth because they weren’t used to throwing overhand.”
Jensen was then set to make his Czech Extraleague debut, however in 2020 the pandemic modified all the things and made it a lot tougher to journey throughout Europe. So, Jensen stayed in Attnang for 3 extra years earlier than making his debut with Hroši this season.
While there are many causes to play worldwide baseball past simply getting to increase your profession, relying on the staff and the participant’s private state of affairs, groups will sometimes present housing, a car or a transit card, and a few cash. You get to remain within the sport, assist watch it develop, and see cities and sights chances are you’ll by no means have seen in any other case.
When touring to the Czech Republic for video games over the weekend from his residence in Salzburg, Jensen has to go the “Sound of Music” home on his manner.
“I ride my bike to the train station, but to get to the train station, I go around the pond where the ‘Sound of Music’ house is along this little canal,” Jensen stated. “I go around the castle, which is up on this hill along this river and then through a park with statues of Mozart and Beethoven. I go by Mozart’s birth house, and then I hop on the train and it’s just this perfect train ride – super clean – through the Austrian countryside.”
He’s performed on the attractive ballpark in Regensburg, Germany, the place the 2023 World Baseball Classic qualifiers had been held and which Jensen says is nicer than many Minor League ballparks. He’s performed at Williamstown in Melbourne, the place the sphere sits on the bay and allows you to gaze throughout the water and see the town skyline. At Hluboká within the Czech Republic, “you’re playing a game and then you look to the right and there’s just a castle. That doesn’t happen in the U.S.!” Jensen joked.
But maybe his favourite is in San Marino within the Italian baseball league.
“San Marino is like its own independent republic within Italy, because it has this massive cliff with a fortress on top that was never conquered. So, it’s still its own country,” Jensen stated. “And then as you go down the cliff, you have the baseball stadium right there. So you got a view of the fortress, and you have a view of the Adriatic Sea and Rimini, which is right there.”
Not surprisingly for somebody who has performed all around the world (Jensen is fast to level out that he is aware of at the least two different gamers in Tim Brown and Owen Reid who’ve really performed in extra nations, so he is no record-setter), Jensen’s schedule is fairly full. He’ll be getting ready Austria’s pitching workers for the upcoming Euro Baseball Championships held within the Czech Republic this September and he not too long ago completed a training stint with the Baseball Jobs Overseas Globetrotters, who went undefeated at Austria’s Finkstonball competition.
They’ll play once more on the upcoming Prague Baseball Week in June earlier than having an exhibition towards the Italian National Team later this summer season, after which they’re going to head to Buenos Aires to assist nations put together for the upcoming PanAmerican Games. And, oh yeah, he’s obtained Czech Extraleague playoffs with Hroši Brno taking on his weekends because the staff seems to win its first ever Czech title.
As for the longer term, Jensen’s undecided. Perhaps he’ll return to the Czech Republic or Austria or possibly hit one of many nations he’s but to play in. But he’s additionally fascinated by settling down, letting his arm relaxation, and rising Baseball Jobs Overseas. But then once more, possibly not.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to give up playing,” Jensen stated. “I need the competition. I love the competition.”
He additionally desires American baseball followers to know simply how a lot ardour there may be for the game in Europe.
“The fan base might not be as big out here, like from a baseball perspective overall, but the people that are within the baseball community out here are diehard, and they love it, and they follow MLB,” Jensen stated. “They are so passionate about growing our sport over here.”
