Draci Brno Publishes Historical Footage; 1972 Softball Game Captures Early Years of Baseball and Softball in Czechia

The Czech record holders Draci Brno have published historical footage on their YouTube channel, with the earliest video depicting a 1972 softball match. Other videos capture the club’s domination of Czech baseball from the mid-1990s onward. Draci won 16 consecutive championships from 1995-2010.

In particular, the 1972 softball video captures the very early years of softball and baseball in the country. As Josh Chetwynd details in his seminal history of European baseball, Baseball in Europe, softball was played in the early 1970s by a small number of Czech players, with baseball played by even fewer. In 1964, a Prague student club by the name of “Vojenske stavby made the switch from baseball to softball, marking the official return of hardball. Two years later, Czech [baseball] teams began traveling abroad to play clubs in Belgium, Holland, Italy and Poland,” Chetwynd writes. And in 1969, legendary US baseball coach Bill Arce made his first visit to the country, bringing equipment and expertise that would help establish the game in the country.

With Czechia having qualified for this March’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) after defeating Spain at the WBC Qualifer in Regensburg in September 2022, the footage is a reminder of the roots of baseball and softball in the country and the many years of development that have led to the Czechs establishing themselves on the European — and now the global — stage.