Toppling Giants

Baseball is one of the biggest sports played in the United States, but in Europe it is a mouse among elephants. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are juggernauts of not only Europe, but the entire world. Even other world-leading clubs like Villarreal do not size up. In a cramped cage, everyone else is just trying to clear out a little elbow room.

Juan Garcia Puig is one of the few to earn some space to breathe. Born to Spanish parents, Puig grew up in America, where he fell in love with baseball. Since his return to Spain more than 20 years ago, he has been trying to grow the sport in Valencia.

As the head coach and general manager for the Valencia Astros professional baseball team, he has won European championship, and in mid-June of this year his team won the Federations Cup in Belgium. He has earned the respect of his players, staff and opponents. But despite all the success, the giants, led by soccer and basketball, still dominate the Spanish sports landscape.

Professional baseball in Spain is nothing like it is in the States. Even members of a championship team like the Astros are not paid a livable salary. Many of the coaches, including Puig, work as teachers in schools at all levels, from primary to university.

“Everybody has jobs on the side. Nobody can live off baseball,” Puig said.

Many of the players live and work in Madrid or Barcelona. To keep in shape, the players practice each day with clubs in their home cities, and only play with the Astros on game days, usually on weekends.

Puig says creating a consistent effort and forging team chemistry is not a problem.

“All these guys that come in from other parts of the country, they are all top-notch players. They’re all on the Spanish national team,” Puig said. “They’re teammates. You know, they compete together with team Spain. So, they know each other and they get along.”

The Astros can’t match the soccer giants in Madrid and Barcelona, but a soccer team that consistently ranks among the top teams in La Liga, the highest league in Spain and one of the elite leagues in the world, should be on equal footing. Yet, Villarreal CF is dwarfed by its competitors.

The Yellow Submarines are based in the town of Vila-real, about 50 kilometers north of Valencia, with a population of only about 50 thousand. By any standard in the world, that’s a small market. To escape the shadow of the ultra-rich Real Madrid and FC Barcelona; to stay competitive, the organization decided to grow and develop its talent at home.

Juan Anton de Salas is responsible for Villarreal’s international presence, and he says the team recruits players as young as 12 years old to its academy.

“If other clubs have a boarding school, they will have around 50 places more or less for the kids. We have 110,” Anton said. “We are aware that we need to bring players from other places in Spain, even other places in Europe, to be able to compete.”

In addition to its local academy, Villarreal is establishing new partnerships in foreign markets. Their main targets are the United States and China. Villarreal is currently setting up its third academy in the U.S., in Lincoln, Nebraska, to go with its academies in New Jersey and Virginia.

These academies serve the dual purpose of growing a foreign fan base and searching for foreign talent.

“You think of New York, you think of Chicago, L.A., Miami, and we’ve got that covered. But what about the real America? What about the grassroots? Where are all the kids that are going to be professionals in the next decade?” Anton said.

When it comes to growing their sports, Anton and Puig share similar philosophies.

“We try to grow from the roots,” Puig said. “We use the contacts we have to promote the sport within primary and secondary schools. Every week we have a good three to four hundred kids coming to the baseball field and learning, or discovering, what baseball is for the first time in their lives.”

Anton feels the situation for soccer is similar in America.

“It’s a sport that’s very, very friendly with small kids. I play basketball too, but I couldn’t play basketball when I was three, four, five years old. The ball is hard on your hands when you’re a little kid. With soccer, you can just play. So, it’s natural for each and every one of us.”

But Anton also recognizes that soccer is not the primary sport in the States and has adjusted his strategy to attract as many people to the game as possible.

“The approach we have is like hey, we have to make this natural for (Americans),” Anton said. “Make it part of your D.N.A. like it is in Spain with our clubs.”

Though they are using similar techniques, they do not have the same success rate.

“Having (kids) get interested and want to sign up and play the sport is not easy,” Puig said. “I’d say you need to get a good three to four thousand kids come and participate in these activities to get maybe 20 or 30 kids to sign up.”

Many of the better athletes in Spain are hoping to be elephants themselves one day, and are already involved in soccer or basketball, leaving only a small pool of kids to play baseball. But there are opportunities to advance if they do decide to play. About half of the players on the Astros came up through the youth program when they were less than ten years old.

“They come, they discover the sport, and they realize they like it and they’re good at it, and that makes them enjoy it even more,” Puig said.

The Yellow Submarines have had an easier time of it. If the zoo in Europe is cramped full, Villarreal is finding plenty of room to romp and play in the wide open spaces of America.

“It has been pretty smooth,” Anton said. “What we’ve seen is that soccer in the U.S. is growing, growing, and growing.”

Both men are optimistic about the growth of their sport, especially with the upcoming changes in world sports. Baseball is returning to the Olympics in Tokyo 2020 and America is hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.

The elephants are not going anywhere and they are giving up no ground, but the zoo may be expanding.