1971 European Baseball Championship
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Country | Italy |
| Dates | 5–12 September |
| Teams | 9 |
| Defending champions |  Netherlands |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Netherlands (9th title) |
| Runners-up |  Italy |
| Third place |  Germany |
| Fourth place |  Belgium |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Games played | 22 |
The 1971 European Baseball Championship was held in Parma and Bologna, Italy and was won by the Netherlands for the second time in a row. Italy finished second. The Netherlands lost the second game of the three-game championship to Italy, the Dutch team's first loss in tournament history. The Netherlands won the winner-take-all final game, which was delayed by rain.[1][2][3] In the second game of the championship series, 5,000 fans watched Italy win 1–0.[2]
San Marino, in its first tournament, defeated Great Britain and Spain.[1]
Italy began recruiting Italian-American players for international competitions in 1971.[4] The team had previously complained that the Netherlands had an unfair advantage by fielding players from the Netherlands Antilles.[5]
The nine-team field was the largest yet in tournament history. Teams were split into two groups that played a single round-robin competition. The top two teams played a three-game championship series while the second-, third-, and fourth-place teams in each group faced each other in a one-game playoff to determine the final standings. The lone fifth-place team in group play, France, was determined to finish last in the competition without a playoff.[6][1]
