1969 European Championship

The 1969 European Championship was the second European Championship held in West Germany as it was played in Wiesbaden, Hesse. It was held from July 27 through August 3, 1969. After political squabblings kept the two powerhouses from European baseball away from the 1967 European Championship, both the Netherlands and Italy returned. The events were held at the Lindsey Air Station, a US military base. Under an unusual rule never employed before or since at a European Championship, teams in the B Pool were allowed to have two foreigners on their roster. Spain had a Puerto Rican player and a Cuban one and Germany had two Americans. The rule was the subject of dispute and wisely removed from future events. There was an Italian protest about the use of five players from the Netherlands Antilles on the Dutch squad because the players were not born in Europe but the protest was not upheld as all the players were full citizens of the Netherlands. In future events, Italy would use teams composed of players born in the USA, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere whose only claim to citizenship was that a grandfather or great-grandmother had been Italian; their use of such players would meet similar unsuccessful complaints. This was not the first one European Championship in which the Netherlands had used Antillean players - for instance, Hamilton Richardson had been MVP of the 1965 European Championship.

Netherlands won Gold, going 3-0.