Lahcène Benhamida

Lahcène Benhamida

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born April 12, 1971 in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis France

Biographical Information

Lahcène Benhamida played baseball for Team France and with the Montpellier Barracudas from 1985-2005, when he retired.

Benhamida hit .306/.386/.333 with 9 runs in 9 games in the 1993 European Championship; he was third on France in runs, behind David Meurant and Jamel Boutagra. His .980 fielding percentage at 2B was second in the event, trailing Craig McDonald. He batted .214/.290/.286 for France in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup and fielded .943 at second base. He went one for nine in the 1994 Baseball World Cup. He hit .391/.444/.478 in the 1995 European Championship and had two steals in the 1997 European Championship. He hit .263/.417/.263 in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup, leading the French starters in OBP.

He was 1 for 9 with 5 walks in the 1999 European Championship as France's starting second baseman. In the 2001 European Championship, he hit .304/.568/.478 with 10 walks and 8 runs in 8 games, fielding .957. He was third in the event in OBP (behind Tarek Shaer and David Sheldon), tied Sheldon, Remy Maduro and Jiří Víšek for fifth in runs, tied Gino Henson for second in walks (one behind Magnus Pilegård) and tied for fourth in steals.

Benhamida coached for France in the 2003 Baseball World Cup.

He returned to Division Elite in 2008 with the Templiers de Senart as an infielder, hitting .252/.381/.315 with 34 runs in 44 games. He only made one error in 43 contests at second base. He was worse in the 2008 European Cup in Regensburg, going 1 for 13 with 2 walks and 3 errors in 5 games.

Now (2009), Benhamida is the co-owner of Lace Baseball, the official equipment supplier to the FFBS, and to several teams in France and Europe.

Personal info

His wife's name is Marie; she is a dancer. Lahcène listed her as his greatest supporter during a recent interview. He met his wife at the Creps in Montpellier (a regional sports education center, the (Centre régional d'éducation populaire et de sport) in French). His daughter Jade was born February 27, 2003 at 2:33pm.

He also loves the number 12, worn by one of his favorite players, Roberto Alomar. taken from

Sources: http://www.ffbsc.org/edit.asp?typ=1&id=1217, http://www.legionaere.de/eurocup/teams/detail/?id=8, http://www.templiers-senart.com/Elite/Roster/tabid/78/Default.aspx, Defunct IBAF site, http://competition.baseballeurope.com/2008/regensburg/games/fra.htm http://pyxis.montpellier-agglo.com/fr/internet/harmonie/archives_article.php?id_magazine=39&id_numero=53&id_categorie=2&id_souscategorie=4&id_article=710