21/08/2023 1 Minute Read

Royal Antwerp Eagles Baseball Softball Club celebrates 100th birthday

It all started in the early 1920s and led to the foundation of baseball and softball in Belgium.

The Royal Antwerp Eagles, the oldest baseball and softball club in Belgium, celebrated their 100th birthday on Friday, 18 August.

It all started in the early 1920s when a couple of Antwerp boys walked along Wilrycksche Plein and noticed a group of Japanese sailors playing a strange game they had never seen. Out of curiosity, the boys decided to have a look, not knowing that they were laying the groundwork for all that has become baseball and softball in Belgium.

Before long, on August 18, 1923, Belgium’s first baseball club: the Antwerp Black Cats, was formed. Outlasting the war, having all the sportive highs and lows, changing names, merging, and adding softball, they turned 50: The club was later named Royal Antwerp Eagles Baseball and Softball.

Setting their mark in the 1980s as national champions and the club to beat, the Eagles celebrated their centennial on the 18, 19 and 20 August weekend.

The celebrations ended with an All-Star Game, involving players from previous years.

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The Royal Antwerp Eagles currently have a baseball team competing in the fourth division and a U-21 baseball team. Their softball teams compete in the women's Divisions 1 and 3 and the men's reserve league.