International Baseball Vagabond, Part 7 - The 2013 Season

It's that time of year, Spring is in the air (except across Europe where we didn't get the memo to leave winter yet)... and the baseball season is just around the corner.
That means it's also time for my annual International Baseball update, 7th edition!

After spending the winter months in Detroit conducting free baseball clinics with my father and some great people at the Boll Family YMCA (read more about it at http://ycommunityimpact.org/2013/01/26/city-kids-learn-baseball-skills/ ) and working with Major League Baseball on trying to bring a MLB Urban Youth Academy to the site of old Tiger Stadium, I have landed, settled, and am currently writing from freezing Brno Czech Republic where I will be manager, pitcher, and hitter for Hrosi Brno in the Czech Extra-League (first division) once the snow melts at the stadium. Read the press-release on Mister-Baseball.com here -http://www.mister-baseball.com/justin-prinstein-playercoach-hrosi-brno-2013/

This year will be quite different from previous years as I will actually be playing for the team that I am Head Coach/Manager of.  I'm not sure how that will work yet but I'm excited to be playing professionally in another country (7th country in 7 years), and we have a young team with tons of potential. 

In addition, I also will be scouting all over Europe for the Baltimore Orioles organization attempting to sign the next European Major Leaguer. It's quite the task to manage daily responsibilities with my team in Brno, while also traveling across the continent to see potential prospects.  For example, this weekend I will be traveling right from practice in Czech Republic to the MLB European Academy in Tirrenia Italy to watch a tournament featuring young players from Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Czech, and France and then heading straight back to Brno to get us ready for opening day on Saturday April 6th.

It sounds daunting but luckily this year I won't have the added responsibility of taking law school exams from University of Detroit Mercy, having graduated last May!

You can follow all the travels and baseball experiences on my new photo blog at www.justprin.tumblr.com and if you feel like reading more detailed stories I will be posting occasionally on this blog - www.justprin.blogspot.com that I've been writing on since my first week in Belgium in March of 2007.  I will also be posting game recaps and other baseball news on my facebook fan page that you can "Like" at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Justin-Prinstein/159331680763120

Finally, I just want to take the time to thank my sponsors for outfitting me this year - 3n2 ( http://www.3n2sports.com/ ) and Vinci Gloves ( http://www.vincipro.com/cart/ ); the Brno Hippos organization for giving me a great place to live and continuing my childhood dream of playing baseball professionally; the Baltimore Orioles organization for believing in me as as a scout and for believing in European baseball; and to all my wonderful family and friends for the amazing love and support throughout my sometimes crazy worldwide baseball endeavors.