The Lithuanian Baseball Association () is the national governing body of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. The association was established in 1987 and joined the

International Baseball Federation The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) is the former international governing body of baseball. It has since been superseded by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and continues to exist as the WBSC's baseball division. Betwee ...

and the

Confederation of European Baseball A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

(today

WBSC Europe WBSC Europe promoted a Goodwill game between Team Eastern Europe and Team Ukraine played at the Eastern European Day at the Brooklyn Cyclones in Brooklyn, NY on June 1st 2025 WBSC Europe is the governing body of the sport of baseball and softbal ...

) in 1991. The Lithuanian Baseball Association is responsible for the national baseball team, the coed national Baseball5 team and overseeing the Lithuanian Baseball League.

History

Baseball was introduced in Lithuania by

Lithuanian American Lithuanian Americans refer to American citizens and residents of Lithuanian descent or were born in Lithuania. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in its population in the United States. ...

pilot

Steponas Darius Steponas Darius (known as Stephen Darius in the US; born Steponas Jucevičius-Darašius; January 8, 1896 – July 17, 1933) was a Lithuanian American aviator, pilot, who died in a non-stop flight attempt in the ''Lituanica'' from New York City t ...

in 1922, after returning from the United States. The first season of the Lithuanian Baseball League took place that same year and

LFLS Kaunas LFLS Kaunas, or Lietuvos Fizinio Lavinimosi Sąjunga Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club based in Kaunas in the years between World War I and World War II during Lithuania's first period of modern independence. The club was founded in 1919 an ...

were crowned champions. The second season of the league did not happen until 1988. Lithuania's baseball team has never qualified for any major tournament. Whereas the national Baseball5 team is the current European runner-up after losing the inaugural Baseball5 European Championship against France. In 2017,

Dovydas Neverauskas Dovydas Neverauskas (born January 14, 1993) is a Lithuanian professional baseball pitcher for the Charros de Jalisco of the Mexican League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and in Nippon Professi ...

became the first Lithuanian to play in the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, doing so with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. Lithuania Baseball Association's current president is Vermidas Neverauskas, Dovydas Neverauskas father.

National teams

External links

Lithuanian Baseball Association official website

References

{{WBSC Europe associations 1987 establishments in Lithuania

Baseball in Lithuania Sports organizations established in 1987

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...