Iran national baseball team

Iran national baseball team

Country	Iran
Federation	Iran Baseball Federation
Confederation	BFA
Manager	vacant

The Iran national baseball team (Persian: تیم ملی بیسبال ایران‎‎) is the national baseball team of Iran. The team represents Iran in international competitions.

History

Iran baseball committee was founded in 1992 by Mr. Mohammad Bagher Zolfagharian. In 1993 it became a federation and continued to function as a federation until 2010, when it became part of Sports Associations Federation. This was largely caused by the inactivity of its national team due to the fact that there were not enough teams in the Middle East to play against and gain experience and also the team not being strong enough to play against the elite teams of Southeast Asia.

Currently Baseball is played in 12 Provinces in Iran with the potential for many more if helped with the problem of shortage of equipment. Iran has one stadium specifically designed for baseball in the city of Karaj, but other cities for the most part use soccer fields for official games and practice sessions.

From 1994 until 2009, every year teams representing their provinces participated in a national championship with Tehran (10), Bushehr and Isfahan (2 each) and Kerman (1) splitting the championship trophies.

In 2010, the National Championship games were replaced by a Club Championship League. Club teams were split in to a North and South conference with the top two teams in each conference advancing to the playoffs. Since the inception of this league, Tehran's Azarakhsh Club, Bushehr's Naderi Club and Kerman's Mes Club have been able to each win 1 championship.^[1]

Iran's national team has participated in 5 Asia Cups (1999, 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2015) and has been able to win the silver medal and bronze medal in the Western Division in 2012 and 2015.

Current Staff

• Team Manager: Kashef Rana (Tehran)
• Head Coach: vacant
• Coach: Payam Shokat Sadri (Kish)
• Coach: Seyed Ali Emamzadeh (Bushehr)
• Assistant Coach: Amir Bakhtiari Laghab (Bushehr)
• Assistant Coach: Adel Moshirian (Khorasan Razavi)
• Assistant Coach: Farid Farhadi (Qom)
• Physical Trainer: Mohammad Mehdi Rafiei (Markazi)

Players

The following players were called up for the national team camp prior to the 2015 Presidential Cup which was played from September 9–13 at Azadi Sport Complex.^[2]

Most notable baseballer of Iranian origin is Yu Darvish who plays in MLB, although he has not yet received an invitation to the national team!

Pos. 0#0 Player Date of birth (age) Club Moein Hassani Kerman Nima Bagherinia Isfahan Rajabali Barzegar Semnan Yaghoub Hosseinpour Hormozgan Kaveh Chah Bejari Bushehr Abtin Nakhjavanpour Alborz Mohammad Goodarzi Alborz Mehran Sajjadpour Alborz Davoud Jabari Alborz Mojtaba Gordan Semnan Mohammad Ali Kalantari Semnan Jalal Changizi Semnan Jalil Changizi Semnan Iman Khaligh Saket Gilan Hamid Mohammadi Gilan Amir Khaligh Saket Gilan Kian Naddafi Gilan Reham Borhani Gilan Sina Ghadimi Gilan Ahmadreza Derayesh Isfahan Keivan Rana Bushehr Yasin Sharifi Ziyarati Bushehr Yasser Sedighipour Isfahan Mohammad Hossein Safdari Qom Hessam Arefzadeh Bushehr Reza Shabani Bushehr Armin Gharibi Bushehr Mehdi Vaezzadeh Bushehr Mehdi Masoumi Bushehr Amir Bazhvand Bushehr Mehrdad Pooyanfar Bushehr Mohsen Mohammadi Bushehr Majid Mohammadi Senej Qom Seyed Abdollah Mohimian Azad Bushehr Nima Vaghari Khorasan Razavi Mohammad Reza Arabi Khorasan Razavi Reza Yousefi Khorasan Razavi Ahmad Ramezanzadeh Khorasan Razavi

Managerial history

• Mehrdad Hajian, pre-2009
• Gerardo Yassel Cabrera Moreno, January 2009^[3]
• Julio Alberto Hernandez Coste, April 2009^[4][5]
• Mehrdad Hajian, ?-2014^[6][7]
• Toma Irokawa, January 2015-July 2015^{[8][9][10][11]}

Tournament history

Asian Baseball Cup

Host/Year	Round/Rank
1995, Manila	Did not enter
1997, Bangkok	Did not enter
1999, Chandigarh	Participated
2001, Jakarta	Did not enter
2002, Bangkok	Did not enter
2004, Bangkok	Did not enter
2006, Rawalpindi	5th (out of 5 teams)
2009, Bangkok	Did not enter
2010, Islamabad	Did not enter
2012, Lahore	Third place[12]
2013, Lahore	Did not enter
2015, Islamabad	Runner-up

Presidential Cup

2015 Presidential Cup was an international tournament hosted by Iran, it was played from September 9–13 at Azadi Sport Complex which was won by India, other participants were Iraq and Afghanistan.^[13]

Host/Year	Round/Rank
2015, Tehran	Runner-up

Achievements

Asian Baseball Cup - Western Division

• 2012 : 3rd
• 2015 : 2nd

Iran Presidential Cup

• 2015 : 2nd

Recent fixtures and results

2013 Results^[14] 

27 July Georgia vs Iran series – Game 1	Georgia	13–5	Iran	Merani Sports Complex

29 July Georgia vs Iran series – Game 2	Georgia	15–8	Iran	Shatili Sports Complex

31 July Georgia vs Iran series – Game 3	Georgia	21–5	Iran	Shatili Sports Complex

2015 Results 

24 February Iran vs India – Asian Baseball Cup Western Division	Iran	15-0	India	Jinnah Sports Stadium

26 February Pakistan vs Iran – Asian Baseball Cup Western Division	Pakistan	12-0	Iran	Jinnah Sports Stadium

27 February Iran vs Iraq – Asian Baseball Cup Western Division	Iran	18-4	Iraq	Jinnah Sports Stadium

September 2015 Iran vs Iraq – Presidential Cup	Iran	?-?	Iraq	Azadi Sport Complex

September 2015 Iran vs Afghanistan – Presidential Cup	Iran	?-?	Afghanistan	Azadi Sport Complex

13 September 2015 Iran vs India – Presidential Cup	Iran	10-11	India	Azadi Sport Complex

References

1. http://www.baseballasia.org/BFA/include/index.php?Page=9-1-9
2. http://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1394/06/01/837401/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B2%DB%8C%DA%A9%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AA%DB%8C%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%84%DB%8C-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B4%D8%AF
3. http://www.payvand.com/news/09/jan/1301.html http://donya-e-eqtesad.com/news/493978
4. http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/sports/2009/4/19/31725/Former-Dominican-player-named-Irans-baseball-coach
5. http://www.mehrnews.com/news/862236/%D9%87%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B2-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A8%DB%8C-%D8%AA%DB%8C%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%84%DB%8C-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B4%D8%AF
6. http://elvatra.com/post/1519-%d9%85%d9%87%d8%b1%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%af-%d8%ad%d8%a7%d8%ac%db%8c%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%b1%d8%a8%db%8c-%d8%aa%db%8c%d9%85-%d9%85%d9%84%db%8c-%d8%a8%db%8c%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84-%d9%88-%d9%be%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%a8%db%8c%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7%db%8c%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a8%d9%87-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%aa%d8%b1%d8%a7-%d9%be%db%8c%d9%88%d8%b3%d8%aa
7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/baseball-in-iran-is-more-like-the-bad-news-bears-than-the-major-leagues/2014/07/16/767f8752-3ea8-4b96-9198-e44136771a25_story.html
8. http://www.baseballasia.org/BFA/include/index.php?Page=2&news01=21114617554a263e51c98c
9. http://baseballdeworld.com/2015/01/07/iran-toma-irokawa-manage-national-team/
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1bTZnaisI
11. http://www.mehrnews.com/news/2285996/%DB%8C%DA%A9-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A8%DB%8C-%DA%98%D8%A7%D9%BE%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D8%A8%DB%8C%D8%B3-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%86%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%87-%D9%85%DB%8C-%DA%AF%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%AF
12. http://www.baseballasia.org/BFA/include/index.php?Page=1-1
13. http://www.sportskeeda.com/baseball/indian-baseball-team-create-history-iran-win-first-ever-gold
14. http://msy.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=152&info_id=9257