Improbably, Greece fielded a baseball team to compete at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where more than a few mystified locals in attendance could be seen cheering wildly at foul balls and soft popups to the infield.

They could be forgiven because most Greeks had no experience with the sport, which was as hard to find as an open supermarket on a Sunday. Baseball, essentially, did not exist in Greece. Soccer and basketball took center stage in the sports arena, with volleyball and water polo also popular.

Cobbling together a baseball team that could play against the world’s best – and stand a chance – required a Herculean and hurried effort, one that was urged on by the Greek government and organized in large part by enthusiastic Greek Americans across the Atlantic.

Now, on the 20th anniversary of the Athens Olympics, the general manager of Greece’s national baseball team, Tom Mazarakis, looks back on those days in August with admiration and with a sense of opportunity missed. But after recent seasons of uncertainty over the future of organized baseball in Greece, the sport is rallying. “It’s moving in the right direction,” Mazarakis said.

A new start

The Olympics did turn some Greeks into baseball fans and a few leagues sprouted, but America’s pastime didn’t captivate the nation. It didn’t help that the Greek Olympic baseball team lost all but one of its seven games and two players were removed after testing positive for banned substances.

When the Greek government created a baseball federation, it had one goal: Field an Olympic baseball team. “But that was the wrong thing to do,” Mazarakis said during an interview at a cafe at Klafthmonos Square in Athens. “Because, you can bring guys from the states and give them Greek passports and let them play, but the Greek baseball federation should have started from Day 1 with kids.” 

Working to correct that error have been Mazarakis and Kostis Liarommatis, president of the Hellenic Baseball Softball Federation, part of Greece’s Ministry of Sports. In the spring, a weeklong instructional event in the Palaio Faliro neighborhood of Athens drew hundreds of schoolkids eager to learn baseball, softball and various sports. Other baseball and softball demonstrations have also taken place, including one at a summer camp in Alimos in early July.

Meanwhile, Greece’s national baseball team – Hellas – has enjoyed some modest success. Last fall, it turned in a solid performance at the World Baseball Softball Confederation European Championship in the Czech Republic. And in another tournament in Prague in July, the team took first place in its division, winning all four of its games.

If they build it…

The most exciting news is word that two ball fields will be built – one for baseball and one for softball – as part of a planned sports complex in Paiania, near Athens International Airport. “The Greek minister of sports has promised us that the government will construct two fields there” that would be ready by February, Liarommatis said in an interview. “But you never know with the politics.”

Back in the summer of 2018, the ball fields in Elliniko on Athens’ south coast – the only facilities remaining – were closed off to prepare for a multibillion-dollar mixed-use development now rising. The fields were later demolished, and with them the spirits of local kids and adults who played in leagues and on club teams – the national baseball team hasn’t played in Greece since 2005. The loss also drained the baseball and softball youth talent pool. “If we don’t have a field, we cannot have development,” Liarommatis said. “Even if we try to find new players, they have to practice somewhere, not in a soccer field.”

Meanwhile, the Greek national baseball team has managed to remain in the WBSC Europe first division, and is trying to improve its ranking to reach the top 8. But, Liarommatis said, “we need the next generation to be involved with all this.” 

Mazarakis has been trying to keep the baseball flame lit for that next generation. He has helped recruit U.S.- and Canada-based players with Greek ancestry, worked with Greek officials to maintain a federation and secure players their passports, coordinated travel schedules for tournaments and fundraised to pay some expenses. 

A volunteer member of the grounds crew at the Athens Olympics baseball games – and manager of a local baseball team at the time – he is now regarded as the main reason the Greek national baseball team still exists. Mazarakis, 69, took an active role in the team when the Greek government dropped baseball and softball as Olympic sports shortly after the 2004 games ended. A full-time Athens resident since 2008, he has a lifelong connection with Greece. Mazarakis was born in New York City to Greek parents – his father was half Italian – and he remains a devoted New York Yankees fan. His initial reason for helping the Greek national team was because, “I just refused to accept that baseball, that the Greek baseball dream could just vanish into thin air because of indifference.”

Honoring their ancestry

So far, the story of baseball in Greece has mainly been written by Greek Americans who have sought to support their ancestral homeland. The list includes people like Peter Angelos, the Baltimore Orioles owner who helped bankroll the Greek Olympic baseball team effort and who died in March; former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes; and ex-big league star Nick Markakis, who played on the Olympic team before starting his career. Former U.S. Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns also assisted in the Olympic baseball push.

Greek baseball supporters in Greece have included Panagiotis Mitsiopoulos, owner of the Byron Hotel near the Acropolis, who in the runup to the Olympics was named president of the newly formed Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation in 1997; the current federation is its successor. Mitsiopoulos jump-started the Greek American involvement with the Olympic baseball team and has been a key donor to the national baseball team, as has American University of Athens president Achilles Kanellopoulos.

Top-level baseball players from the U.S. have all worn the blue and white uniform for Greece, including brothers Chris and Scott Demetral. “Whether it’s the connection to our Greek heritage, the chance to represent the country where our grandparents were born – and for some of our teammates, their parents – that’s been a significant reward,” said Chris Demetral, 54, who has managed Greece’s national baseball team since 2021. He played on the Greek Olympic team after spending several seasons in Triple-A baseball. Scott Demetral, 51, now the team’s assistant coach, hit five home runs for the Greek national team in one crucial tournament in 2002 leading up to the Olympics. Like nearly all of the players and coaches, the brothers live in the U.S. and travel to Europe for tournaments once a year; everyone pays their own way. “What we can do from here, outside of trying to put together the best team, is to help the sport get some recognition, the same with softball,” Scott Demetral said.

Greece’s national softball team, which won two games at the 2004 Olympics, faces similar hurdles as the baseball team. The women, who played in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship in July, organized a fundraising campaign to help pay travel costs for that tournament, and two others. The softball squad’s new head coach, Jay Nelson, wants the team to qualify for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “It’s ambitious but I don’t think it’s beyond,” Nelson said from his New Jersey home. “With improvement, we plan to get there.” Denise Horafa, who lives in Athens and for years worked with the Greek national softball team in a variety of roles, said finding homegrown talent and a decent place to play are the biggest challenges the sport faces in Greece. “Having young kids involved, that’ll be the right way to start developing it again,” said Horafa, who was born in Manhattan to Greek parents; the family moved to Greece when she was 13. “But it’s going to take a long time.”

For the love of the game

The Greek national baseball and softball teams have both suffered from a lack of players who live in Greece. The 2004 Olympic baseball squad had just one local resident on its roster, and the current team has only one: Loukas Soukeras, a dedicated 23-year-old who lives in Nea Smyrni. Soukeras started playing baseball a decade ago, when a friend who was on a Little League team asked if he wanted to join a practice. “I fell in love with it,” Soukeras said. He joined a team, but his group “had the secret fear for some time that it will end.” When that happened and the last field was gone, Soukeras kept playing with the support of his parents, who travel with him to games.

Soukeras played with a Bulgarian team for over a year and has been a member of the Greek national team for four years. Soukeras is a true baseball fan. The sport is “not boring,” he said. “When I hear that, that baseball is boring, it annoys me because they didn’t spend any time watching it or learning it to see the flow of the game…you need patience to watch a game, but this is the beauty of it.”

Soukeras got to experience a major league baseball game in person in June, when he was in the stands to watch the Boston Red Sox play at home in Fenway Park. He was among the honored guests for the team’s annual “Greek Celebration” pregame event, and was introduced on the field with fellow Greek national team player Noah Zavolas, and manager Chris Demetral. Soukeras’ trip, his first to the U.S., was paid for by teammates. A versatile player on the field, off the field he helps lead many of the baseball lessons for Athenian children and is taking classes to be a certified coaching instructor.

Despite his drive, Soukeras knows he is “on a completely different skill level” from other players on his team – some of whom nearly made it to the majors. “I am just one guy from Greece. I have one dream to follow, and I keep practicing,” he said. At the European championship last year, Greece needed victories to maintain its ranking, and Soukeras only got one at bat. He drew a walk; the team ended up with three wins and three losses, a very respectable result after starting the tournament with two lopsided defeats.

Soukeras wasn’t discouraged by the paltry playing time. “I was like, amazed to be part of it,” he said. “Just one at bat. It was pretty amazing for me.” He wants to see more funding and support from Greece for the national teams and for baseball and softball in general. “Greece doesn’t know that I am here, that I’m practicing baseball…I don’t have any feedback from Greece,” Soukeras said. But finances are tight. “The Greek government gives us an amount that is embarrassing, it’s nothing,” Liarommatis said. The money, €12,000 for the baseball and softball national teams combined, mostly covers league affiliation fees, he said.

Playing with purpose

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Soukeras and two friends ran through a series of drills on a gravel running track at National Technical University of Athens in Zografou. With 14 worn baseballs, a couple of bats, some square pieces of turf for bases and a hitting net, they took turns fielding dozens of grounders over the course of a few hours, stabbing their gloves at wicked hops the balls took after bouncing off the rugged surface. 

The trio of Soukeras, Stratos Palaiologos, 32, and Anthony Del Vasto, 40, practices together often, finding an empty space wherever they can. Del Vasto, from Panama, has lived in Greece for 24 years and plays in slow-pitch softball games with friends on weekends. Palaiologos, who wore an old ball cap from his time playing with the Patras Panthers, said many Greeks love baseball, and added that support from the Greek state would go a long way to boost participation.

Dimitri Kourtis, who has been with the Greek national team since 2016, said the focus should be on developing the Greek players of tomorrow. Kourtis, 31, credits Mazarakis with keeping the sport alive. “We call him the godfather of baseball in Greece,” he said. Kourtis now pitches for a professional team in Italy, but leaves the door open for the Greek team, schedule allowing. “Playing with the Greek national team, I felt like I was playing with people like me.”

For Peter Maestrales, one of two current national team players who was on the 2004 Greek Olympic team, it’s still a “tremendous honor” to represent the country where his grandfather was born. Maestrales, 45, loves playing and wants to help Mazarakis and company keep the program going. “Is baseball ever going to be a huge sport in Greece? Probably not,” he said. “But I think if the country was exposed to it more, I think they would appreciate a lot of the things that make baseball great.”