Spartakos of Glyfada was one of the first Greek baseball teams and was established in the year 2000 by Andreas Arvanitis as a division of the Spartakos Club. An athlete himslef, Andreas is a member of the Greek Olympic Committee and is currently serving as the General Secretary for the Hellenic Triathlon Federation. The Club was originally created in 1980 and consisted of several sports including:
Triathlon
Tennis
Weight Lifting
Wrestling
Badminton
All of these are individual sports and baseball was the Club's first involvement in a team sport. The Spartakos family was no stranger to success having many national and international trophies and distinctions to boast of in each of the sports divisions it sponsored. Therefore, the baseball division was obliged to live up to this reputation and to bring further distinctions, glory, and trophies for the Club's trophy room.
Why Baseball?
Andreas added baseball to the Club's array of sports because of two main factors.
1. Both of his sons, Costas and Vasilis, having grown up in Glyfada, had found out about the exploits of Mary Ann Ryder, who had started her own baseball initiative using the old softball field on the former U.S. Air Force Base at Hellenikon. Mary Ann started her own campaign to form a baseball/softball league by posting signs all over Glyfada and the surrounding areas inviting anyone and everyone who might be interested in playing the game on weekends.
Costas, Vasilis, and many of their friends began to visit the old softball field initially out of curiosity, but quickly recognized what a great sport baseball really is. They learned more and more about the game and soon realized that the more they learned, the more they wanted to play.
2. Thus, when Greece was awarded the Olympic Games for 2004 and the Greek government created the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation, Costas and Vasilis asked their father, Andreas, to add baseball to the Spartakos family. Mary Ann became the first coach for the Spartakos Baseball team and she led the team in the first ever Greek Championship in the year 2000. The team finished the season in 2nd place behind Marousi 2004.
Since then, the Spartakos Baseball Team has participated in the local Greek Baseball League and has been playing some of the best baseball in Greece.
The First Greek Baseball Cup Champions in the year 2000!!!
After losing the first Greek Baseball Championship to the Marousi 2004 Baseball team in the one game final in May of 2000, Spartakos, under the new Manager, Tom Mazarakis, easily defeated their arch rival Marousi 2004 in a semifinal 5 inning match for the cup by a score of 13-6. Kyriakos Kourtzoglou made his debut on the mound and pitched all 5 innings for the win while posting 13 Ks out of 15 total POs. In the final, Spartakos easily defeated Pelopas of Patra to win the first Greek Cup Championship. George Tsakalis was the winning pitcher.
