Feature · International Baseball · WBN Staff
Who Are the International Globetrotters? Meet the Barnstorming Team Crashing Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026
When the six-team field for the 2026 Honkbalweek Haarlem was announced, five of the names were exactly what you would expect: the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Italy, Czechia, Chinese Taipei, Curaçao. National programs. Flags. Anthems. And then there was the sixth team — the one without a country.
They are the International Globetrotters, and they are the most interesting roster-construction story in international baseball right now. Think of them as the Honkbalweek equivalent of the Japan Breeze barnstorming through the Caribbean Series, or the Savannah Bananas if the Bananas could actually play it straight against a national team: a collection of professional players from all over the world, assembled not by nationality but by a shared experience — they all chased the game overseas, far from the affiliated American baseball machine that passed them by.
Where the Team Comes From
The Globetrotters are organized by Baseball Jobs Overseas (BBJO), a service founded by David Burns that helps American, Canadian, and international players find professional and semi-professional clubs around the world — in the German Bundesliga, the Czech Extraliga, the Australian winter leagues, the French and Austrian and Swiss first divisions, New Zealand, and beyond. Over the years, BBJO has turned its network of overseas players into a barnstorming all-star team that gets invited to European tournaments.
And they win. The Globetrotters have won the Finkstonball tournament in Austria four straight times, and in January 2026 they assembled in Milan to play exhibition games against the Italian and Czech national teams as both programs prepared for the European Championship. Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026 is their biggest stage yet: a full-fledged slot in a 32-edition international tournament, sharing a field with national programs that have produced MLB All-Stars.
The Roster-Construction Story
This is what makes the Globetrotters fascinating, and it is the same instinct that makes you root for a 12-seed in March Madness: every player on this team has a path. Not the path — the one that runs from a Power Five program to a top-three-rounds draft slot to a 40-man roster. A different path. A weirder one. A more human one.
These are players like the ones in BBJO’s own files over the years:
- A former UC Davis infielder who played winter ball on Australia’s Gold Coast, then summer ball in Switzerland.
- A Clemson grad who chose Perth, Australia over hanging up his cleats.
- A pitcher-catcher duo from Kansas who spent consecutive winters in Christchurch, New Zealand.
- A Canadian who has played a dozen-plus countries across more than a decade, foregoing affiliated ball entirely for a life of baseball and travel.
- Players who came to the game from cricket, from Division III programs, from junior colleges, from men’s leagues in Los Angeles — players who, by any conventional measure, were “done,” and who decided they were not.
When you watch the Globetrotters take the field against Team Italy or Team Curaçao in Haarlem, you are not watching a novelty act. You are watching a roster of players who are, in a real sense, the most committed baseball lifers on the grounds — men who organized their entire adult lives around continuing to play, in countries where the game is small and the paychecks are smaller. That is the story.
What Is Honkbal? Inside the Dutch Baseball Tournament That Launched Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews
Why They Matter at Haarlem
In a tournament built around national pride, the Globetrotters represent something different: baseball as a borderless profession. Their roster is a living map of where the game is played when nobody’s watching — the Czech Extraliga, the German Bundesliga, the Australian Baseball League, the leagues of France and Austria and the Netherlands itself.
And there is a real competitive subplot. These players spend their seasons in these European leagues, against many of the same players who will suit up for the Netherlands, Italy, and Czechia at Haarlem. The Globetrotters are not strangers crashing the party. They are the imports who have been quietly raising the level of European baseball for years — and now they get to do it under their own banner.
How to Follow Them
WBN will be tracking the Globetrotters throughout Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026, with roster profiles and player-path features — the birthplaces, the college stops, the overseas journeys that brought each player to Pim Mulier Stadium. For the team’s own coverage, including their long-running video series and player interviews, see Baseball Jobs Overseas at baseballjobsoverseas.com.
Inside the Rise of Baseball Jobs Overseas, the Platform Changing Lives One Contract at a Time
When the tournament opens June 26, keep an eye on the team without a flag. They might be the most fun team on the field.
This is the second piece in WBN’s 2026 Honkbalweek Haarlem coverage. For our full tournament viewer’s guide — schedule, teams, and how to watch — see our Honkbalweek Haarlem 2026 preview. For more international baseball from the World Baseball Network, visit worldbaseball.com.
