The biggest sports personality from Kladno is Jaromir Jagr, one of the greatest hockey players in history, playing 24 seasons in the NHL from 1994 to 2018 and winning two Stanley Cups to go along with 1998 Olympics gold medal and two World Cup titles.
Tomas Plekanec and Jakub Voracek both played 15 years in the NHL and like Jagr were also born in the northwestern city of Kladno, which in the Central Bohemian Region and has about 70,00 residents.
"Nowadays ice hockey is not as successful as like 20 years ago. They are fighting to just keep the team in the league. But the legends from ice hockey are always talked about in the city. Everybody knows them,” Vostatek said.
In fact, the ice hockey club Rytiri Kladno, which is owned by Jagr, has placed in the Qualification to Play Out (relegation) in the last three seasons.
Vostatek never played club ice hockey, instead only when the waterways around him froze over. Still he enjoys the sport. “After baseball, ice hockey is my second favorite sport. And I watch all the games when there is a World Cup and all the tournaments,” he added.
Vostatek came to baseball when his brother went to training and one day he went with him and he really enjoyed it. Vostalek said it feels amazing to be at the U-18 Baseball European Championship 2024 even though he only pitched 2.1 innings against The Netherlands (ed: the Dutch won 2-8).
“I set this as a goal at the beginning of the season and worked as much as I could and I am really proud of being here,” he said Vostatek plays with the Miners Kladno, a team that started in 2010 as Laso Kladno and became the Miners in 2014.
Club president and head coach Petr Baroch, a former national team player and coach, has been working hard to put Kladno on the Czech baseball map.
Vostatek is the first player from Kladno to play for the U-18 national team.
“I hope it’s a start to a new future - raising the club itself. And I hope the up-coming players will follow me,” he said. Vostatek nearly had a fellow Kladno native with him on the team but teammate Filip Kucera could not make the team as an infielder.
“I am always playing for myself and the team and I play for my city too,” Vostatek said.
When asked who he looks up to, Vostatek said Trevor Bauer, adding: “I like his style of play. And sometimes I take it to my style too. I watch all his videos. I like how he thinks about the game itself about the pitches and everything about baseball. I know he’s very known for his controversy but I don’t care about any of this stuff.”
Vostatek said it is also special to be playing with this 2006 and 2007 born group of Czechs, who could be considered a golden generation for the country. Led by manager Filip Prochazka, Czechia finished second at the U-12 European Championship 2018 to qualify for the World Cup. A year later in Taiwan, they tied the country’s best-ever result at the U-12 WBSC World Championship with eighth place. And in 2021, Czechia’s strong generation delivered the first gold medal in the last five years in any category for Baseball Czech, when they overcame France to win the title on their home soil.
Vostatek was on the fringes of the U-15 national team but did not make the team. “I wasn’t part of the team but I looked up to them and always wanted to be part of the team. And now being part of the team I really enjoy this because we have a great team spirit,” Vostatek said. And he hopes he can help use that to make people in Kladno think more about baseball.
David Hein x WBSC Europe
Cover photo by Walter Keller / Catchthefever
