It was quite the banner year for Jonathon Cramman. In August, the native Londoner led GB to the 2025 Under-23 European Championship, the first-ever title for Great Britain in a top continental championship in any age category. In September, he was once again named to the staff of the GB senior national team at the European Baseball Championship. And now, ‘Cram’ has been named Coach of the Year by the European Baseball Coaches Association (EBCA), the first-ever British national team coach to receive the honor in the award’s 18-year history.
After being named manager for Great Britain’s U23 squad at the start of 2024, Cramman led the team to its first appearance at the Under-23 Baseball World Cup. Building off the experience in China, he led the GB U23 team to the title, beating host Czech Republic in a tight 9–7 affair to claim gold. GB took care of Israel (7-0), lost to the Czechs in the group stage (3-0) and beat France 4-3 to advance to the knockout stage. In the semi-final, GB got the best of the Netherlands and, for the title, revenged the loss against Baseball Czech from their first matchup. In doing so, Great Britain scored in only two innings, putting up a five-spot in the thirrd and four more in the bottom of the sixth, which the Czech were unable to answer.
Cramman has been involved with GB Baseball for many years. After representing Great Britain at each of the different age categories, he has been part of the coaching staff since 2019. He has served in multiple roles, coaching and managing. He has managed the Under-15 squad, was the third base coach for the Under-18 team, and third base coach–hitting coach for Under-23s.
The GB-lifer has been on staff for two European Baseball Championships as well, serving as bench coach for the Seniors in the 2023 Baseball Euros, when GB surprised many baseball fans by winning the Silver Medal. This year, he once more served on the coaching staff for the British senior national team at the 2025 European Baseball Championship.
Cramman beat out two other finalists, Italy’s Alessandro Maestri, and Czech Republic’s Marian Krasny. Maestri served as pitching coach for Italy in this summer´s European Championship, in which the Azzurri bounced back from a disappointing ninth place showing in 2023 to silver medalists this year. Maestri led his pitching staff to a 6-1 record, a 2.72 team ERA (third in the tournament), and a .180 AVG by opposing batters.
In 2025, Krasny led the Czech U12 National Team into the European Championships to the title on home soil. Czec Republic dominated every opponent, including its fiercest competitors and household names like the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, mercy-ruling every single one of them. Just a few weeks later, Krasny´s team competed on the global level. While this type of dominance was understandably not in the cards at the World Cup, Czech again beat up on Germany and South Africa to finish in tenth place.
The EBCA has named a Coach of the Year since 2008, and Cramman joins such legends as Steve Janssen (2009, 2014), Greg Frady (2010), Brian Farley (2011), Mauro Mazzotti (2012), Evert-Jan ‘t Hoen (2013), David Winkler (2015), former Great Britain national teamer Bradley Roper-Hubbert (2018), and Pavel Chadim (2022).
By Gabriel Fidler, Managing Editor.