Besides dominating the French league, Rouen this year also reached the final four of the European Cup, an international tournament that concludes this week in Nettuno, Italy. A significant reason for the Huskies’ sustained excellence is its year-to-year continuity: it is common for players to stay in the league for 10 years, even longer.

Baseball-Reference.com identifies nine French-born players in the history of the major leagues; the best known is San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy. But it is not entirely accurate to imagine France as bereft of native baseball talent. An academy in Rouen, independent of the Huskies, is training players. The Huskies’ regular center fielder, Joris Bert, a Rouen native, was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007, though he did not advance beyond rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League. Last winter, a Rouen pitcher, Alexandre Roy, signed with the Mariners.

The league is about 50 years old. According to “Baseball in Europe,” by Josh Chetwynd, the French Baseball Union formed a league as early as 1912, and American and Canadian soldiers played the game in France during World War I.

The Rouen team, though, did not exist until 1986. Rolland, the Huskies’ president, was a university student then in Rouen, and he vaguely recalls taking part in pickup games with friends who wanted to play something other than soccer. Rolland’s father, Pierre, who had just retired as an engineer, helped get the team started, and the Huskies’ field is named for him: Terrain Pierre Rolland.

Xavier Rolland played second base until he was about 24. Now 46, he has a career as a television journalist; the Huskies and their numerous lower-division clubs occupy his spare hours. He offers a wry explanation for his continuing association with the team: “The mayor gave the field the name of my father, so I couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t leave now.”

Beyond his humor, Rolland says he is especially fond of the amateurs, the young Frenchmen who make up most of the rosters. Playing in the league demands dedication. The league stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the south almost to the northern coast. Away games typically mean long drives in vans or buses. Some players cannot attend midweek practices.

“They have children, they’re working, and besides, they’re playing for the beauty of the sport,” Rolland said.