Play Ball with the Regensburg Legionnaires

One of the most successful baseball teams in Germany is at home in Regensburg. With the Guggenberger Legionnaires, children from the age of three can grab gloves and bats. Anyone who deals with it a little will quickly be fascinated by this special sport.

One throws, one hits, a few try to catch, still others whiz from one corner to the other over a couple of white cushions, trying to get where the ball just bounced off. What’s going on here? Yes, baseball can be confusing for newbies. But if you only do it a little bit, you will quickly be fascinated by this special sport.

Around 210 million people actively play baseball worldwide. In many South American countries or in Japan, the game is one of the most important sports. In US sports, baseball forms the Big 4 along with basketball, ice hockey and American football, so the American league is also the ultimate in sports here. Anyone who makes it into Major League Baseball (MLB) is one of the greats. One who made it into the MLB is Max Kepler (full name Maximilian Kepler-Rozycki). Even more: the 29-year-old is a star and is considered the best European player. He’s kind of like baseball’s Dirk Nowitzki. While basketball superstar Nowitzki comes from Würzburg, the trail of Max Kepler, who was born in Berlin, leads directly to Regensburg. Kepler attended the Legionnaires’ baseball boarding school here from 2008, and was still German champion with the Legionnaires in 2011 – although he had actually already been playing in the USA for two years at that time.
But it is no coincidence that Max Kepler’s path led from Regensburg to the Minnesota Twins in the USA (there were 16 offers from MLB clubs in total). The legionnaires are multiple German champions.

Germany’s secret baseball capital

With the boarding school, the modern stadium and last but not least the European location of the MLB, Regensburg is something like the more or less secret German baseball capital. The baseball players, now known as the Guggenberger Legionnaires, are simply the most successful club in the city, regardless of SSV Jahn or Eisbären. This is not only due to the Bundesliga team, but also to the numerous German and Bavarian championship titles in the youth field.

In contrast to many other clubs, there is no shortage of youngsters among the legionnaires. On the contrary, baseball is booming, especially among children. “In the Guggenberger Legionnaires, girls and boys, women and men aged 3 to 99+ play baseball and softball in over 25 teams,” the website says. This shows that mass sport should not be neglected. For the children it starts at the age of three with the Bambini. On the very small field right next to the restaurant in the stadium, it’s all about fun and the first experiences with a (soft) ball and (cushioned) racket.

One step further are the Teeballer, the youngest competition team. Teeball is a form of baseball simplified for children. The ball is not hit out of the air, but from the batting tee. Together with a few rule modifications, this ensures that fun and a sense of achievement are not left out in the competition either. By the age of eight at the latest, the next step is the coach pitch. Unlike in baseball, it is not the opponent who throws the ball here, but your own coach. Of course, that makes things a little bit easier for the young players. Otherwise, the whole thing is very close to the adult game. With the live pitch, usually from the age of ten, real baseball is also popular with the youngsters.

Above all, baseball should be fun

Rainer Zimmermann is head coach of the legionnaires for the teeballers and in the area of ​​coach pitch. Together with a few other coaches, including some from the legionnaire junior division, he is currently in charge of three teams. Especially when it comes to tee ball, the pitch is often really busy. Up to 25 children then clearly and unmistakably have a lot of fun on the pitch. According to Zimmermann’s conviction, this fun should also be in the foreground. At the same time, however, the children develop skills that benefit them even if they eventually tire of baseball. Throwing, catching, hitting, running – the sport offers many different requirements and thus also the opportunity for the children to contribute their respective strengths and to reduce any weaknesses. If you can do just one of the tasks very well, you won’t really get very far in baseball.

It is probably also the mixture that creates the fascination for young athletes in particular. Jakob is six years old, is about to start his third season as a baseball player and has already made it into the Bayern selection in the coach pitch. What’s the most fun thing about baseball?

“You can really hit it, throw yourself and catch balls out of the air, slide and get really dirty. And you can only win as a team.”

From a more scientific point of view, baseball is an excellent training for all motor skills, especially visuomotor skills, i.e. eye-hand coordination. But that’s not all. In addition to the physical aspects, the mental component plays a very important role in baseball. There is hardly a sport that is better suited to training frustration tolerance. Even the strongest pros miss more often than they hit. The stars of the MLB also have to live with the fact that very good shots are caught and they are “made out”. That’s just part of baseball. Not easy to accept, especially for children.

Coach Rainer Zimmermann attaches just as much importance to this part of the training as to the purely sporting part. This also includes treating teammates, opponents and referees with respect. Complaining is not welcomed in the ballpark. In particular, the greatest talents, the best players, should be role models here. Part of the mystery is that in baseball, individual players cannot decide a game on their own. It always takes the whole team.

Baseball school: professionals train with the youngsters

This common understanding is also the basis for what is called the #LegionärFamily in the club. What that means is quite good at the Baseball school vacation camps to recognize. There the children stand on the field with the stars of the Bundesliga team. International professionals such as Devon Ramirez or Kaleb Bowman or the national team players Alexander Schmidt and Pascal Amon train there with the children and young people, for example. An atmosphere of togetherness that is somehow omnipresent. That is why it is somehow quite natural for everyone that Jakob and his teammates chat with the Regensburg baseball legend Matt Vance or national player Lukas Jahn on the sidelines of a Bundesliga game.

Then it’s on to the big stadium. One throws, one hits, some players run, others try to catch. And in the stands, the audience cheers.