“Guys, we’re still getting ice cream,” a young softball player calls out to her teammates across the sports field. A group of children between the ages of four and nine scurry across the baseball court in the Märkisches Viertel in Berlin on Tuesday evening. They have just finished training and are still wearing the typical baseball uniform that you only see in American high school films.
Berlin’s largest and most member-strong baseball club, the Berlin Flamingos, trains on Königshorster Straße in Reinickendorf.
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In the Flamingo Park of the same name, the home of the Berlin Flamingos, 9-year-old Hugo happily talks about his beginnings with the American cult sport, ice cream in hand. He is still happy to this day that he chose baseball when his grandfather gave him the difficult choice of football or baseball. He particularly likes the “long throws and hitting”.
Everything on the facility seems to revolve around baseball and softball. Quite the opposite of the rest of Berlin and Germany. “The number of people who don’t even know that baseball exists in Germany shocked me,” says 25-year-old American Taylor. He is spending half a year in Berlin as part of an exchange program for baseball players and plays for the Flamingos’ first men’s team.
There are no major sponsors
After last season, the club was forced to leave the First Bundesliga for financial reasons. Now it plays in the Second League North-East and is at the top of the table with 13 wins and one defeat. At peak times, up to 500 spectators came to Reinickendorf to cheer on the Flamingos.
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In terms of sport, they can still keep up with teams from the Bundesliga, explains the chairman of the board and co-founder of the club, Marcel Dieck. The American softball coach Brittany Jacobsen is also enthusiastic about the level of the teams. She came to Berlin through the same exchange program as Taylor. “I see a lot of potential in German baseball. The willingness to learn is much higher than in the USA. If there were the financial means, German baseball could overtake us Americans in terms of level.”
But at the moment it is not even enough for the first league. The costs for bus trips, accommodation and high-quality training conditions are practically impossible for a club with only volunteer employees.
If there were the financial means, German baseball could overtake us Americans, surpass us in terms of level
Brittany Jacobsensoftball coach
“There is a lack of big sponsors and sponsorship officers who don’t worry about anything else,” says Marina Wägner, also chairwoman of the board and, together with Marcel Dieck, the driving force behind the club. In Bonn, Regensburg or Hamburg there are big sponsors who invest in baseball clubs. The problem: The Flamingos are losing young talent to the baseball academies and boarding schools of these clubs.
Lighthouse project for young people
In order to promote baseball in Berlin and throughout Germany, the Flamingos launched the flagship project “FlaminGOschool” in 2016 to recruit young talent. They offer baseball clubs at Berlin schools. To this day, most children come to the sport this way. In the USA, baseball and education are closely linked. “Every high school and every college has a baseball team. Baseball enables many Americans to study or get an apprenticeship,” says Taylor. He suspects that this is precisely why so many people in the USA play baseball.
In addition, the rule that no more than two foreign players may be on the court at the same time is intended to further promote German and European baseball.
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But baseball may soon be booming here on its own. Major League Baseball (MLB) is planning to invest in a professional league in Germany. While some first-league teams would be grateful for this, the Flamingos’ board is quite critical of the situation. The Major League would “not come to Europe out of charity”. The MLB is primarily interested in marketing its own clubs internationally. However, the money would be helpful for the dream of a single-track baseball league.
500
Viewers were able to welcome the Berlin Flamingos at home games in Flamingo Park at peak times.
Despite a very uncertain future and a lack of funding, the Flamingos have no reason to hide. With a high-quality baseball facility, professional dugouts and a “very welcoming atmosphere”, the Berlin Flamingos inspire young and old alike. In addition to sporting success, it is also important to create a space for children and young people from all social backgrounds in the Märkisches Viertel neighborhood.
2024-06-05 11:01:08
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