Ahen Donald Lutz succeeds on May 12, 2013, what no German has done before, they are a bit proud and sad at the same time in Bad Homburg. Lutz is now not only the first German to make it into the North American professional baseball league MLB, but also the first German to have achieved a home run there. And Lutz stands for something that they would like to stop at the Bad Homburg Hornets, but cannot prevent: The great talents are drawn to other clubs.
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Now, a little more than eight years later, Lutz is no longer in MLB. After the end of the 2014 season, he left for Australia because his contract with the Cincinnati Reds was terminated. The home run should remain his only one in the best league in the world. And the Bad Homburg talents? Still pulling to other clubs. “This summer someone left us again,” says President Roland Spitzegger.
More than just a respectable success
That is about to change, but it could get worse in the short term – and this is paradoxically due to the good youth work of the Taunus Baseball Academy (TBA), which is run by the Hornets and headed by head coach Fabian Hernandez. Meanwhile, says Spitzegger, even children from Mainz come to Bad Homburg for training. You have to know: The Mainz club is a seasoned first division club, German champions in 2006 and 2017. After a few years of grueling struggle to stay in class, the Bad Homburg Hornets only play in the second division.
Children from Mainz in the training of the TBA are more than just a respectable success. But when the young talents get older, other locations such as Regensburg or Paderborn will eventually become more attractive. “We are self-confident enough to say: What you learn there, you will also learn from us. But the educational framework conditions are simply better there, ”says Spitzegger.
The other clubs have contacts to boarding schools, virtually “all-round care” and better winter training opportunities – the Bad Homburg Hornets on their facility, on the other hand, don’t even have a real clubhouse, no running water and no floodlights. Spitzegger says: “This is no longer a condition in the short and medium term.” The President has drawn up a concept of how the entire Northwest sports field can be upgraded and is in talks with the city. Because the Bad Homburgers have ambitious goals: “We always want to play as high-quality as possible,” says Spitzegger.
No ascent due to Corona
For the first Bundesliga, the club needs a floodlight system in order to meet the license criteria. And they could soon require even more. There are serious efforts in Germany to found a professional baseball league with an outsourced GmbH. “I firmly expect that to happen,” says Spitzegger.
The differences between the top teams and the rest in the respective north and south seasons are large, so that this step makes sense from a sporting point of view. In addition, a pure professional league could be better marketed, the front teams hope. The time for considerations also seems appropriate in the year baseball will be Olympic again. The Hornets would also like to be in such a league, but they need the infrastructural improvements.
In terms of sport, Spitzegger sees the club as well positioned this season. The results prove him right: the team achieved eight wins in ten games. “I think we have a quality this year that we never had in the First Bundesliga,” said the president. The only catch: The ascent is suspended this year due to Corona. The Hornets are therefore working towards the big goal of 2022. And maybe that’s not so bad because there is more time. “The step from the second to the first division is enormous,” says Spitzegger.
Talent from the USA
Many clubs have a major sponsor or patron in the background who finances the foreign players, without whom no team can stay in the top division in the long term. The Hornets, who had been relegated several times but were still allowed to stay in the league, had to experience that too, because no newcomer met the requirements for participation in the first division or wanted to go up. Then, four years ago, they were relegated.
Without filling two or three key positions with foreign players, you will not have any success in the upper fields in this country, says Spitzegger: “We have filled pitcher and catcher this season, although it is actually about nothing. But we wanted to see what we need next season. “The Bad Homburgers are always on the lookout for relatively similar players on the market:” Talents who have not made the leap into a farm team in the USA and are looking for an overseas experience because they don’t yet know exactly what they want to do with their lives, ”says Spitzegger.
The Hornets then finance their stay in Germany with sponsorship and membership fees and, normally, audience and catering income. The Bad Homburg-based company also has good contacts in Latin America through academy coach Hernandez. That should soon lead them back to the top division, which would also increase the chances of keeping more talent in their own ranks – unless the player is the next Donald Lutz. Then every club in Germany is powerless.
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